Trust: A Concept Analysis
The term trust encompasses a wide array of meaning. It can be regarded both as a logical and an emotional act. Trust can be defined as having utter belief in the reliability, ability or truth of any person or thing; it is a state where the acceptance of truth even without evidence or investigations becomes possible (Oxford University Press, 2013). However, according to Merriam-Webster (2013) trust is defined as a guaranteed reliance on the strength, character or the character of any entity. Trust is an utterly important concept, even when considering it from the perspective of the nurse management.
As mentioned earlier, trust has an element of emotion and logic in it. It is considered logical where a person perceives the potential gains or losses of putting their reliance on someone, calculating the possible satisfaction derived out of putting their trust into them and only after carefully analyzing all these aspects, then deciding whether or not to trust someone. However, it can be referred as emotional when any entity exposes themselves to others, hoping that rather than taking advantage of their situation, the others would tend to understand their situation and support them open heatedly.
There are various dimensions to trust, some of which could be defined under the terms of predictability, delayed reciprocity, value exchange and exposed vulnerabilities. Human beings have a knack of forecasting for their future and in doing so, it is imperative that they predict what the people they know would do under different situations. Hence, trust helps them in predicting these behaviors. It can be considered a value exchange because there are instances when we do not have complete knowledge about someone and even then, we tend to exchange information basing on the values of trust. Since, the people we trust, we expect them to pay us back in