Nursing has come a long way. Today's professional nurse is intimately involved in virtually all areas of our expanding health care system — in the community, in industry, in clinics, in education, in hospitals, and in government. The practice of nursing today frequently entails making and participating in important and critical decisions, as well as performing a wide variety of modern clinical functions. All of this requires a sound base of sophisticated medical knowledge and a high degree of technical skill. This is a major change from the nurse of the past, who practiced primarily within the hospital setting, doing what she was told, providing bedside "service" to patients, and rarely, if ever, asking questions or making decisions.