The majority of our society considers nurses to be nothing more than trained professionals, working for a doctor, who simply provide medical care to the sick and are knowledgeable. However, what nursing means to me goes deeper than this belief. Nursing is a profession in which individuals are responsible not only for caring for the sick and infirm, but also for being a support system and educator, as well as an advocate for promoting optimal care. In today's society, nurses represent a significant part of the investment of any medical establishment. This article will discuss the many different aspects of nursing in which nurses act not only as caregivers, but also as counselors and educators. In today's century, the responsibilities, roles and opportunities of nursing and nursing education have expanded extensively to those of modern-day nurses. Many 18th-century nurses were uneducated and never attended nursing school; however, they still provided care to the sick, poor, and needy and played a vital role in maintaining health. Thanks to the hard work of many of history's remarkable nurses such as Florence Nightingale, Clara Barton and Isabel Robb and the perseverance and dedication to change of influential nurses such as Mary Mahoney and Mabel Staupers; Nursing today has transformed many aspects of its practice. Although the nursing profession is continually evolving over the years, the fundamental foundation of nursing has not changed in that nursing is a profession of caring for others and serving those in need. In the nursing profession, one of the primary responsibilities of a nurse is to provide care. A caregiver is "a person who provides direct care (such as for children, the elderly, or chromium...... middle of paper...) available to those who may already be infected with a particular disease." Nurses also have a responsibility to be lifelong learners in order to be able to provide the most current knowledge in care to their patients, family members and the community. Nursing is constantly evolving and changing, in order to be more effective in providing care than in the past, the nursing profession includes professionals who are not only caregivers, but also support systems and educators. All of these factors contribute to providing optimal care to patients and better serving their families and the community. All nurses are encouraged to collapse. society's simplistic notion of nursing because nursing is a multi-faceted profession encompassing many different factors that are beneficial to human development and overall health.