Providing care to a patient is a particularly challenging process that requires a great deal of effort from a nurse. A nurse’s ability to give quality care to their patient is an important aspect to a patient’s life both now and in the future. As such, nurses must exhibit specific qualities in their practice in order to maintain the best standard of care for their patients. Given this, I believe that the standards of knowledge, advocacy, and self-awareness are foundational to the nursing practice and to a nurse’s capacity to provide quality patient care. Knowledge In group deliberation, knowledge was seen to be a vital quality within nursing. We agreed that nurses must have a sufficient knowledge in order to provide competent patient care, and that nurses needed to have the ability to apply their knowledge so that they could benefit their patients. In our Coat of Arms, knowledge was characterized as an infinity sign made of green vines. Our interpretation was based on the belief that knowledge within nursing was ever growing, and that the pursuit of knowledge was always relevant within nursing. …show more content…
Giving care to a patient is not a straightforward process because a patient is made up of advanced systems. Symptoms and the severity of a disease process are dependent on a particular patient, and it may not always be uniform from patient to patient. Because of this, nurses must be able to use their knowledge appropriately to help a patient. Nurses use techniques, such as Evidence Based Practice, in order to integrate new and advanced knowledge into their patient care (Canada, 2016). By exercising evidence based practice, nurses effectively seek knowledge, take experience from past situations, and apply this intelligence to best give patient care (Canada, 2016). Because of this fact, knowledge can be seen as a vital quality to