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6Cs of Nursing Essay – A Quick Guide for Students

Published by at November 23rd, 2022 , Revised On September 4, 2025

The 6Cs of nursing were introduced by Jane Cummings, the Chief Nursing Officer of NHS England, in December 2012, under the Compassion in Practice framework to improve nursing values across the United Kingdom.

The 6Cs of nursing: 

  • Care: Ensuring the delivery of personalised patient care at NHS wards.
  • Compassion: To show genuine empathy when delivering bad news to families.
  • Competence:  Applying the updated knowledge and skills for effective patient care.
  • Communication: Exchanging clear, respectful, and timely information with patients and each other.
  • Courage: Speaking up against unsafe or unethical practices without fear.
  • Commitment: Showing dedication to professional standards and NHS values at all times.

As a professional nurse or midwife, you are supposed to have the 6Cs of nursing at your fingertips. 

Also Read: Interpersonal skills in a nursing essay

 

What’s the Importance of the 6Cs of Nursing in Healthcare?

Nurses are the backbone of our healthcare system and are vital to the NHS in the United Kingdom. That’s why to make them super efficient and effective for healthcare. The 6Cs were implemented as a national care plan to guarantee that all nurses, whether ADN or BSN, function under the same values. They are as follows:

 

  • Care

The essence of your job as a nurse or doctor is to care. The care nurses provide affects the overall well-being of a community. Patients anticipate that their assistance and care will be tailored to fit their needs best and will be constant through every phase of their illness. 

Throughout their stay at the healthcare centre, you need to come up with tailored care strategies for the patient’s physical needs.

 

  • Compassion

The foundation of the relationships nurses develop with their patients revolves around empathy, respect, and care. Compassion in nurses is crucial as it gives the patient a sense of reliability. It can also be referred to as informed kindness, even when delivering bad news to the families of patients.

 

  • Competence

A nurse must have the innate capacity to comprehend their patients’ social and medical needs by staying updated with the evolving knowledge and skills required to deal with specific illnesses. Nurses, doctors, or midwifery personnel need to possess all the necessary expertise, clinical, and technical knowledge. 

Supported by evidence to excel in healthcare and provide the best medical treatments to patients.

 

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  • Communication

To develop a compassionate relationship with the patient and collaborate effectively with the team, a nurse must have excellent communication skills.  The nurse should be an exceptional listener to be informed and updated about the hospital’s management, the doctor’s decisions, and the client’s conditions and complaints to make the patient feel heard and looked after.

 

  • Courage

Nurses should have the courage to act in their patients’ best interests. Nurses’ responsibility is to speak up against wrong practices or even take the risk sometimes to improve the patient’s health. Challenging the authorities or even seniors when finding any violation of the code of conduct is also the responsibility of the nurses.

 

  • Commitment

The dedication and commitment of nursing professionals to their patients enable them to take the required actions at the right time to raise the standard of medical care that patients are receiving. It develops a sense of responsibility and the willingness to work beyond the responsibility for the well-being of patients.

 

Conclusion

Each of the six values carries equal weight and focuses on putting patients at the “heart of everything” nurses do. The 6Cs were intended to be explicitly included in planning advice and universally endorsed and embraced by everyone involved in commissioning and providing care.

Incorporate the 6Cs in your essay, or an even better idea is to get assistance from experts and professionals in the field of nursing to ace your academics.

Frequently Asked Questions

The 6Cs are stated below.

  • Communication – for better collaboration with the team and patients. 
  • Commitment – dedication towards the patient’s care. 
  • Compassion – to give patients a sense of reliability 
  • Care – constantly care for patients through different phases. 
  • Courage – to act in the patient’s best interest 
  • Competence – processing all the nursing expertise.

Communication helps to convey ideas and information to the readers clearly. Commitment helps to maintain focus and ensure that the essay meets the required standards.

The 6Cs of nursing can be referenced using the following citation format:

Department of Health (2012). Compassion in Practice: Nursing, Midwifery and Care Staff – Our Vision and Strategy. London: Department of Health.

In Harvard referencing style, the 6Cs of nursing can be referenced in the following format:

Department of Health. (2012). Compassion in Practice: Nursing, Midwifery and Care Staff – Our Vision and Strategy. London: Department of Health.

About Alvin

Avatar for AlvinNicolas has a master's degree in literature and a PhD degree in statistics. He is a content manager at Essays.uk. He loves to write, cook and run. Nicolas is passionate about helping students at all levels.

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