The 6 C's of Caring in Nursing

This article discusses the 6 C's of caring in nursing, including compassion, confidence, and competence. It explores how these core values align with the NMBA codes of conduct and their importance in providing quality care to patients. The article also highlights the significance of showing compassion towards co-workers and the role of confidence in reducing stress and fear for patients and their families.

Running head: BACHELOR OF NURSING
BACHELOR OF NURSING
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

1BACHELOR OF NURSING
Introduction
6 C’s of caring introduced by Sister Simone Roach contains 5 vital factors namely,
commitment, conscience, competence, compassion and confidence. These characteristics will aid
nurses to provide care to their patients with utmost excellence and supreme quality (Baillie,
2017). Additionally, the 6 C’s will help nurses to efficiently work as per the recognized NMBA
codes of conduct. The following paper will aim to discuss these six core values important in the
nursing profession.
Compassion
One of the important elements of Roach’s theory is Compassion. According to Baillie
(2017) such an attribute can be seen in nursing professionals who tend to show empathy to their
patients and further to provide sympathetic, understanding care at every second. Moreover,
Locsin et al. (2018) have noted that such compassion can be observed in nurses when they
attempt to comprehend the pain and physical suffering, fear and apprehension the patient is
experiencing. Meanwhile, many scholars have linked the idea of compassion with inherent
capacity to love and further show care. Comprehensive studies of Aagaard et al. (2018) have
mentioned that an emotion of love can be observed when caring tend to be mutual and shared
thus offering an enhancement to the receiver and the giver. Such an aspect highlighted in
Roach’s theory aids in comprehending the fact that humans not only function on bio-physical
level but also relies on spiritual level. Thus, by successfully developing the sense of compassion,
nursing professionals can proficiently support, maintain as well as construct human dealings thus
providing improved therapeutic outcomes. By showing linkage to Roach’s 6 C’s, NMBA codes
of conducts has been able to draw relevance by mentioning code 3.3 where nurses can exhibit
high compassion by acting “non-judgmental and not refer to people in a non-professional

2BACHELOR OF NURSING
manner verbally or in correspondence/ records, including refraining from behavior that may
be interpreted as bullying or harassment and/or culturally unsafe”(
Nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au, 2019).
Moreover, in the view of Aagaard et al. (2018), not only nurses can show compassion
while providing care and treatment to patients but further requires being compassionate and
considerate towards their workplace associates. At this juncture, it is imperative to note that
exhibiting utmost compassion and concern towards co-workers will not only develop an effective
team performance but also increase the engagement towards the role. Thus, in order to
successfully achieve this attribute, nurses must take into account and follow NMBA code 7.1
which highlights the importance of asking for support from co-workers if they feel any risk to
health conditions and further support safe nursing practice (Nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au,
2019). Such safe and harmless nursing practices can be performed by using Nurse and Midwife
support in addition to national health support services purposed for nursing professionals,
midwives as well as nursing students.
Confidence
One of the most important attributes among the six core values of Roach can be regarded
as confidence. This type of value is essential to be exhibited by nurses while providing assurance
to patients’ family that the patient will receive supreme quality care. According to Park and Kim,
2016), proficiently ensuring that patient is in safe hands; successfully help the families and
patients to reduce stress, tension and fear. Furthermore, nursing professionals can exhibit such an
attribute by following NMBA code 3.4 which mentions the importance to “act to eliminate

3BACHELOR OF NURSING
bullying and harassment, in all its forms, in the workplace” and also “escalate their concerns
if an appropriate response does not occur” (Nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au, 2019).
As several nurses while handling patients or encountering critical patient handling
situations must develop a sense of confidence to proficiently handling patients who are at the last
stage of their lives. Thus, nurses should be confident while performing NMBA code 3.6 that
emphasizes on effectively managing patients who are at critical or last stages yet providing
supreme services to them ( Park & Kim, 2016). Nurses should further show positive attitude and
confidence while maintaining the professional limitations as mentioned in the code of conduct of
number 4.1.
Competence
The core value of competence primarily focuses on the competence of nursing
professionals by attaining expertise of proficiently identifying the health condition of the patient.
According to Mackintosh-Franklin (2016), nurses should develop the ability to identify the
deteriorating condition of patients and further provide helpful assistance to their family members
in preparing them for upcoming challenging situations. By evaluating this particular aspect of
Roach’s theory, authors have noted the importance of nurses’ competence to be connected to
accurately evaluating the health conditions of patients and being timely responsive to their needs.
However, drawing relevance to Roach’s 6 C’s, the NMBA codes of conduct 2.2- “take a person-
centered approach to managing a person’s care and concerns, supporting the person in a
manner consistent with that person’s values and preferences” explicitly discusses the value of
legal conduct where it is essential for nurses to show competence in areas where they can
motivate individuals in engaging into care planning process through person-centred approach

4BACHELOR OF NURSING
and effective delegation and promoting rights of individuals (Nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au,
2019).
Conclusion
` Hence to conclude, the three vital C’s and NMBA codes of conduct are structured in
ways to aid nurses attain utmost proficiency and provide supreme services to patients to increase
their level of satisfaction.

5BACHELOR OF NURSING
References
Aagaard, H., Hall, E. O., Ludvigsen, M. S., Uhrenfeldt, L., & Fegran, L. (2018). Parents’
experiences of neonatal transfer. A meta‐study of qualitative research 2000–
2017. Nursing inquiry, 25(3), e12231.
Baillie, L. (2017). An exploration of the 6Cs as a set of values for nursing practice. British
Journal of Nursing, 26(10), 558-563.
Locsin, R. C., Ito, H., Tanioka, T., Yasuhara, Y., Osaka, K., & Schoenhofer, S. O. (2018).
Humanoid Nurse Robots as Caring Entities: A Revolutionary Probability?. International
Journal of Studies in Nursing, 3(2), 146.
Mackintosh-Franklin, C. (2016). Nursing philosophy: A review of current pre registration
curricula in the UK. Nurse education today, 37, 71-74.
Nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au. (2019). Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia - New codes
of conduct for nurses and midwives published. Retrieved from
https://www.nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au/news/2017-09-28-new-codes-of-
conduct.aspx
Park, E. J., & Kim, M. H. (2016). Characteristics of nursing and caring concepts measured in
nursing competencies or caring behaviors tools. Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
Administration, 22(5), 480-495.