The concept of profession is involved in the practice of nursing as caring. With the advent of the information and action technologies of the twenty-first century, the present concept of professions as repositories of esoteric knowledge employed by social elites is rapidly becoming outdated. As many nurses will attest, the patient often teaches the nurse about new medical technologies and about the management of them. In this regard, what will it mean, in the next century, to profess nursing? A renewed commitment to professional caring means that nurses would seek connectedness in all collegial relationships as nurses are open to discovering the unfolding meaning of human caring, with persons valued as important in themselves. Therefore, nurses forfeit assuming authoritative stances toward each other, the persons nursed, and other participants in the health care enterprise. More than ever, it will mean that nurses will, in relation with others, live out the value of caring in everyday life. Thus, the organized nursing profession would assume responsibility for developing and sharing knowledge of nurturing persons living caring and growing in caring. The following story of a nursing situation, told in the form of a poem, exemplifies the reconceptualization called for in the practice of Nursing as Caring. In this situation, the nurse carried out a medically prescribed treatment, not as a form of medicine but as a form of nursing. The nurse communicates a knowing of the other as caring person, living courage and hope in the face of pain and fear. This example illustrates the meaning of knowing as a caring ingredient (Mayeroff, 1971), in the connectedness of the nurse with the patient. The nurse's knowing both forms the intention to nurse and is formed by the intention to know other as caring person and nurture caring. A more typical recounting of this situation would focus on the specific procedure of the treatment being applied, in terms of the condition of the wound. In this poem, the nurse renders the meaning of nursing. Heating--HIV + Your wounds weeped Purulent with the discharge of our Pain and fear. They tried to hide, only to reappear. The treatment gentle, slow A warm, loving balm to your soul. Your stomach was fed the comfort Food of your youth And your lips drank in deeply all You knew and understood. The memories sweetened each moment You stood, face to face with terror of What might be mistook. All inside shifted as slowly it came, A gradual awakening; embracing of pain As you conquered your demons A lightness appeared To stay forever and Abolish all fears. (Wheeler, 1990) NURSING SERVICE ADMINISTRATION