Nursing is one of the most fulfilling professions in the medical industry. Among other things, it leads to flexible employment options, high growth potential, and lucrative salaries. Despite the high rewards, the profession can sometimes be demanding. So if you want to be a successful nurse, you must cultivate the following characteristics:
- Emotional Stability
Working as a nurse is psychologically taxing. Depending on the situation, you can experience happiness, despair, and anger in a single day. As a nurse, you must keep your cool in stressful situations to properly handle the concerns of your coworkers, patients, and their families.
Does this imply that nurses should not worry about challenging and catastrophic working conditions? The answer is an emphatic ‘No.’ To provide patient care and emotional support, nurses must regulate their emotions and focus on their duties. Why? Because lack of feeling or empathy is not the same as emotional stability.
The good news is that emotional stability can be fostered, but it’s a process that takes time, so nurses must be patient with both their patients and themselves. Balancing viewpoints and reframing expectations are two of the most efficient strategies to help diffuse extreme emotions.
- Willingness To Constantly Learn
The healthcare industry is dynamic, and nurse practitioner education programs are great for learning new skills in the industry. If becoming a nurse educator to advance your career sounds like something you’d like to explore, visit here. That said, most nursing graduates will still need practice and ongoing education to be fully competent, especially in specialized areas, including emergency medicine, critical care, and infusion therapy.
That is why many organizations provide extensive, supervised training for new nurses, either directly from seasoned professionals or via preceptorships and mentorship programs.
Nurses should always be honest about their skill levels and never attempt to perform things outside their scope of practice without assistance or extra education. The dedication to lifelong learning is necessary for a nurse to be the type of caregiver that people would want to entrust with their sick or injured loved ones.
To maintain their nursing licenses, nurses in most states must participate in continuing education courses. So you must remember that completing vocational training and earning a degree is a big step, but it is only the beginning.
- Empathy
Patients in healthcare settings frequently face problems on both the physical and psychological levels. In many cases, nurses provide comfort that allows patients to tolerate unpleasant medical procedures better.
A patient-centered approach can enhance results, whether a patient is dealing with a life-threatening illness like the coronavirus or is simply receiving routine diagnostic care. Empathy is hands down one of the central tenets of that approach.
Empathy is the ability to perceive, grasp, and share patients’ perspectives without passing judgment. It demands nurses to put themselves in the position of their patients, maintain a strong connection with them, and act on the understanding they have gained to improve patient care.
Patients who receive empathetic care avoid anxiety and experience less animosity. Patients feel more comfortable opening up to nurses who demonstrate empathy. According to a well-documented report, patients struggling with conditions ranging from diabetes to cancer have shown improved results when receiving nursing care emphasizing compassion.
- Time Management
Effective time management in nursing aids nurses in keeping track of several obligations. There is no denying that nurses have a lot on their plate. However, those who learn to work smarter rather than harder can find work-life harmony despite their hectic schedules. If you want to amp up your time management skills, the following tips shall help:
- Arrive early: A rushed morning may have a domino effect that throws the rest of your day off track. To have a well-organized day, try starting it off somewhat earlier. If you go to work early, you may relax with a cup of tea or coffee and read over all the reports before things become hectic.
- Prioritize your tasks: Sample collection, medicine administration, documentation, and post- or pre-operative care are just a few of the many tasks that make up a nurse’s typical shift. Making a list of things to do and prioritizing them might help you get things done more efficiently. This will enable you to differentiate between tasks that can wait and those that might have catastrophic results if not completed immediately.
- Take short breaks: When beginning their careers, many nurses are taken aback by the reality that no two days in the nursing profession are ever the same. One simple phone call may transform an otherwise mundane day into a frenzy of grueling tasks.
Therefore, if you have some spare time, it would be a good idea to get a bite to eat while you update your patients’ medical records. There is no guarantee that you will be able to rest later on.
- Communication Skills
Effective communication plays a vital role in the nursing profession. So much so that sometimes efficient communication is the only way to resolve a specific medical problem successfully. Be it communicating with coworkers or patients, you must articulate yourself confidently and clearly.
One of the best ways to ensure robust communication is to practice active listening. Direct your attention toward the speaker and remove any other potential sources of distraction from the surrounding area.
You may verify that you accurately understand what the speaker is saying by asking questions to clarify their points and summarizing the dialogue after each issue they make during the conversation.
But think about the patient’s cultural background before making eye contact, as this might be perceived as rude in some societies.
Conclusion
While physicians make diagnoses and decide on a course of treatment, nurses spend the most time with patients, explaining procedures, assisting with symptom management, responding to emergencies, and calming anxious patients.
In addition to saving lives, nurses are tasked with improving and maintaining a patient’s quality of life. Considering the scale of all these enormous responsibilities, nurses must embrace the above-listed attributes to succeed in their careers.