Belief Statement
I believe that trusting therapeutic relationships between healthcare providers and clients are at the center of healthcare and greatly influence patient care, satisfaction and most importantly, health outcomes. By anchoring my practice as a nursing student in my values of empathy, open-mindedness, compassion and dependability, I can foster meaningful therapeutic relationships with patients to promote all domains of patient wellbeing. I believe that when patients enter a healthcare setting to address a health issue, they are looking both for support for their health complaint as well as emotional support. Providing emotional support promotes all domains of health (physical, mental, emotional and spiritual) and as such promotes better patient outcomes. My values will allow me to build trusting relationships with patients and help me prioritize a holistic patient-centred approach in my practice and I believe this will help me continuously improve the quality of care I can provide.
Values
Empathy:
Empathy is, according to the CNO (2006), “The expression of understanding, validating and resonating with the meaning that the health care experience holds for the client” (pp. 3-4). To empathize with someone is to show them that you understand what they are going through and how it is affecting them emotionally. It involves putting oneself in the shoes of another to understand a situation from their perspective, and validate that their experience and emotions. Empathy has always been important to me as it is a critical component of providing emotional support to others in personal relationships, as well as in professional relationships in the healthcare setting. Listening to someone and providing reassurance, validation and understanding of their perception of a situation helps provide comfort, support and can help them process how they are feeling. The CNO (2006) has identified empathy as one of five elements of a nurse-client relationship. Empathy in a care setting can help build trust between the nurse and the client. Fostering a therapeutic environment helps the client feel safe and comfortable sharing relevant health information, which allows the healthcare team to create the best possible care and treatment plan for that particular patient. As a result, empathy in nursing will improve patient health outcomes, as well as promote client emotional and mental wellbeing by providing support within professional boundaries.
Open-Mindedness:
To me, open-mindedness goes hand-in-hand with acceptance. To be open-minded is to allow yourself to consider the opinions and ideas of others that may differ from yours before passing judgement. I think it is important to try and understand why someone may think what they think, or why someone may feel the way they feel. Of course, people will most often not see eye-to-eye on everything, but I think it is important to consider the ideas of others to promote self-reflection and personal growth. Considering the ideas of others helps me reflect upon my own ideas and biases, and why I hold opinions on certain topics. In the nursing profession I think open-mindedness is of critical importance for patient autonomy as well as continual improvement of care. It is always important to respect a patient’s decision without judgment, even if as a nurse one may not agree. Furthermore, showing open-mindedness in interactions with a patient will help build trust as the patient will be less likely to be worried about being judged. As mentioned before, this helps improve patient outcomes by ensuring the patient feels safe enough to share relevant health information. Being an open-minded health care professional also means being open to the emergence of new research and best-practice guidelines to ensure that nursing as a profession is constantly striving to improve the quality of care.
compassion:
I believe that compassion is one of the driving forces in nursing. Simply put, compassion is the want to help alleviate the suffering, distress or pain of others (Merriam-Webster, 2024). This is the motivating factor to want to help others who are in need. As such, compassion is likely a value that made many nurses and healthcare professionals choose a career devoted to promoting health and wellbeing. The desire to help relieve distress and suffering is critical to the profession of nursing, and motivates all aspects of healthcare. In nursing, compassion is important to ensure that nurses remain cognizant of what the patient is experiencing, and to ensure that interventions and care are patient-centred with the goal of relieving suffering or promoting health. Compassion has always been important to me personally, as I find helping others to be personally fulfilling. It makes me happy to know that I have helped someone through a difficult time, and this is a large part of why I chose nursing as a career. I want to be able to help people get through the difficult times in their life by learning to provide compassionate, high quality care.
Dependability:
To be dependable is to demonstrate to others that you are true to your word, and can be relied upon in times of need. Being dependable is important to build trusting relationships with others, which is important in personal relationships as well as professional nurse-client relationships. Demonstrating to patients that you are dependable, will follow through on your promises and can be trusted in vulnerable situations will promote a healthy therapeutic nurse-client relationship. This will help decrease client anxiety, because they will know that they can rely on their nurse to care for them. Decreased anxiety and trust promote mental wellbeing and build trust between nurse and client which will improve client satisfaction and health outcomes as discussed earlier. Being dependable is also an important part of working in a team environment, such as an interdisciplinary care team. Team members will recognize that you will fulfill your role or seek support when it is needed, and will do your part to optimize patient care.