Launched in December 2012, Compassion in Practice – our culture of compassionate care, is the three year vision for nursing drawn up by Jane Cummings CNO for England. This short film introduces the 6Cs, with further detail provided within this paper.
The 6Cs are the values and behaviours of Care, Compassion, Competence, Communication, Courage and Commitment and are perceived as the quality markers of a nursing service. As Specialist Nurses we can engage with our employers and service users by articulating how our services embody the 6Cs.
An overview of the first year of implementation of the 6Cs into practice is described in this document. Started originally as a vision for nursing, NHS Employers describes the 6C’s as contributing to a significant social movement of cultural change across the NHS to improve the way care is provided. The 6Cs are now being rolled out to all NHS staff (Doctors and allied health professionals) and more information can be found here.
The 6Cs Live website provides supporting literature, blogs and chat forums. You may consider that the 6Cs describe fundamental constructs in nursing, and that these have always been key values within nursing, there is debate both on twitter and the nursing press surrounding this. Engaging with the process specialist nurses have an opportunity to showcase their work and highlight the complexity of their nursing care.
Using this Apollo 6Cs template you can produce a one page 6Cs description of your work. This Coloplast Charter Stoma Care Nursing Service can be used as a guide to develop your own unique 6C’s service descriptor.