Editorial: Call yourself a nurse? Time to get precious

The beginning of wisdom, according to Confucius, is to call things by their right names. Language should always bear the same meaning, so that the meaning of words (names) and the duties and responsibilities which go with them are universally understood. However, when applie to the word ‘nurse’, particularly in the UK, this is clearly not the case. The evident confusion among the public, press and in some sections, the nursing profession around who or what this constitutes, has meant that ‘nurse’ appears to be a default term of reference to describe someone involved in the delivery of care in hospital and healthcare settings. The continued torpor of the profession in acknowledging, let alone challenging, this state of affairs, is to put it mildly, alarming, not least because of the currently hostile economic and cultural climate in which UK nursing finds itself.