Compliance: a concept analysis

Compliance has a myriad of definitions. Understanding it as a phenomenon is complicated by the different perspectives of different disciplines. Nurses need to define compliance in a manner that best fits the philosophy of the nursing discipline. This article makes a distinction between the ordinary use and the scientific use of the term compliance. Nurses are challenged to embrace an interactive, transactional process in order to form a partnership with clients, which allows for client choice and control in decision making about carrying out the prescribed behavior.