Nursing Coat Of Arms

A coat of arms is an arrangement of heraldic symbols, demonstrative of great achievement and significant qualities that date back to the Middle Ages. The arms was established to identify knights during battle and has since then evolved to represent nations, post-secondary institutions and eventually, professions. A coat of arms distinct to an occupation may depict the goals of the professional body and emphasize essential qualities unique to it. The nursing profession is characterized by a multitude of traits and our coat of arms has captured six of those multidimensional qualities vital for nurses. Symbols representative of compassion, perseverance, trust, advocacy, knowledge, and critical thinking have been illustrated on our coat of arms.

Nurses should also be empowered to utilize the power they hold to further advocate for themselves and the profession. As an expectation of the occupation, nurses have accepted the responsibility to act as patient advocates and according to Paquin (2011) nurses are engaging in conventional advocate practices that target individual therapeutic relationships rather than taking an upstream approach. This method is associated with social justice advocacy which addresses the underlying issues that contribute to the illness, in order to determine how it can be prevented (Paquin, 2011). Overlooking significant information related to social and economic factors can only resolve part of the problem or provide a “band aid solution” (Paquin, 2011, p.64). Without challenging one’s own assumptions about the reason for patient care and asking questions concerning the determinants of health, nurses fail to use a holistic approach when caring for vulnerable patients. The desired goal is to increase positive patient outcomes by advocating for one’s self, the profession and the patient. Before nurses can support the client, it is imperative that they find the confidence to advocate for themselves as it will serve as a reflection to how well they can advocate for their patients. A lack of morale, support from educators and colleagues and a feeling of inadequacy, compromises the safety of the patient and results in a weakened therapeutic relationship from a lack of trust. An empowered nurse has the ability to acknowledge and object to the power imbalances that commonly occur between health care professionals and patients. Each individual may struggle to navigate the healthcare system subjecting themselves to