Good Essay On Skills Necessary To Be A Professional Nurse

The dynamics in the health sector has put a nurse as a vocal point of a patient’s health. As such, nurses are no longer identified by their academic credentials (although they are necessary) but how they are relating to patients. Moreover, the role of a nurse is shifting from the old traditions of receiving instructions from the other health practitioners such as doctors or working on a planned schedule. To more of an equal partner where they work with other health practitioners treating the patient exchanging ideas and information. Therefore, this call for interpersonal, decision-making and leadership skills which will help a nurse cope with the other colleagues and patients in general. Furthermore, patients nowadays are informed of health issues and diseases due to wide information on the internet. Hence, all a patient seeks from a nurse is a detailed advice from a nurse before they accept treatment or take the prescribed drugs. As such, nurse should be social, enterprising and conventional in order to succeed in nursing as elaborated below.
The treatment and care of the patient do not end at the health facility when the patient is discharged. Hence, a nurse is required to give post treatment education to patients to prevent readmission of a patient. Therefore, a nurse is required to develop competent social skills so that to be in a position to talk to a patient freely. This will help the nurse in advising and educating them on what to do to make sure they heal faster after leaving the health facility. Thus, being social is part of nursing since a patient especially children see a nurse as teacher who is there to teach them how to be healthy. Hence, a nurse should be friendly and identify with patient's needs.
Similarly, a nurse is seen by patients and other staffs especially junior staffs (cleaners, cooks) as a leader who should be in a position to give instructions and guidelines on what should be done. Therefore, this calls for a nurse to show her/his leadership skills on a daily basis. For example, When a patient’s relatives overstay their visiting hours, a nurse should be able to convince the relatives that although they are doing a wonderful thing by visiting the patient. They need to leave so that the patient can rest and get his/her medication. Additionally, when the patient room is unclean, the nurse should be in a position to tell the cleaner to clean and educate him/her the importance of keeping patient's room clean to prevent infections. Additionally, if a nurse has a proposal on how the service delivery at the hospital could be enhance. He/she should present the ideas in a convincing manner so that other colleagues and superior can see the need to change and adapt the ideas.
It is essential that a nurse to maintain the ethics, standards and the guidelines set by the management of the health facility where he/she is working. Moreover, the nurse should meet the targets set by her superiors in the work schedules. Therefore, if a nurse is required to attend to 20 patients per shift, a nurse should make sure she/he attends to these patients before her shift concludes. Additionally if the hospital has set standards on the language, dressing and cleanness, a nurse should be in the position to meet these standards, even more to be a good example to others.