Building a caring client relationship and creating a quilt. A parallel and metaphorical process.

The process of designing a quilt became a metaphor of developing a caring relationship for a nursing student as she came to understand caring theory and its application to practice. A clinical experience combined with reflective journaling and aesthetic expression in the form of a quilt gave the student a way of understanding and concretizing a relationship. With quilts representing comfort, warmth, and expression, the student saw a parallel with the nursing profession with its essence in caring. Houses are the main visual element in the quilt because house or home is important to the human spirit and was a key issue in this caring relationship. The 10 houses illustrate Jean Watson's carative factors and the role Watson's theoretical perspective played in the caring relationship. The human-like figures, the caring spirits, represent the nursing profession, and the colored squares symbolize the energy of caring.