[From illness focus to health focus in nursing?]

In nursing profession the main concepts for the last twenty years have been: health-nursing--environment--person. I ask the question why has not illness been one of the main concepts. This leads to the following approach: Has there been a displacement of focus from illness to health in nursing education in Norway? I have analysed five main text-books used in nursing education from 1920 to 1990. The analysis is focused on the development of the concepts illness and health, and if the contents and the use of the concepts have changed through the time period. The findings shows that the concept illness has been reduced both qualitatively and quantitatively from 1920 to 1990, while the health concept has become more and more dominating. In the discussion I show some of the causes why. The health concept was all the time understood as both a subjective experience and objective signs, while illness was reduced to diagnosis and objective signs of illness from 1920 to 1990. I claim that illness, seen as both a subjective and an objective concept is important in the nursing profession, and that use of concepts is important for nursing identity.