Reflective practice is fundamental in healthcare. Most practices follow the analytical ideology of:
“What happened”, “What could have been done differently” or “What was your role in this experience?”
Most reflective practices only focus on what happened and the cognitive thinking leading up to the situation to facilitate improvement for similar future events. The individuals’ feelings are rarely regarded in reflective practice and a meaningful opportunity is missed.
The Schwartz Rounds aim to bring fundamental changes in reflective practice by considering the emotional aspects in a supported and confidential environment over 1-hour group meetings for all health students across multiple disciplines. Creating a feeling of unity, solidarity and understanding between those likeminded.
It is important that this is communicated in the Schwartz Rounds branding, which was brought together by student nurses.
The process started with four pen drawings that represented unity and nature: Leaves, holding hands, clouds and a mandala.
(Calligraphy was never our strong-suit, so grease-proof baking paper was used to test different fonts on each prototype)
The drawing of the leaves felt most representative of the Schwartz Rounds as the connotations exhibit growth, nature and nurture. It is soft, eye-catching and not indecipherable, so this was selected for the next stage of the process.
The drawing was scanned and digitalised into a vector drawing using Adobe Illustrator. Each line was drawn on computer, stroke by stroke until there was a clear outline of the design. This allowed experimentation of different colours, textures, use of negative-space and gradients.
The chosen colour scheme is celeste blue, also known as the colour of the sky and “heavenly” in Italian, conforming to the theme of nature/nurture, with a soft off-white gradient in the negative space. The colour combination is easy to interpret, the design isn’t lost to negative space, and the blue can be associated as sister branding to the University of Brighton. The final stage of designing is to decide which font is most suitable, it must be clear and concise for ease of reading. Different prototypes were created using a variety of bold, simple, sophisticated and fun fonts. Whilst tweaking the spacing and size to suit each design best.
We gathered the opinions of other students and lecturers to help us choose the most suitable logo for Schwartz Rounds and one design was most popular. The below image was selected as the best design and reigned champion of the logos.
This journey was enjoyable and stimulating. It presented challenges which tested patience yet were overcome when working in collaboration with others and seeking support. This reminded us that there is always a support system if its needed. Especially after much uncertainty and rigorously re-checking various designs, colour schemes and fonts to be certain it is correct. It has been satisfying to have achieved so much and to make the drawing so much better. We feel optimistic about the future. This was a great learning experience and helped recognise that there is so much to learn along the way and that’s okay. We feel thankful for this experience and want to showcase our creativity.
If this blogpost wasn’t about designing a logo, this statement could be mistaken for how we have all felt at least once working as a student in clinical practice.
Try re-read that statement, but replace the bold text with:
- “Designs, colour schemes and fonts” to “medicines, priorities and interventions.”
- “Drawing” now represents our “unwell patient.”
- “Showcase our creativity” to “join the next Schwartz Rounds”
Thank you for your time and we invite you join us for the next Schwartz Rounds!
Student nurse May H.
