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Friday, March 29, 2024

Become A Good Nurse with These Tips

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Nursing is the largest profession in the healthcare industry and is continuously growing.

According to the US Bureau of labor statistics, nursing employment will see a global growth of 9% between 2020 to 2030. This growth highlights that with increased demand, the expectation from nurses to remain exceptionally good at their jobs will also significantly increase.

A good nurse must not only be technically proficient but must also possess soft skills. They should handle various responsibilities while being empathetic and giving high-quality care to their patients.

Hospitals and healthcare systems must identify and hone the skills of nurses so that they can progress in their careers and become nurse leaders.

If you are a nurse or want to pursue a career in nursing, read the tips below to develop or hone these in-demand skills, so you can thrive in the continuously evolving healthcare industry.

So, without any further delay, let us get straight to the topic.

1. Continue Learning

A nurse must continuously learn and develop new skills. When choosing nursing as a profession, you commit to lifelong learning. 

The healthcare industry is continuously changing, so it is necessary to keep up to date with the changing trends, innovations, and developments. 

You can continue learning by taking certificate courses that are complementary to your nursing skills, subscribing to nursing journals, volunteering at the job to learn different skills, attending seminars and workshops, or earning a degree like a BSN (Bachelor of Nursing Science). 

BSN will help you learn new skills, but if you already have a BSN, you can pursue an MSN (Master of Nursing Science). If you do not know what you can achieve by doing an MSN, try looking up “what to do with a MSN,” and you will get your answer.

With an MSN, you will be able to become an all-around nurse, specialize your skills further, and assume a leadership position. 

Continuously pursuing education increases your professional development and makes you a better nurse.

2. Get a mentor

Having a mentor is essential for learning and growing as a nurse. It helps in preparing for challenges in the workplace. 

Mentors can help deal with the pressure and intensity of the job and help you develop a good network with other nurses and professionals.  

If your organization does not offer a mentorship program, get a mentor. 

In addition, you can get mentorship from your senior nurse whose work ethic inspires you at the workplace and continuously seek their advice, guidance, and support to improve yourself and develop the same qualities.

3. Be team oriented

Effective nursing requires balancing leadership responsibilities and being collaborative with your medical team.

Nurses with different skills must collaborate to produce quality patient care and improved outcomes.

Being a team player increases patient safety, improves regulatory compliance, and reduces healthcare costs.

To enhance collaboration amongst teams, learn to communicate, be transparent, know your responsibility in the team, be adaptable and ask for follow-up. Learning to collaborate will improve your skills as a nurse.

4. Be empathetic

Empathy is a soft skill that a nurse must possess. Empathy means understanding another person’s pain and trying to resolve it.

It helps nurses provide patient-centric treatment and allows them to build connections with the patients and their families and understand their worries and difficulties rather than following procedural guidelines.

Empathy helps in providing a better experience for patients.

5. Communicate Effectively

Nurses must possess strong communication skills.

If the nurses lack communication skills and cannot convey the message correctly, errors will most likely occur.

Patients might get the wrong information or feel neglected, which may impact their overall health.

Nurses must practice communication skills to provide patients with good care as well as to achieve their own long-term career goals.

6. Think Critically

Nurses must be able to think critically in highly stressful situations and come up with quick solutions to provide safe and skillful medical interventions.

The ability to apply all the knowledge about the clinical guidelines and best practices learned during education and training depends upon a nurse’s critical thinking. This skill can be learned and improved with practice, but some nurses are naturally able to think critically.

7. Give Attention to detail

A nurse must be able to pay attention to little details of all the projects and tasks, even under stressful situations.

Nurses must be able to identify little changes in patients’ conditions to help them in an emergency and reduce the chances of error.

Since nurses monitor the dose of the medicine and record patients’ vital signs, they need to be detail-oriented.

8. Learn Time Management

Nurses must manage patients with multiple illnesses while fulfilling different responsibilities under stressful situations during long 12-hour shifts.

Therefore, nurses must possess good time management skills to provide quality patient care while completing duties timely and producing positive outcomes.

Time Management can be learned. A few steps, like planning your day based on prioritizing patient care and communicating with team members about the patient’s treatment and starting on time, also help improve time management skills.

Arranging your workstation and focusing on one task simultaneously helps with time management.

Conclusion

To be a good nurse, the thirst for continuous learning, developing skills, and gaining experience are necessary.

Alongside technical knowledge, a nurse must possess personality traits and soft skills. Good nurses use their knowledge to treat their patients and look after them with compassion and empathy.

If you think you lack some of the traits and skills stated above, you have the power to make a change and can learn these skills by working hard.

Identify the skills you are lacking and establish goals for yourself you want to achieve personally and professionally.

After identifying your weaknesses, make a plan and commit to improving yourself.

Surround yourself with mentors with the skills you want to develop and ask them for guidance and support.

Remember, any skill is attainable; if you work hard, you can become the nurse you aspire to be.

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