Nursing Professional Practice Model

Ten steps to delivering unsurpassed patient care

At Highland, our professional nurses are responsible for achieving and maintaining a current level of competency in nursing practice and are accountable for our actions and judgments.

Competency in nursing practice includes proficiency in technological skills, evidence-based practice and interpersonal skills, and incorporates Dr. Jean Watson’s “Ten Clinical Caritas Processes.”

1. Practice of loving-kindness – We treat our patients as we would want our own families treated. We call families with updates on their loved ones and work diligently to assist our co-workers.

2. Being authentically present, and enabling and sustaining the deep belief system – We take the time to hold a patient’s hand, listen to his or her concerns and offer reassurance.

3. Cultivation of sensitivity (to self and others) – Members of our nursing team provide support to one another, helping us cope with difficult patient situations.

4. Developing and sustaining a helping-trusting, authentic caring relationship – We involve our patients in their care and are open to their suggestions. Above all else, we focus on each patient’s daily needs.

5. Opening and attending to spiritual dimensions of one's own life-death; soul care for self and the one being care for – We seek help from our chaplains to comfort our distressed and isolated patients.

6. Promotion of interpersonal teaching-learning – As soon as a patient arrives on a floor/unit, our nursing staff discusses the normal daily routine with the patient and his or her family and develops a care plan.

7. Creating a healing environment at all levels (physical and non-physical) – We keep the patient care space clean and free of clutter to promote consistency, comfort and dignity, as well as an aesthetically pleasing environment.

8. Acceptance and support of positive and negative feelings – Our nurses sit with and listen to patients who are experiencing difficulties and find ways to communicate with them so they don’t feel isolated.

9. Creative use of self and all ways of knowing as part of the caring process; to engage in the artistry of caring-healing practices – We routinely use touch to communicate with patients and families.

10. Assistance with basic needs, with an intentional caring consciousness – We offer “human care essentials,” such as cots and sleeper chairs, as well as food and comfort, to families who wish to stay with their loved one.