Essay on Nursing Coat of Arms

Critical thinking is a term you will often here in regards to nursing education and the ability to be a successful nurse. Critical thinking is one of the most important skills of a nurse. Nurses must be able to constantly asses and analyze situations in order to prioritize what is the most important task to accomplish next. This is an ever changing situation in health care and especially in the Intensive Care Units.

Coat of arms is a collection of symbols that indicates the trait of a family, profession etc. In nursing, the coat of arms is intended to capture the key qualities of what nursing profession means. The purpose of this paper is to explain the six different nursing qualities and discuss why each quality was chosen to represent ‘Nursing’. It will also provide a rational for the symbols that represent each quality in the coat of arms. The idea of placing each symbol in different locations of the coat of arms will also be the part of discussion.

A coat of arms is a distinctive design that uses symbols to denote the elements’ significance. The coat of arms typically forms a shield consisting of emblems that represent a significant person, family or organization. My TBL group, The Brown Eyed Babies, created a coat of arms to denote the essential qualities that a nurse must possess to provide the best care. We believe a nurse must possess these five characteristics: endurance, wisdom, empathy, collaboration and communication. We used an owl as a base to symbolize wisdom. Being a wise nurse not only includes the knowledge learned in class, but also comprises the experience we gain through practice. Thus, wisdom is placed as the base because without knowledge and experience, we cannot provide the care needed. The owl’s wings represent the quality, endurance, as it functions as the owl’s core support. Endurance is an essential quality because it comprises of not only the physical strength, but also the mental and emotional stability needed to cope with the nursing profession. A heart is placed within the owl, in the middle, to represent empathy and its central role in nursing care. Empathy is a significant trait needed by the nurse, in order to maintain a therapeutic relationship with patients. There are also two little owls placed at the bottom holding hands to represent collaboration. Being a good collaborator contributes to providing the best care, as working with other nurses and healthcare professionals results in

In addition to these characteristics, nursing also involves critical thinking. "Critical thinking is the active, organized, cognitive process used to carefully examine one's thinking and the thinking of others. It involves the use of the mind in forming conclusions, making decisions, drawing inferences, and reflecting" (Perry,

Critical thinking is a nursing process that includes reflective practice, problem solving and decision making which are connected to one another. The definition of critical thinking is transferring and applying knowledge and skills in a new situation. The critical thinking is needed in a lot of aspects of the nurses’ job such as when the nurses need to provide the precise identification in the specific problems had by the patients. They need to be in detail and also critical to themselves in every time in order to be able to provide identification precisely. When you have the profession in nursing, it is important to be critical thinker. The nurses have the high responsibilities and their responsibilities are increasing from time to time.

The Coat of Arms our group designed includes what we think about nursing and the characteristics that a nurse should possess. From top to bottom, we have a clock that shows a patient recovering after receiving nursing care. The shield is the body and the core of our Coat of Arms, which is also our core value toward nursing – what nursing means to us and what nurses should possess. Above the shield, we have a nursing cap which is a common symbol of nursing. In the shield, we have a stethoscope that is surrounded by many buildings from different countries. Inside the stethoscope, we have a heart; two shaking hands and a vital sign. We also added angel wings that show how people have typically thought of nursing in the past and even now. Then below is the scale of justice, a quote from Jean Watson, and a dove which symbolizes peace. Among all those symbols, I believe that the cities of the earth, the heart in the middle, handshake, and the scale of justice most likely represents what nursing means to me and the characteristics that nurses should have.

Nursing is a profession that has gone through many changes over the centuries. Though it originated as the subservient partner to the medical profession, nurses have slowly gained autonomy and have come into their own as a respected profession. The fluidity of this ever-changing profession is integral to its make-up, but equally integral is its stability. This coat of arms attempts to illustrate these contrasting images of nursing, by using thoughtful analogies. Some of these analogies are related to nature and the environment, which is quite fitting due to how deeply the environment is intertwined with the practice of nursing. These next four pages will delve further into the meaning behind the four tenets of nursing featured on the coat of arms: Critical thinking, cultural competency, upstream thinking, and equity. They will also describe how my own views on the profession have changed since the fall.

For example, most universities and colleges 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. Although there are many important qualities that are essential to the nursing profession, my group and I have decided

Nursing is a profession that has been around in one form or another since the beginning of civilizations. It has moved from an art that was handed down from generation to generation to the formal education and training programs of today. During this evolution, nursing has been influenced by four main themes: the folk, religious, military and servant images (Ellis, 2012, pp. 3-45, 71).

When it comes narrowing qualities that best exemplify a nurse and represent what they do, the list is never ending. Furthermore, the first component to the Coat of Arms is a red lotus flower, symbolic of compassion. As a group, collectively we believe that being a nurse entails composing practice through a loving, caring manner, equally the same thought process. I feel it takes patience, an individual who is willing to put the needs of someone else at the forefront. Truly, nursing is a selfless act in that the primary focus is not “you” but on the patient. To demonstrate compassion, as a group we chose the red lotus flower because the flower is beautiful that unfolds and as a nurse, learning is continuous and a layer is always being unveiled.

The topic of this paper is to identify historical events in nursing. This topic grasps my attention because I am on the track to become a nurse, and feel I need to know about the history of nursing. The purpose of this paper is to inform the reader about historical highlights in nursing.

Critical thinking and clinical reasoning are similar in the fact that each term represents a set of methods that guide the nurse to reliable evidence-based practice while delivering care. Critical thinking and clinical reasoning are centered on knowledge base that is associated with the discipline of nursing. With each concept, the nurse must have an existing developed knowledge base in which to apply each concept to. Nurses apply critical thinking and clinical reasoning skills when patient care decisions are made. With both critical thinking and clinical reasoning, information about the patient is collected and examined. They work together to produce clinical judgment. They both direct nursing care to meet patients’ needs resulting in higher quality of care and better patient outcomes.

Critical thinking is the questioning of ideas. It is the process in which you take an argument and analyze it in order to conclude whether that argument is valid. Thinking critically is a good skill that can help others make intelligent decisions and helps them understand what to believe or not believe. Critical thinking is involved in our daily life. For example, every day we make decisions and before every decision we think critically if that is the right decision. We take into consideration the possible consequences of such decision and from that we reach a conclusion. Critical thinking involves disciplined thinking and it teaches you to think for yourself. It is personal growth and confidence that results from learning to exercise your mind to its fullest potential.

Many people believe that Nursing started with Florence Nightingale, however nursing itself dates back to the beginnings of motherhood when nurses were traditionally female. In fact, nursing and medicine have been closely intertwined throughout the ages. The history of nursing has its origins in the care of infants and children, so all mothers were in fact nurses. Gradually an evolution started developing into dedicated caregivers who practiced the art. In fact, nursing has been called the oldest of arts and the youngest of professions.

Critical thinking means accurate thinking in the search of appropriate and dependable knowledge about the world. Another way to describe it is sensible, insightful, responsible, and skillful thinking that is focused on deciding what to believe or do. Critical thinking is not being able to process information well enough to know to stop for red lights or whether you established the right change at the supermarket.