The Crescent of Care as a Nursing Model

The COCM© is patient-family caring model focused on meeting the holistic needs of the patient. The aim of nursing care is to restore the health of the patient, where health is defined as complete physical, psychological, social and spiritual well-being.

The patient and family are in the center of the model as the focus of care. This patient-family caring model reflects the cultural importance of family in Arab culture and is distinct from Western derived nursing models that focus on caring for individual patients.

Central to determining the holistic needs of the patient and family is an understanding of the cultural and spiritual values and beliefs about health, illness and healing. The COCM© identifies the values that impact on the care of the patient, in particular related to health meanings of the patient and professional nursing care: Spiritual values (derived from Islam); Cultural values (beliefs from the Arab cultural worldview); and Professional values (values and standards arising from the nursing profession).

The components of professional nursing care are holistic and aimed at meeting the spiritual, cultural, psycho-social, interpersonal and clinical care needs to restore the patients’ health. The components of care are: Spiritual care (actions to meet the spiritual needs of the patient and family); Psycho-social care (actions to meet the psychological and social needs of the patient and family); Cultural care (actions to meet the cultural needs, and supports the values, beliefs and traditions of patient and family); Interpersonal care (aspects of care related to the relationship between the nurse and patient, includes patterns of communication) and Clinical care (physical and technical nursing care). The components of care are influenced by the spiritual and cultural values of the patient/family and professional values of the nurse.

Within the COCM© is the crescent, a symbol of Islam. The crescent surrounds the components of care and symbolizes the inseparability of nurse’s caring and spirituality, and the shared spirituality between nurse and the patient and family.