Caring is the essence of nursing and a unifying focus. Caring is a nurturing way of relating to others toward whom one has a professional commitment. Nursing further assists persons in the promotion and maintenance of health behaviors, health restoration, and the prevention of disease. Nursing knowledge and practice are derived from, but not limited to, empirical, personal, aesthetic and ethical patterns of knowing. Nurses have responsibility for political and social activism for the promotion of the improvement of health care and the advancement of the profession.
Persons have inherent dignity and worth.
They are holistic beings who cannot be completely described as the sum of biological, psychological, sociological, cultural and spiritual dimensions. Persons express wholeness in thoughts, feelings and behaviors. A spiritual endowment connects each person to a universal source of goodness, mystery, life, creativity, meaning, and serenity. Persons' life experiences are influenced by their environments and by their capacity to exercise free will. A person should be free to choose values, beliefs and dreams that give meaning to life, reflect well being and influence behaviors.