Coat Of Arms Theory

COAT OF ARMS ASSIGNMENT: THEORY A coat of arms is used as a representative crest, usually placed on a shield or a flag. Normally, it would be used to represent a family, person, or country. For example, the Canadian coat of arms is used to represent Canada and the qualities that the country values most. However, it could also be used to represent a school or profession. For example, most post secondary institutes have a coat of arms to represent the school and its values. This paper will discuss a coat of arms for the nursing profession and why the qualities being represented are important. Together, my group and I have chosen 5 qualities that we felt were important to the nursing profession and picked an image to represent it on a coat of
arms. The 1st quality is being a good advocator. Advocacy in nursing is the promotion and vocalization of the client’s voice. It is being represented with a megaphone because just as a megaphone amplifies the speaker’s voice, the nurse amplifies the client’s voice when dealing with other in the healthcare team. The 2nd quality is being a good communicator. Communication in nursing is done with the client, their family, or the healthcare team and can come in a verbal or written forms. This is being represented as an hand holding a pen. The 3rd quality is caring. Caring in nursing is important it requires the nurse to look after people who cannot look after themselves; it is represented as two hands. The 4th quality is being trustworthy. Trustworthiness in nursing is important because it helps ensure the client that what is being said will remain confidential and that their privacy will be respected; it also helps build the nurse-client relationship. It is represented as a lock and key. The 5th quality is being assertive. Assertiveness in nursing is important because it allows the nurse to clearly and confidently communicate with the client, their family, and the healthcare team. It is represented as a flexed arm.it Although, all the five qualities that my group and I have chosen are important qualities for a nurse to possess, being a good advocator, communicator and trustworthy are the 3 that I believe are the most important. The 1st quality is being a good communicator.
Communication, when done effectively, will allow the communicator to express their feeling accurately; it would also allow the recipient of the message to understand the message. It is an important quality to have in nursing because it allows the nurse to gather information from the client, relay client progress to others in the healthcare team and the patient’s family. It can also improve the overall teamwork of the healthcare team. As mentioned earlier, communication come in various forms. These forms include the written form, which is used between those within the healthcare team; the non-verbal form, which is used when gathering objective data from the client; and the verbal form, which is used when speaking with everyone and when gathering subjective data from the patient. Effective communication between nurses and their clients are viewed as important especially in cases where there is a communication barrier. This barrier could be related to age, or cultural and language
differences.
For example, there was a study done in 2013 by Gary Ennis, Brenda Happell, and Kerry Reid-Seral that explained the importance of communication in mental health institutions. It showed that effective communication assisted in creating therapeutic and working relationships (Ennis et al., 2013); the nurses in these intuitions built these relationships by using appropriate terminology (i.e. not using medical jargon while speaking with clients) and by waiting for cues, whether they are verbal or nonverbal, and by using active listening skills to know what to say and when to say it. Their communication techniques also helped in increase positive patient outcomes and the overall environment at the institution (Ennis et al., 2013). If these nurses at this mental health facility didn’t use effective communication while dealing with their team and clients, then next to nothing would get done at the facility. This would be because the nurses wouldn’t be able to properly communicate with each other and the client, leading to client’s conditions worsening and the quality of care decreasing. The 2nd quality is being trustworthy. As mentioned before, trust is very large component of the nurse-client relationship. It can either build and improve or derail the relationship, depending on how the nurse treats the clients trust. If a client finds the nurse gossiping about them to other nurses at the nursing station, they would be reluctant in sharing information with the nurse in the fear that it will be discussed with others. This would be an example of derailing the nurse-client relationship because the nurse violated the client’s trust by gossiping them with other nurses. Violating the client’s trust not only derails the nurse-client relationship but also creates an imbalance of power (Dinc & Gastmans, 2012). It is the responsibility of the nurse to address the power imbalance and minimize it. For a nurse to be trustworthy, they have to show the client that they have ‘character traits, including generosity, compassion, patience, honesty, reliability, loyalty, and fidelity.’ (Dinc & Gastmans, 2012.
pg. 12). Having these character traits would allow the client to trust the nurse more easily and be more forthcoming with information about their feeling and conditions. Being trustworthy is also used in building the nurse-client relationship. This relationship allows the nurse to assess and provide care for the client and is built off of trust. Without it, the client wouldn’t give accurate information and the nurse won’t be able to provide approipate care.
The 3rd quality is being a good advocator. As mentioned earlier, the nurse advocates for the patient by promoting and vocalizing their opinions and concerns to the healthcare team. This quality is one of the major things that set nurses apart from other healthcare
professionals.