Nursing is a fairly young profession, but one of the oldest arts. It evolved from the familial roles of nurturing and caretaking. Early responsibilities included assisting women during childbirth, suckling healthy newborns, and ministering to the ill, aged and helpless within the household and surrounding community. Its hallmark was carrying more than curing. Nursing skills now take on greater responsibility, including counseling skills, caring skills, and comforting skills. A counselor is one who listens to a client's needs, responds with information based on his or her area of expertise, and facilitates the outcome that a client deserves. Nurses implement counseling skills that include communicating with patients, actively listening to the exchange of information, offering pertinent health teaching, and providing emotional support. For example, the nurse is discharging a patient that has been diagnosed HIV positive and is given a lengthy list of things to do and medication to take. The nurse finds opportunity to teach the patient how to promote the healing process, to stay well, and how to prevent illness. Another example of this skill would be encouraging the patient to communicate their feelings. Usually patients do not always communicate their feelings to strangers, so in this situation the nurse uses empathy to perceive the patients emotional state and need for support. Providing advice to the patient is an important skill nurses possess, for the well being of his or her patients.
             Although treatment of the ill is a primary concern of the nurse, she also carries out the caring skills as a daily task for her patients. Traditionally, nurses have always been providers of physical care for people unable to meet their own health needs independently. But caring also involves the concern and attachment that results from the close relationship of one human being with another. For instance, caring for a patient's needs include he...