Methodological grounds of studying of the nursing staff as a professional group

The article is devoted to methodological aspects of studying of the nursing staff as a professional group. The au-thor proves the necessity to involve an extensional sociological approach as a methodological tool which allows to de- scribe mid-level medical professions as a special level of professional space of the medical science, to reveal their con- tent relationships and differences with other medical professions. As a result, the extensional approach provides a de- scription of the dynamics of social and professional skills of the nursing staff, which in the modern context become an active social agent as the professional group that solves the problems of a patient on the most frequent basis.