ABSTRACT
This chapter sets out a brief background to contemporary nursing that shows how different groups have struggled for power not only over how the profession is organized but also over how it is understood and viewed over what nursing is. What we know as nursing in the UK and in many other countries of the world was invented in mid-nineteenth-century Britain. The registration of nurses promised a standard and state-recognized training and qualification for nurses. Symbolically it marked the achievement of professional status. In public discussion concern over nurses' moral identity has often seemed to eclipse their technical effectiveness and skill. In 2016 Health Education England (HEE) opened a consultation on their plan to develop a new health and social care role. They called it a 'nursing associate' and said that it would be created for a skill level somewhere between existing Healthcare Support Workers and registered nurses.
