5 Core Nursing Qualities

Coat of Arms
As a team, we collaboratively decided on five core qualities of a nurse. The five qualities of a nurse are knowledge, patience, compassion and empathy. Knowledge is represented by a book as a root of a growing tree. The book represents the unlimited resources and desires to learn and grow to become a proficient nurse. Like the branches on the trees, the knowledge that the nurse gains are evolving and dynamic. Compassion is represented by an image of two conjoined hands forming a heart. This symbolizes the relationship of trust and respect as a result of a therapeutic nurse-client relationship. Caring is represented by the two hands holding the beating heart. The hands that support the heart represents the genuine care that the
Empathy is represented by the symbol of two people sharing the same thought bubble. The thought bubble is shared between the two minds, indicating that the nurse understands what the patient is thinking and experiencing. Empathy is embodied by nurses and it is a fundamental quality for patient care. In order to blend all of the qualities together, we decided to have an encompassing wreath surround the symbols that represent the five nursing qualities. The wreath represents the idea that all the nursing qualities are connected and unified in an unending circle of life. However, three core nursing qualities that will be discussed furthermore is compassion, empathy and knowledge. Compassion, empathy and knowledge are directly associated with the client’s trust and consequently determine patient outcomes. The quality, compassion is directly related with the client’s secureness and subsequently determine patient outcomes. It is a quality that nurses should embody in order to present high level of nursing care for the patient. Being compassionate means to show sympathy for others. It is often treated as an action word because nurses usually show compassion
The patient will be able to feel that you empathize with them and appreciate the nurse resulting in a therapeutic nurse-client relationship. When one feels like they are being empathized, they feel important and cared for. This may give them some comfort in the situation and may encourage them to be enclose any concerns resulting in better patient outcomes. Likewise, Sternke, Abrahamson and Blair (2016) found that patients with chronic pain and depression felt understood, cared for and valued when they were being empathized. Moreover, when the patient felt understood, they were able to open up to the nurse about their concerns and be vulnerable because they knew that those concerns would be useful towards their nursing care (Sternke et al., 2016). This indicates that empathy is a door that opens the patient’s trust and vulnerability. This door is hard to open but the results of empathy is able to do that. Patient’s vulnerability is so important in patient outcome because as a nurse, they need to know what the problem is to be able to solve it. Sternke et al. (2016) says that when providers relate to the patients, it is associated with positive self-esteem as well as dedication to treatment. Also, empathetic interactions are