What is Nursing and What is It Not?
Reflections on ICN’s New Definition of Nursing and the Nurse
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.59526/soh.14.59001Keywords:
Omvårdnad, ICN, DefinitionAbstract
In June 2025, the International Council of Nurses (ICN) presented a new, updated definition of both nurse and nursing. The need to define the profession is not new in itself. Already in the mid-19th century, Florence Nightingale posed the question “What is Nursing and what it is not” (Nightingale, 1859/2010). Since the early 1900s, ICN has worked to create a globally valid description of the nurse and of nursing (Williamson, 2023).
References
Henderson, V. (1991). The nature of nursing: A definition and its implications for practice, research, and education. Reflections after 25 years (NLN Publ. No. 15-2346, vii–xi, 1). National League for Nursing. PMID: 1780233
Nightingale, F. (2010). Florence Nightingale's Notes on nursing: What it is and what it is not & Notes on nursing for the labouring classes (Original work published 1859). Springer. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511751349
Williamson, L. (2023). The global voice of nursing: A history of the International Council of Nurses from 1899 to 2022. International Council of Nurses.
White, J., Gunn, M., Chiarella, M., Catton, H., & Stewart, D. (2025). Renewing the definitions of “nursing” and “a nurse” (Final project report, June 2025). International Council of Nurses. https://www.icn.ch/sites/default/files/2025-06/ICN_Definition-Nursing_Report_EN_Web_0.pdf
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Copyright (c) 2025 Pernilla Garmy
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