Nursing is at its core, the science and practical application of loving your fellow man. It is a
common sentiment expressed by nurses and by those who speak to the condition of nursing that it is a
profession fundamentally guided by and manifesting ideas of love, compassion and caring. While that
may seem somewhat grandiose or at the least overly sentimental, it is inherently true. As nurses our
goal is to provide comfort and care to those who are sick, needy, tired, destitute, or generally infirm. We
do this across all walks of life regardless of age, economic status, religion, creed, sex, gender or color.
We provide help and assistance to all who need it without praise, blame or judgment in ways that
benefit our patients and add to or enhance their own dignity and self-worth, rather than diminish it.
What else could this be called other than love.
To say that it is the science or practical application of love and caring for our fellow human, is to
say it is not enough to want to help or to appreciate the worthiness to help but that we must also do so
in a way that will undoubtedly achieve our aims; in this regard nurses are results oriented rather than
process oriented. Our processes are only important in so far as they achieve the desired result. Hence,
the care we give, the procedures we perform are all based on scientific thought and application as to
what heals, what cures and what prevents disease in our patients.
In any setting the nurses role remains the same: that of caring for and ensuring the beneficence
of their patients and the public as a whole. This means that even in roles which do not provide hands on
patient care, we still have these principles in mind. In the case of the nurse educator for example, direct
patient care may or may not take place however if the educator is operating on the basis of seeking to
provide loving and considerate care for their fellow man, they will be sure to teach their students as best
as they can and impart to them as much knowledge as they can. They do this for one, proper training
will ensure the students are able to find gainful employment leading to their own happiness and well-
being and two, they will provide the best care they can to their future clients in the jobs they work. In
this way even nurses who are a degree or more removed from direct patient contact or care are
demonstrating a sense of love and caring for those who are in need of it.
As love for mankind and a general wish for all to experience well-being is the guiding principle of
nursing care, we must always strive to enshrine these concepts in the care we give and in the day to day
processes of our lives. We must educate ourselves properly so we give appropriate care, we must strive
tirelessly to provide care to all who might need it, we must engage our colleagues intellectually so that
their practice is equal to our better than our own, we must engage politically so that those we care for
may live in a more just and verdant world and we must remain vigilant for any lapse within ourselves
that might impugn these goals. In this way, nursing is the formalized process of loving and caring.
