The work of Nursing is oriented not only towards the care of the sick person, who requires specific activities to alleviate their suffering and the recovery of health, but also towards the healthy person, in the area of health promotion. and disease prevention. Simply put, it is accepted that Nursing work comprises three levels:
– Primary level: Aimed at the maintenance and promotion of health and the prevention of disease. This level, of basic prevention, involves both care-giving and pedagogical nursing activity and focuses on raising awareness about the importance of health and about individual, family or community responsibility to maintain it, as well as timely information about possible dangers that may threaten health and the means that can be used to maintain an optimal state of physical, psychological and social well-being.
– Secondary level: Corresponds to care or curative interventions that aim to treat already established or potential health problems and prevent their eventual worsening, through the development and establishment of a nursing action plan also aimed at avoiding or reducing the risk. of possible complications.
– Tertiary level: Aimed at rehabilitation and corresponding to nursing interventions aimed at supporting the person in their adaptation to certain difficulties caused by a health problem and overcoming the effects of possible consequences. The objective of this level consists of achieving an optimal degree of satisfaction of basic personal needs despite the temporary or permanent limitations imposed by the state of health.
At any of the defined levels, all professional nursing actions must be based on a set of elementary guidelines that constitute an authentic process, more or less complex depending on the characteristics of each case, but always subject to the rules of a specific method that enables the adequate formulation of the required care, its personalization and its correct establishment.