NURS-1001 (First Year)
Core Values
My core values of empathy, accountability, justice, and collaboration are essential to my future nursing practice. These values are foundational for providing safe, competent care and fostering meaningful relationships with patients and colleagues. I believe these values will guide my future practice and allow me to provide the highest standard of patient-centered care.
1. Empathy:
Empathy is the ability to understand and share other people’s feelings (Moudatsou et al., 2020). For nurses, it means understanding a patient’s emotional and cognitive state without bonding with them (Moudatsou et al., 2020). Empathy is an important value for nurses as it has positive effects on their patients (Moudatsou et al., 2020).
Empathy allows a patient’s needs to be heard and respected; it is a fundamental tool used to foster a nurse-patient relationship that prioritizes patient-centered care (Moudatsou et al., 2020). Putting yourself in their shoes can help a nurse understand what a patient may be experiencing, ultimately contributing to better patient outcomes (Moudatsou et al., 2020). Further, empathy is necessary for cooperation between patient and nurse (Moudatsou et al., 2020). A patient’s perspective cannot be implemented into their care plan if a nurse cannot use empathy to understand their needs. When patients participate fully in their care plans, they have a say in their treatment and are more likely to have successful results (Moudatsou et al., 2020). As a future nurse, this is a major value of mine. Having empathy when treating patients can have a beneficial impact on their relationship with nurses and on their overall health.
2. Accountability
Accountability is accepting responsibility and being answerable for actions made (Astle et al., 2024). It is a value essential to nursing as it ensures patient safety and trust.
Nurses are responsible for their choices and actions in patient care and must be accountable if a mistake compromises a patient’s safety and well-being. According to the Code of Ethics for Registered Nurses, if a nurse cannot ensure the safety of a patient in their care, they are responsible for communicating this concern so that corrective action can be taken as quickly as possible (Canadian Nurses Association (CNA), 2017). By not speaking up, a mistake may risk causing harm to a patient. Furthermore, nurses accountable for their actions can learn from their errors and prevent future mistakes from occurring. This will improve future patient safety, as mistakes are less likely to reoccur. Finally, when taking responsibility for your actions you develop trust from colleagues and future patients. Accountability assures them that if a mistake happens you will own up to it and implement measures to fix the mistake. Overall, this value is important to me as in the future it will ensure patient safety, prevent future mistakes, and build trust.
3. Justice
Justice is the ethical idea that people should be treated fairly and fairly (Astle et al., 2024). It focuses on how we treat individuals and groups within society, how we distribute benefits, and how we make amends to those who have been unfairly burdened (Astle et al., 2024). Justice is a core value needed to provide ethical care as a nurse (CNA, 2017).
Nurses are responsible for providing the best quality of care possible regardless of personal beliefs or biases (Astle et al., 2024). They must care for each patient equitably regardless of race, religion, age, socioeconomic status, or sexual orientation (Astle et al., 2024). According to the Code of Ethics for Registered Nurses, when providing ethical care, nurses are responsible for addressing social justice aspects associated with health and well-being (CNA, 2017). This includes factors that limit people’s access to health care such as their race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, or religion (Astle et al., 2024). This is an extremely important value of mine that I will apply in my future nursing career. I believe that everyone should have access to safe and competent healthcare, and should be treated with respect and integrity when they do so.
4. Collaboration
Collaboration is working as a team to achieve a desired outcome (Astle et al., 2024). In nursing, this means working with patients, families, and other healthcare professionals to provide optimal care for a patient (Astle et al., 2024). Collaboration is a core value for nurses to make informed decisions about care plans (Astle et al., 2024).
To provide patient-centered care, nurses must work collaboratively with their patients (Astle et al., 2024). Sometimes patients will not want to proceed with certain treatment options, and it is the nurse’s job to collaborate with the patient to create a care plan that they are comfortable with. Further, nurses often need to work in interdisciplinary teams of healthcare professionals, such as other nurses, doctors physiotherapists, social workers, dietitians, psychiatrists, or occupational therapists, to provide the best possible care (Astle et al., 2024). The Code of Ethics for Registered Nurses states that nurses must collaborate with other healthcare providers and others to maximize the health benefits of a patient (CNA, 2017). This requires excellent communication skills to both contribute and listen to perspectives from multiple domains (CNA, 2017). Overall, collaboration is one of my core values as it allows for well-informed decisions to be made, and in the future, it will allow me to provide the best care possible.
My commitment to patient-centered care and these core values of empathy, accountability, justice, and collaboration will one day guide my practice as a nurse. These principles ensure that every patient receives compassionate, ethical, and respectful care that caters to their unique needs, which I believe is critical for nursing.