Nursing is the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and abilities, prevention of illness and injury, alleviation of suffering through the diagnosis and treatment of human response, and advocacy in the care of individuals, families, communities, and populations. (ANA, 2010a, p. 1).
Exemplified within this definition is the inherent nature and breadth of nursing, a discipline grounded in a set of values and guided by a code of ethics that reveres the sanctity of human life. Both an art