Nursing is a healthcare profession that focuses on the care of individuals to help promote health and wellness as well as prevent diseases and illnesses from occurring.
A coat of arms is a design that contains a combination of symbols representing a certain concept. Specifically, a coat of arms that effectively embodies nursing exemplifies qualities of accountability, cultural sensitivity, care, resilience, and, humility.
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Accountability demands that nurses be responsible for modeling patient-centered care, ensuring that patients feel secure within their supervision. The lock and key represent the relationship between a nurse and their client, the key being the nurse and the lock as the patient. It demonstrates the accessibility a nurse may have to their patients' lives hence a nurse is accountable for advocating the best possible care and taking action when a client’s safety is being compromised.
Within a healthcare setting, nurses continually encounter patients with different diversity. Cultural sensitivity is represented as puzzle pieces. Each puzzle piece is colored differently to symbolize the different cultures, religions, and traditions a patient may have. For puzzles to fit, they must be placed in the correct sequence thus nurses must recognize that their cultural background or beliefs will influence how a patient views their illness.
Nursing is a caring profession, the hands holding up the shield symbolize a nurse holding up the patient in times of need. Patients are at their most vulnerable state. A nurse must provide an environment of comfort to maintain and promote the patient's dignity and integrity. The hands are uncolored which represents the increasing diversity within healthcare and despite their differences, they come together to provide a caring atmosphere for patients to make interactions meaningful.
As a nurse working in a highly stressful environment, resilience is a crucial quality to possess and build on. Resilience in nursing allows nurses to remain optimistic when facing adverse situations, which is represented using vines. Vines are strong plants that can grow tall even in the most inhospitable places. Similar to nurses, working in traumatic and stressful environments only challenges nurses to work harder and grow under pressure. The vines were colored green as it is a symbol of renewal and growth, professional development is important in making a competent and successful nurse.
The bluebell is a symbol that represents humility to florists. A humble nurse recognizes the importance of disregarding their opinions and placing the patient’s values above their own. To promote humility within nursing, self-reflection is essential to maintain a healthy therapeutic relationship that reaches its goal.
Within the five qualities presented on the coat of arms, the top three nurses should maintain are accountability, resilience, and cultural sensitivity.
Accountability is one of CNO’s seven standards, therefore, it is foundational to promoting safe nursing practice. The lack of accountability is threatening and could result in a lack of optimal patient care. Nurses hold themselves accountable for patient advocacy. When building on a nurse-patient therapeutic relationship, trust is instilled within the nurse to understand the preferences and culture of their patient when they are unable to advocate for themselves. The article stated the importance of patient advocacy with perioperative nurses. When a patient is under surgery or other invasive procedures they are unable to physically communicate their needs and wishes thus it is the job of the perioperative nurse to maintain the dignity of the clients through their advocacy. (Battie & Steelman, 2014). To ensure a nurses are providing patient safety, they must be competent enough to provide a rationale when performing patient care activities. Nurses are not only accountable for every decision and action they make but also for any possible consequences it may bring. Accountability is an ongoing learning process, perioperative nurses are accountable for continually learning and seeking the best evidenced-based practice available for patient care. Improving abilities and skills as nurses consequently improves the outcomes of health interventions. Examples stated in the article, mention catheter-associated urinary tract infections were once seen as unavoidable but through the use of newer evidence-based practice, nurses are now able to prevent such complications. (Battie & Steelman, 2014). Overall, it may be said that “Accountability is the key to increasing trust, reducing fear, and improving morale and performance, and should be the basis for establishing a culture of trust, support, and dedication to excellence” (Battie & Steelman, 2014)
People of different cultures have their unique values, beliefs, and practices. These differences may make it challenging to offer healthcare that accommodates each individual. The patient population is becoming increasingly diverse as well as those who work within the healthcare team. As nurses, it is fundamental to understand and respect how those cultural beliefs and practices influence the perceptions and judgments of the patients. For example, Jehovah’s witnesses may refuse blood transfusions even in life-threatening circumstances and a patient of the Sikh faith who may undergo an electrocardiogram may refuse to have any body hair cut for the placement of electrodes because uncut hair is an important religious symbol in Sikhism. (Mendes,2015 ). Without developing cultural sensitivity, a nurse may struggle to understand these beliefs and may disagree with the patient’s decision to decline treatment. Consequently, this may hinder the trust of the patient affecting the nurse-patient therapeutic relationship and disrupting the goals within the care. It is important to understand that although a nurse may treat patients with the same culture and religion or may even share those beliefs, culture is highly individual and is influenced by other factors that form a person’s identity (Mendes,2015). Therefore tailoring services to recognize patients as individuals and responding to their values, beliefs, and needs enables the best experience and possible care for patients.
Nurses are often faced with numerous stressors in the healthcare environment that may negatively impact their ability to perform. Resilience is a quality that cannot be taught but is learned through these experiences. It can be cultivated to aid nurses in bouncing back and remaining flexible and positive when navigating challenges in the workplace. “Increasing resilience in nurses has been correlated with decreased incidences of post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression, stress, and symptoms of burnout” (Thomas & Asselin, 2018). Being resilient also involves the ability to regulate emotions. A study conducted with nurses in a burn unit, described themselves as emotionally hardened and detached from a patient’s pain, especially during wound dressings. Although resilience is crucial to possess, there must be a balance with maintaining compassion. (Thomas and Asselin, 2018). Through self-reflection, you can access your boundaries between providing compassionate centered care while remaining resilient.
As I’ve gone through my experience in nursing school, my perspective of the profession has changed. As the semesters progressed I’ve found myself becoming more of a caring individual, more often analyzing how my actions may affect others. Before, I thought that being accountable was just being held responsible for your actions. Although that is the main component, nursing has taught me that it is more than that. It is being responsible within yourself and with others around you, honoring a code of ethics and integrity that you must maintain to value the growth of these different relationships. With cultural sensitivity, my outlook has not changed dramatically, but I am still learning new things about it every day. For example, by writing this assignment and reading articles, I have learned a little bit about different cultural practices like the importance of not cutting your hair in Sikhism and that when a person with Muslim faith is approaching their death, they may rearrange their bed towards Mecca to honor their submission to God. Lastly, my perspective towards resilience has not changed but has made me grow to appreciate nurses more than I had already. Nurses are faced with the toughest scenarios, especially in the circumstances that they deal with and can cope with numerous deaths. They challenge themselves in more ways than one but in doing they can see growth within themselves and their patients.
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