Characteristics of a Skillful Nurse
When you picture a nurse you like to think of someone that is compassionate and caring and listens to you without complaint – these are qualities that are essential for a nurse but there are many more if you want to be well perceived by your patients. A nurse is someone that takes care of you when you are ill and usually at your worst and in spite of that offers you services that are badly needed.
A nurse should be strong emotionally to handle the onslaught of feelings that will be thrown their way as patients generally are at low points in their lives and therefore not at their best. They need someone who is understanding and will not judge them and someone who will listen and be an effective mentor for the family members. At times they will be a person to go to for information and will be expected to have the answers or if not – to point them in the direction to get the information they need.
Nurses should be well organized and be able to responsibly handle multiple medications and machinery so their good math skills will come in handy as they are constantly needing to know metric as well as standard measurements to ensure that proper dosage of medications are used so as not dispense the wrong amount that in some cases could be fatal. A nurse needs to be a good communicator – with the patient, with the doctor and her coworkers and respond effectively to a doctor’s orders.
Nurses also need to be observant and be able to recognize when something is wrong. They need to ask the right questions of a patient to determine if there is a problem – sometimes that is easy and sometimes that is hard. They also need to be able to physically keep up with the duties of the job as there is a lot of lifting, walking and assistance rendered to patients.
Also see our post on What makes a Good Nurse More discussion on #1 Trait of a Good Nurse
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