The Skills You Need to Be a Good Nurse

The healthcare system in any country cannot do without nurses. Registered nurses manage patients’ daily schedules, serve as mediators between physicians and a patient’s family and provide information regarding a patient’s condition to the patient’s family. The central role they play makes them indispensable.

It is therefore not surprising that nursing practitioner salary Australia stands at an average of $106,120AUD. Nurses work in nursing centers, medical centers, outpatient clinics and hospitals. After acquiring basic education, registered nurses are required to have certain skills and qualities that set them apart for success in the healthcare industry. These include:

Stress Management

Few careers are as stressful as nursing. A nurse finds himself in continuous physical and mental stress and trauma. Almost always, the workload stays hectic and heavy. Couple that with the fact that they have to deal with and empathize with the emotions of their patients that could range from agony to pain to frustration and anger. A good nurse is supposed to remain calm even when everything around them pushes them to scream at the top of their voice. Therefore, having an ability to manage stress is a quality no nurse can do without.

Organizational Skills

Given the often hectic schedule that nurses have to keep up with, a nurse without organizational skills would not survive busy hospital environments. Without organizational skills, a nurse would be overwhelmed by calls for help coming from every side. And the few who would survive would find themselves underperforming as a result of neglecting certain patients. Learning to shoulder all his responsibilities forces him to find ways to better manage his schedule, ultimately helping him develop his organizational skills.

Kindness and Compassion

Show me a good nurse and I will show you a kind and compassionate human being. Great nurses, kindness and compassion are intrinsically intertwined. An RN should be sympathetic, considerate and non-judgmental. They should be able to offer patients mental and emotional support.

Observant and Alert

Registered nurses are required to be vigilant and attentive. As traumatic events and emergencies unfold, they are expected to stay calm, cautious and alert regardless of how stressful the situation at hand gets. This is especially necessary when the doctor is absent. Failure to stay observant and alert can result in the failure to take the necessary action to help better the health of the patients, ultimately putting the health of the patient at risk.

Exceptional Communication Skills

On a daily basis, nurses are always in conversation with patients, their families and physicians. A nurse who does not know how to communicate can frustrate everyone involved, including themselves. Additionally, proper care is an impossibility if the nurse has poor communication skills. Excellent communicators are also excellent listeners; a great nurse knows how to listen to her patients and knows how to talk to them in a calming voice that comforts them.

If you find yourself without any of the five skills and qualities listed here, don’t panic; you can develop these qualities over time. With enough investment of time and effort towards becoming a better nurse, you can learn to communicate better, be more observant, be compassionate, manage stress better and organize your schedule in a way that guarantees results.