what are necessary qualities for a nurse to possess?

Nursing is known to be both a highly enervating and highly rewarding career. But what makes a good nurse? Like any other task, a career in nursing requires a specific set of skills. Some of these skills may come more naturally to y'all, or you lot volition have the opportunity to learn from others in nursing school or on the job.

What makes a truly great nurse, though, is the ability to bring your best qualities into the work environment and use them alongside the skills yous take gained in your pedagogy.

We talked to the experts—registered nurses (RNs) and other healthcare professionals who often work with them—to find out the must-have skills and personality traits for a successful career in nursing. Here are nine skills and qualities to consider when you call back about a potential career as a nurse.

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ix Characteristics of a proficient nurse

1. Expert nurses are organized

"The number one trait of a peachy nurse is organization," says Alaina Ross, RN, PACU nurse and expert correspondent for Examination Prep Insight. Ross explains that when a shift gets chaotic or a patient is crashing, the nigh organized nurses accept the easiest times adapting, prioritizing and doing what needs to exist washed.

Since nurses take on so many different responsibilities, organization doesn't just make that nurse'southward day a little easier—information technology impacts patients and the whole care team. "I admire a charge nurse on our floor who always seems to exist organized," Ross says. "The days just run well when she's in charge. She always has a moment to terminate and listen to patients when they need it, and everyone seems happier and more productive when she's charge."

System is also critical to keep patients safety and healing. "Every day, nurses are juggling many different tasks on a number of unlike patients," says Sandra Crawley, RN, BSN and medical consultant at Mom Loves Best. Crawley emphasizes that nurses demand system and disquisitional thinking to keep a sharp eye on everything going on.

"Whether it is noticing the modest change in your patient earlier it becomes a big modify or collecting labs and passing medications on time, all these tasks have to be prioritized and require you to be able to multitask in an organized way," Crawley says.

two. Good nurses are compassionate

Because nurses work so closely with patients and their families as they bargain with difficult wellness issues, kindness and compassion are vital for a nurse to succeed in their career. Consider a fourth dimension y'all or a family fellow member has endured a hospital stay, and y'all'll rapidly realize the important role a compassionate nurse can play.

"The most important character trait a nurse needs is a caring center," Crawley says. She points out that organisation and multitasking can be learned and adept, but truly caring about people and existence able to empathize with them runs deeper.

"Existence able to sit down beside a female parent who just lost her kid and simply be still knowing that your presence is all that she needs at that moment. Meeting your patients on their level, where they are, is often what our patients comment nigh on," Crawley says. "We encounter these strangers at the weakest and almost scared moments of their lives, and they lean on nurses to walk them through."

This caring and empathetic work is what truly separates the good nurses from the great nurses, co-ordinate to Crawley.

three. Good nurses practice cocky-intendance

"One of the hardest things to do as a nurse is to take time out of our hectic day or week for ourselves," Crawley says. But without good boundaries and self-care habits, a passionate and hard-working nurse tin easily get cached by the job. "If we keep emptying our tank for others without taking the time to fill up it upwards again with things nosotros beloved, we risk the high cost of nursing—the dreaded burnout," Crawley says.

"Nurses need to find something to unwind, decompress and recharge."

4. Proficient nurses are safety

Dr. Michael Sinnott works with nurses on a daily basis in a hospital emergency room. He suggests that, in addition to maintaining patient safe, nurses need to know how to protect their own safe in a hazardous work surroundings like a infirmary. "For instance, perioperative nurses must know how to protect themselves from scalpel injuries as these cuts can result in infections, blood-borne diseases and psychological distress. Other serious injuries could crave microsurgery to repair digital arteries, nerves and tendons," he says.

"I consider the nurses on the front lines of the pandemic every bit exemplary," says Dorothy Keeney, MA, RN and author. "They article of clothing cumbersome hazmat suits with facemasks and other personal protective equipment, which are uncomfortable and hot to intendance for their COVID-nineteen patients on long 12-hour shifts."

Keeney points out that not only do these nurses have to deal with the uncertainty of risking their own wellness—they as well have to learn right safety procedures for protective gear against a new threat to avoid spreading the virus from a sick patient.

5. Proficient nurses communicate well

Efficient advice is a critical function of nursing, according to Jared Heathman, a family psychiatrist. "Nurses frequently receive important clinical information through their time with patients, and their ability to filter and condense relevant data tin save physicians time while providing history that improves patient care," he explains.

6. Expert nurses are team-oriented

While great nurses certainly brand patients a priority, the very all-time nurses also find means to help their whole team. "As any nurse tin can tell you, at that place are those nurses nosotros await upwards to, who we try to emulate, mentors who've shown us more than the ropes of a career," Crawley says. She emphasizes that these nurses advocate for patients, mentor newer nurses and consistently exemplify what it means to support each other.

7. Expert nurses are assertive

Kindness and compassion are essential aspects of nursing, just sometimes the kindest and most necessary patient work involves an assertive attitude also. Natasha Coleman is a health educator who works closely alongside nurses. She says that it tin actually help if nurses are a fleck snobby. If they know how to give clear, business firm directions to those they work with, their patients will exist more likely to follow their course of care.

8. Expert nurses take positive attitudes

Nurses are typically the healthcare professionals that patients spend the most time with. For this reason, Lorna Johnson, nurse and founder of the Advanced Family Intendance Medical Group, maintains that mental attitude is everything when it comes to nursing.

"The nursing profession is a very rewarding one, though ofttimes very challenging—primarily because nurses are on the frontline of care and tin set the tone and mood for healing with their optimism, compassion and disquisitional thinking skills," she iterates.

"Past far and away, the near important aspect of any given week is providing the best intendance possible for your patients," Ross says. If that means getting gear up a lilliputian earlier so you take time for the routines that relax you—making java, doing yoga, going for a walk—practise it, Ross urges. "E'er come to your shift with your best mental attitude possible because it definitely translates into your work."

9. The best nurses are lifelong learners

Nurses handle so many different things. While different levels of nursing programs provide the fundamental cognition and skills y'all demand to begin your nursing career, great nurses never terminate learning.

"Nurses are frequently educational activity," Keeney points out. "Whether it is at the bedside teaching the patient how to intendance for a condition or in clinics, teaching preventive health care, health maintenance and proper nutrition—nurses will have standing education courses to update themselves on the latest pharmaceuticals and engineering science."

Do you have the characteristics of a nifty nurse?

"Nurses are their own breed," Crawley says. "The nursing profession is an amazing and challenging career path that requires y'all to be all in. It'southward a field where y'all return domicile and feel you take been an ardent advocate for humanity."

If y'all tin can come across yourself in some of the personality traits and skills that help make a great nurse, you lot may be thinking this is the right career path for you. One affair is for sure—the earth of healthcare needs amazing nurses. Fifty-fifty at a time when many careers are experiencing insecurity, projected need for RNs is strong, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.ⁱ

The path to becoming a nurse might seem a little daunting, simply don't let the unknown hold you lot back from exploring this crucial career. Our article "How to Get a Nurse: A Beginner'southward Guide" will assistance by laying out your potential next steps into nursing.

¹ Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, [accessed January, 2021] www.bls.gov/ooh/ . Information represents national, averaged data for the occupations listed and includes workers at all levels of didactics and experience. This data does not stand for starting salaries. Employment conditions in your surface area may vary.

EDITOR'Southward NOTE: This article was originally published in 2017. Information technology has since been updated to include data relevant to 2021.

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Source: https://www.rasmussen.edu/degrees/nursing/blog/what-makes-a-good-nurse/

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