Nursing Abbreviations

The term nursing allows referring to several concepts related to health and health systems. Nursing services are provided in a dependency or in a place for the sick or injured, which is the ward. For example: “We will have to take you to the infirmary to have that wound treated”, “My son went to the infirmary after the game because his left knee hurt”.

Nursing is also the profession of the person who is responsible for providing care and assistance to the injured and the sick according to clinical criteria: “I will pursue a career in nursing”, “I need to hire a person specialized in nursing to help me take care of my grandmother who suffers from Alzheimer’s”.

Still in the same sense, nursing is the set of studies required to obtain a diploma and practice the profession: “Constança has completed her nursing studies and will enter the hospital from next summer”.

It can be said, in general terms, that nursing is the science dedicated to the care of human health . That said, it is part of the health sciences group .

It was Florence Nightingale who fostered the first theory of nursing about 150 years ago. Since this model of nursing came several others. Each of them has a way of understanding nursing and the way of caring for patients. Nightingale is considered the mother of modern nursing.

There are, according to each country, different specializations associated with nursing. The supervisor nurse, for example, is the one who is trained to supervise the work and environment of professionals in a unit under his/her charge. Nursing assistants, in turn, provide more basic care related to food and hygiene.

Furthermore, the nursing profession in Brazil is divided into 3 levels of competence, namely:

– The nurse: who is the professional with a higher level, having technical, human and scientific capacity and being responsible for the promotion of the nursing team, recovery and prevention of the health of individuals. The nurse takes care of the patient until he is able to take responsibility for responding to his basic needs;

– The nursing technician: who is a professional with a technical level, his basic functions are the prevention and maintenance of basic health, he assists nurses in the care of patients, including rehabilitation and recovery of public and collective health

– The nursing assistant: a basic level professional who takes care of the patient’s health, administering medication, taking care of the patient’s food and also making dressings. That is, this professional performs functions that complement the nurse’s functions.

Both nursing technicians and nursing assistants work together with the nurse, but with different functions.

It is worth mentioning that nursing not only meets the treated patient, but also his family members, since they will be there, providing emotional support to both patients and their families.

List of Acronyms Related to Nursing