Darla Espinoza, RN, MSN

My philosophy of care is to stay true. Staying true to my values and ethics, staying true to the patients and families and staying true to my co-workers. Part of staying true means that it is important to see the patient as a whole being and to provide competent, empathetic and compassionate care to the best of my ability. To provide that holistic patient centered care we must respect the cultural and ethnic backgrounds of our patients and care for and teach with that in mind. Clinically I love to teach and feel that this is one of the most important things that we as nurses can do for our families, providing them the best education we can so that they can take care of their children at home. I have learned that nursing is both an art and a science. The art of caring, building relationships, meeting the patient and family needs, effectively communicating and showing empathy and compassion is important in care. The science of nursing, ability to use critical thinking applying the nursing process, knowledge and skills and using evidenced based practice is the other side of providing holistic patient centered care. The Vascular Anomalies patients benefit from this daily as I am part of a multidisciplinary team that strives to meet the medical, social and psychological needs of our patients.