National University: NRSG 138 - Caring Theory by Sister Roach

This essay delves into Sister Roach's Caring Theory, a framework emphasizing six key attributes for nurses: compassion, competence, confidence, conscience, commitment, and comportment. The essay focuses on compassion and competence, two essential elements for effective nursing practice. Compassion is defined as the ability to empathize with patients' suffering, fostering trust and facilitating person-centered care. The essay connects compassion to the NMBA code of conduct, highlighting its role in enhancing patient satisfaction and cooperation. Competence is presented as the application of evidence-based knowledge and skills, crucial for providing high-quality care. The essay emphasizes the importance of both clinical and interpersonal skills, as well as cultural competence, and links this to the NMBA code of conduct, which stresses the importance of ethical and respectful care. The conclusion reinforces the significance of compassion and competence in upholding the principles of the NMBA code of conduct and providing optimal patient care.

Running head: CARING THEORY BY SISTER ROACH
CARING THEORY BY SISTER ROACH
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

1CARING THEORY BY SISTER ROACH
Introduction:
Sister Roach states that compassion, competence, confidence, conscience, commitment as
well as comportment are the six attributes nurses need to intricate in their caring process. Two of
them are discussed below:
Compassion:
Compassion means to be present with another individual mentally and emotionally in
their sufferings. The nursing profession expects individuals to exhibit sympathy and empathy
towards human pain and joy and put themselves in the shoes of the patients to understand their
experiences and sufferings from the latter’s point of view (Bradshaw, 2016). Florence
Nightingale who is considered the mother of nursing had become famous for showing
compassion towards different wounded patients on the battlefield during the times of the
Crimean war. Researchers have found that patients who are exhibited compassion by their nurses
develop courage in times of illness, pain as well as mental stress (Baille, 2017). When nurses
successfully connect with patients through compassion, they can develop a strong bond with the
patients based on trust and loyalty.
Compassion care can be well associated with principle 2 of NMBA code of conduct for
nurses as it discusses about person-centered practices of healthcare professionals. Nurses are
expected to provide person centered care through best of the evidence based practices for
development of health and well-being of the patients. Compassion is one of the key attribute that
helps in enhancing person-centered care. Through effective exhibition of compassion and
empathy, nurses can strike the right partnership with patients through the development of strong
bonds based on trust and loyalty that increases patient satisfaction. Compassion enhances

2CARING THEORY BY SISTER ROACH
patient’s will to cooperate with the nurses making them feel that nurses are really interested in
their well-being and that they feel their suffering and pain. In such way, it becomes easier for the
nurses to put patients at the central position of their care procedure and through effective
cooperation and partnership, proper treatment plan is prepared through shared decision-making
procedures (Logan, 2017). Compassion also makes the procedure of taking informed consent
easier because of the trust the nurse earned. It also helps in prevention of adverse events through
open disclosure as the transparency between nurse and patient increases due to exhibition of
compassion and empathy by the nurses.
Compassionate care provides patients support as well as confidence in critical times
helping them to manage stress effectively. Experts have also found out that nurses who show
compassion towards their patients can gift them a sense of dignity especially during the times
when their privacy is limited. When nurses show compassion, patients not only feel comfortable
but also respected (Bradshaw, 2016). Hence, compassion has become an important attribute that
is expected of every nursing professional to display while treating patients.
Competence:
Competence is an important attribute of caring put forward by Roach in her model of 6c’s
of caring. This attribute is mainly defined as the expertise of nursing professionals to acquire and
utilize evidence-based scientific and humanistic knowledge and skills while applying therapeutic
interventions to patients in the current scenarios of modern-day nursing. Experts are of the
opinion that competence gets reflected in the effective, cognitive as well as psychomotor
domains of learning (Fowler, Tschudin & Peter, 2016). Nurses need to be competent enough to
exhibit high quality clinical and technical skills and knowledge to help patients get over various

3CARING THEORY BY SISTER ROACH
disorders. They also need to be competent enough to exhibit proper interpersonal skills and
communicative skills so that they can initiate proper therapeutic communication with patients.
Such competence displayed by the nurse’s help in enhancing the comfort, safety, well-being and
trust of the patients.
Nurses should also show cultural competence to ensure maintenance of cultural safety
with the patients. This aspect can be well associated with the principle 3 of the NMBA code of
conducts for nurses that talk about cultural practices and development of respectful relationships
with patients (NMBA, 2018). Present day modern healthcare systems advise nurses to develop
cultural competency where healthcare professionals need to develop the expertise to deliver
healthcare services for sufficing the cultural, social as well as the linguistic needs of the patients.
The principle requires nurses to develop competency for valuing diversity of patients, managing
differences, acquiring and disseminating cultural knowledge. They should have the skill to adapt
to diversity within dynamic cultural context and have defined values as well as principles that
ensure cultural safety and cross-cultural interactions.
Nurses also need to develop competency to overcome ethical and legal obligations and
provide care to patients that are ethical and respectful to the patients. Principle 3 of NMBA codes
of conduct also talks about importance of confidentiality and privacy and hence developing such
competency would help in providing high quality care to patients. Moreover, they also need to
develop competence in effective leadership, teamwork and management of healthcare issues that
help the healthcare centers to gain reputation by providing best care to patients. Maintaining
professional boundaries and acting with integrity are the other pillars of competence that nurses
also need to work upon to become best healthcare professionals in the modern day treatment
scenarios (McSherry et al., 2017).

4CARING THEORY BY SISTER ROACH
Conclusion:
Roach’s 6c’s model of caring advises nurses to develop compassion and competence so
that they can provide high quality life to patients and follow the principles of NMBA codes of
conduct successfully.

5CARING THEORY BY SISTER ROACH
References:
Baillie, L. (2017). An exploration of the 6Cs as a set of values for nursing practice. British
Journal of Nursing, 26(10), 558-563.
Bradshaw, A. (2016). An analysis of E ngland's nursing policy on compassion and the 6 C s: the
hidden presence of M. S imone R oach's model of caring. Nursing inquiry, 23(1), 78-85.
Code of Conduct for nurses (2018), The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA),
retrieved from: http://www.nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au/documents/default.aspx?
record=WD17%2f23850&dbid=AP&chksum=L8j874hp3DTlC1Sj4klHag%3d%3d
[accessed on 12th April, 2020]
Fowler, M., Tschudin, V., & Peter, E. (2016). Tributes to Sr. Marie Simone Roach, Sister of St.
Martha of Antigonish, Canada 30th July 1922 to 2nd July 2016.
Logan, K. A. (2017). Meta-synthesis of Caring within Nursing Education (Doctoral dissertation,
University of South Dakota).
McSherry, W., Bloomfield, S., Thompson, R., Nixon, V. A., Birch, C., Griffiths, N., ... &
Boughey, A. J. (2017). A cross-sectional analysis of the factors that shape adult nursing
students' values, attitudes and perceptions of compassionate care. Journal of Research in
Nursing, 22(1-2), 25-39.