Primary nursing: a mode of care or a philosophy of nursing¶An examination of the literature surrounding primary nursing has shown that the term `primary nursing' is used to mean different things by different authors. This results in a confusing situation where `primary nursing' is considered by some to mean both a mode of organizing care delivery and a philosophy of nursing. In this paper I argue for a clear separation between the terms which refer to the set of ideas underpinning nursing and descriptions of modes of care. A case is made for using the term `human centred nursing' to refer to nursing beliefs and `primary nursing' to refer to the mode of nursing care delivery.