IMPORTANCE OF EVIDENCED-BASED PRACTICE AND COMPASSION

Week 3 of NURS 2001 discussed nursing obligations and the ontological capacities (or the 5 C’s). This was a key lecture for me as it introduced me to the fundamentals of how I should practice daily in my nursing career. As a nurse, we are responsible for our actions and the outcomes they lead to. This can successfully and safely be achieved by trusting our morality and adhering to the guidelines set out by the federal and provincial nursing boards. Though these tools provide us with what to do as a nurse and what doing the right thing means, we must decide individually on how we carry out our practice. Nibbelink and Brewer (2019) conducted a study in which they found decision-making in nursing practice was most successful when evidenced-based approaches were used. Though experience had the largest influence on decision making as these nurses felt more confident, used their unconscious rationale, and collaborated with colleagues, this did not mean they used evidenced-based protocols and therefore did not have any more successful outcomes than new nurses (Nibbelink & Brewer, 2019). Safety and health promotion are two additional themes that represent nursing obligations and I feel that by also following evidence-based decisions, these concepts can be adequately met. The CNA understands this as a fundamental part of the nursing practice and provides a lot of meaningful information around this idea. I have included a link below as this is a great page to revisit throughout anyone’s nursing career.

Now we will be switching gears as we wrap up this section by talking about the 5 C’s, or ontological capacities. Being compassionate, curious, committed, competent, and corresponding allows nurses to be existent in their nursing practice and helps us to understand and apply relational inquiry. Compassion, however, is the foundation of relational inquiry as this allows nurses to share the suffering their clients are experiencing and relate to them rather than avoiding, fixing, or ignoring their emotions. Sinclair and colleagues (2017) made a clear distinction between compassion, empathy, and sympathy and revealed that compassion was the most preferred by patients. By showing compassion, allows for the other 4 ontological capacities to be practiced unconsciously (Sinclair et al., 2017). Curiosity is explored by being open to the unknown, letting go of control and exploring different ways of knowing and being. Commitment is developed by engaging in a long-term investigation of your patient and by acting in terms of someone else’s needs before your own (Sinclair et al., 2017). Competency is interconnected with compassion as performing without harm is guided through interactions with others. Finally, corresponding is tied in as this simply means relating to others that is meaningful to them. By acting accordingly in regards to the 5 C’s, relational inquiry is automatically applied in your nursing practice. As I navigate through the beginning stages of my career, it is important I build the habits of reflecting on my nursing practice so I can continue to be compassionate with my patients and let the rest should follow.

References

Nibbelink, C. W., & Brewer, B. B. (2018). Decision-making in nursing practice: An integrative literature review. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 27(5-6), 917–928. https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.14151

Sinclair, S., Beamer, K., Hack, T. F., McClement, S., Raffin Bouchal, S., Chochinov, H. M., & Hagen, N. A. (2016). Sympathy, empathy, and compassion: A grounded theory study of palliative care patients’ understandings, experiences, and preferences. Palliative Medicine, 31(5), 437–447. https://doi.org/10.1177/0269216316663499