Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Skills of a Successful and Effective Nurse

by : Karen P Williams

Nurses are patient advocates. To become a successful and effective nurse, you do not only need to acquire the necessary education and licenses to practice but you also have to posses certain qualities and skills to help you perform in this fast paced industry. Nursing is a very demanding job physically, mentally, emotionally, and psychologically. Commitment and dedication is a must in every nurse.

Emotional Skills

Most of the time, nurses are surrounded with patients who need care. Other than medical treatment, patients need emotional support from their caregivers. For this reason, it is essential for nurses to be caring, understanding and non judgmental. As a nurse, you will be dealing with people from all walks of life; infants, teens, adults and the elderly. You will also be treating patients from different social standings, race, religion and sexual orientation.

Depending on the type of facility you are working in, you will have to care for people who are very sick, physically challenged, or people who are going through different physical, emotional and mental issues. To be an effective nurse, you have to learn how to empathize with your patients and not get too emotionally attached or involved with them or their conditions. Otherwise, it will affect your performance and rationality when it comes to administering care and treatment.

Intellectual Skills

The nursing profession requires you to acquire and retain plenty of information. As a nurse, you need to be intelligent, organized and you have to have good multi tasking skills as you will need to perform multiple tasks in a limited amount of time. You will need to gather and take note of accurate information about your patient's medical history, course of treatment, and you will also need to handle different equipments and medications.

A good background in science and math will be of great help as nurses frequently must perform conversions on doses and will also be exposed to bacteria and viruses.

Communication Skills

To properly do your job as a nurse, you will need to communicate with doctors and co workers in a fast paced environment. You need to have good comprehension skills so that doctors and nurse managers do not need to repeat instructions. Other valuable skills in communication that are valuable in the nursing profession are the ability to speak and understand multiple languages and sign language.

Observational Skills

Doctors are very busy and patients have other concerns aside from their medical conditions. Being observant is a valuable characteristic you must have in order to be a successful nurse. You should be able to tell if a patient is having difficulties even if the patient is not complaining. You should be quick to notice if something is not right especially in a patient's behavior.

Physical Skills

Nursing is physically demanding. Due to shortage of nurses, they are often required to render additional hours of work. Some even work for 36 hours straight, depending on the requirement of the hospital. This is especially true in hospitals that are significantly understaffed. Most of all, you are around sick people most of the time and this makes you susceptible to infections and diseases. You have to be physically fit in order to meet the physical demands of this job.

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