Essay on New Nursing Strategy - 6 Cs in Health and Social Care

Skills for Practice

Every professional requires particular skill sets in order to perform better at their
workplaces. In health and social care sector, health and care workers need to have certain skills to
offer quality support and care to service users. Nurses play very crucial role in health and social
care settings in UK (Arnold and Boggs, 2015).In order to improve the quality of nursing and
midwifery services in England, a new national strategy has been formulated in UK. The present
essay explores the new nursing strategy to understand the 6 Cs in health and social care setting in
UK (Compassion in Practice, 2016). In addition to this it also features the 3 important Cs that are
most important in the given context. Besides the essay also presents the key points of published
literature review while selecting the 3 important Cs that are required skills for nursing practices in
health and social care settings in UK.
The new strategy called Compassion in Practice for nurses, midwives and care workers in
UK has been developed and implemented in the year 2012 with a vision to deliver better healthcare
services to individuals. Compassion in Practice entails 6 Cs that stand for Care, Compassion,
Communication, Courage, Competence and Commitment which was drawn by National Health
Services (NHS) England chief nursing officer Jane Cummings in 2012 (A new strategy and vision
for nursing, midwifery and care staff, 2016). The 6 core values of Compassion in practice are based
on care, compassion, commitment, courage, communication and competence that enable nurses and
midwives to deliver highest quality of care to improve the patients experience. Care is in the core of
health and social care business for NHS and other care organizations in UK. It is very important to
treat patients with care to improve their overall experience of care services. Compassion is all about
providing care through relationships which is based on respect, dignity and empathy.
Communication is the core value that helps in building successful relationships with care takers as
well as staff in the care setting (Jazaieri and et.al., 2013). Therefore it is very important for nurses,
care staff and midwives to develop sound communication skills in order to facilitate patients in
decision making processes regarding their care plan. Courage enables the care professionals
including nurses and midwives to speak for themselves as well as for people they care for whenever
they have certain concerns. Commitment is the vital value that shows the commitment of nursing
staff towards service users and the whole community to provide quality care services to care takers
in order to promote their physical and mental well-being. Competence refers to the ability of nurses
and care workers to comprehend health and social needs of individuals. It also entails the
importance of having technical and clinical knowledge in order to deliver effective care and
treatment to service users.
The 3 Cs which can be selected out of 6 core values of Compassion in Practice for nursing
and midwifery services are Care, Communication and Compassion. These three Cs are selected as

they offer certain advantages to nursing staff in delivering outstanding care services to individuals
and communities. Care has been selected as it is the core value of health ad social care services.
Lack of care element in the healthcare services leads to negative outcomes. For example while
providing treatment if nurses and care staff do not care for patients feelings and opinions then they
wont be able to deliver satisfactory services. This would negatively influence the quality of care
support in NHS as well as in other care organizations in UK (Melnyk and et.al., 2012). Care is not
only important for treating individuals facing physical health issues but also for vulnerable patients
affected from mental disorders. It becomes a most desirable component in addressing the health
needs of older patients who are dependent on others for perform their everyday activities. The
second important care value which has been chosen in the present scenario is Communication.
Effective communication is very cardinal in nursing and midwifery services as it helps in
supporting patients in major decision making processes. In other words it is vital for “No decision
about me without me” which means that important decisions regarding care planning patients need
to be engaged effectively. Nurses would be able to assess the care needs of care takers by setting up
communication processes to gauge into their preferences and interests. For example an old patient
expresses his will to get treated in a homely atmosphere rather than availing care services in a care
home. Then in this scenario NHS can provide care services at person's home by appointing a nurse.
Apart from this, effective communication play important role in strengthening relationship among
nurses and care staff (Lahti, Hätönen and Välimäki, 2014). It provides different benefits in working
in teams. Communication is also the central element in collaborative working in health ad social
care settings. Therefore it is very cardinal to develop communication skills in nursing practices to
ameliorate the satisfaction level of care takers by meeting their care needs. The third important
value of 6 Cs that is selected is Compassion. It is selected as the it is very essential to treat patients
with dignity, respect ad empathy to maximize the efficacy of the Compassion in practice program in
health and social care in UK. It has been observed that nurses who build trustworthy and empathetic
relationship with their patients tend to positively impact the mental and physical well-being of
individuals.
The Care component in compassion in practice include behaviour, approach and attitude that
underpin effective nursing care. Every nurse in health and social care setting need to have clear idea
of what constitutes good nursing practices. It is important for them to comprehend the care
component in order to consider their personal values and behaviour to demonstrate it in their
actions. Nurses are directly interact with care takers (A new strategy and vision for nursing,
midwifery and care staff, 2016). Thus they everyday nursing activities and interactions make up
service users experience of care. If the care element is absent in the services it negatively impacts
satisfaction level in among care takers. Care is I the core of nursing services. Nurses not only play