Why the 6Cs prove nurses are awesome

Nurses are the backbone of healthcare industry. The NHS alone employs more of them than any other healthcare professional.

At all times, they will all be operating on the same six core values that doesn’t only mean the job gets done, means patients are safe, well looked after and, most of all, treated correctly. A task that varies in difficulty from patient-to-patient and ward-to-ward.

These six core values are commonly know as the 6Cs of nursing and are as follows:

1) Care – As with our own ethos here at The Caring Company, Kare Plus, the fundamental role of nurses is to care for people by looking after and providing for their needs. Care is a broad term: There is no easy way of clarifying or stipulating what one’s individual needs are as everyone is so different.  Many skills may be drawn upon to address the varying situations that nurses are thrown into but certainly elements of empathy and certainly a lot of understanding and patience will be required while nursing individuals. However, this is no mean feat for nurses working long shifts, in busy settings, without enough staff.

2) Compassion – Whilst performing under these stressful conditions, nurses also have to remain compassionate. No matter how difficult a patient may be or how long they have left on their shift, compassion is the skill of intelligent kindness nurses have to learn which is central to how patients perceive their care.

3) Competence – Patients come from all walks of life, with a variety of needs and treatments. To have the expertise, clinical and technical knowledge to effectively care for so many different patients is no mean feat and requires a lot of training and CPD – of course, such time spent on personal development is on top of their already heavy workloads and long shifts.

4) Communication – To ensure patients understand the care they are receiving and to make sure they receive the correct treatment, nurses have to become excellent communicators. Not only do they have to clearly relay information, they also have to be excellent listeners. As said previously, with patients coming from all walks of life; with language barriers, emotional barriers and demographical barriers, choosing the correct tone and manner is crucial to make patients as comfortable, relaxed and safe as possible.

5) Courage – Courage is the personal strength and ambition to embrace new ways of working. This may be adapting to new patients, encountering new challenges or speaking up when they have concerns.

6) Commitment – Possibly the most incredible part about nurses; their commitment is difficult to rival.  They’re fully committed to patients and their job. At a time when nurses are over-stretched and seeing little financial growth for their efforts, they still put in the over time, lie awake at night thinking about their last shift and ensure the health and social needs of all their patients and families are met.

We at Kare Plus commend these values that make nurses the backbone of the healthcare industry. There are few other jobs that require such a plethora of skills to simply get by, let alone succeed.

If you’re a nurse who shares these values, why not contact your local Kare Plus branch to see how we could potentially help you boost your career.