Defining nursing practice: the ANA Social Policy Statement, 1980-1983

This article examines the initial development of the American Nurses Association's Social Policy Statement (SPS). The methodology used is the Social History of Technology. This approach provided the means to treat the SPS as an information practice or tool that resides within a technological system composed of skills, tools, and knowledge. The data for analysis include archive material and secondary sources. This study concludes that development of the SPS was inherently a local exercise in prioritizing, organizing, and promoting certain skills, tools, and knowledge associated with nursing practice, an exercise that integrated contextual influences with local realities. The study also provides a means to reflect on the development of contemporary information practices.