Mastering Essential Professional Nursing Skills for Optimal Patient Care

Being a nurse is a very important and honorable job that encompasses a variety of positions, requiring an emphasis on patient care and safety. Since taking care of patients is the main focus for nurses, there are many skills that can contribute to their professional success.

Nurses will likely have to educate their patients and administer care as and when required. Often, the patient or patient’s family/friends see their assigned nurse as a source of emotional support and guidance. As such, nurses need to maintain a level of professionalism and act as a compassionate patient advocate.

Skills like empathy, effective communication, and patient assessment can help nurses provide the best patient experience. Let’s now have a more detailed look at these skills and some others that can help a nurse provide optimal patient care:

1. Basic Patient Assessment

Nurses need to have a general assessment of any patient they deal with. This can include taking vital signs such as temperature, heart rate, and blood pressure. In addition, nurses should also be familiar with basic physical examination techniques to assess a patient’s condition, such as checking the abdomen and lungs.

Furthermore, they must also include the following steps in their assessment process:

• Understanding the patient’s medical history
• Gathering information on lifestyle and diet habits
• Assessing any prior treatments and medications
• Checking for any allergies or sensitivities
• Listening for indicators such as difficulty in breathing, wheezing, etc.

Aspiring professionals can take courses or attend workshops to understand the basics of patient assessment. For instance, acute care nurse practitioner programs online can help nurses gain the additional credentials and skills to become more competent in patient assessment. Nurses need to have a firm grasp on this skill to deliver the best care possible

2. Effective, Clear Communication

Communication is a must-have skill for nurses. After all, nurses must liaise between doctors, patients, and families to ensure the best care is provided. The role may include but is not limited to:

• Explaining treatment plans to patients, their family members
• If the patient or anyone related to them has any questions, provide answers and reassurance.
• Convey information and precautions to patients or other individuals who may not have a lot of medical know-how
• Delivering unwanted or unpleasant news, such as the death of a loved one, a failed treatment, or a shocking diagnosis
• Communicating the patient’s pain points and other concerns to their attending doctor
• Communication patient needs and updates to a colleague in the handing-off period after a shift

3. Critical Thinking that Can Save Lives

When one is dealing with patients, it’s important to remember that their health status might change in a second. In case of a heart rate drop, blood pressure shooting, or any other sudden change, nurses must think and act quickly. Here are some of how critical thinking can be essential for a nurse:

• Determining possible factors that might cause complications in a patient
• Making decisions about how to continue with patient care in challenging situations
• Assessing unexpected or new developments, both in diagnosing and caring for patients
• Quickly interpreting test results and making changes to the daily care routine accordingly

4. Empathy and Compassion

Both nurses and doctors have highly stressful jobs. Medical professionals often feel anxious and stressed due to losing patients, witnessing the deterioration of once-healthy patients, and dealing with their family members. However, one may argue that nurses must deal with that stress even more. After all, they’re in close proximity to the patients and their loved ones.

Here are some situations in which a nurse might need to practice empathy:

• Handling patients and their loved ones when they are overwhelmed with grief, anxiety, and many other feelings; they might vent to the nurse or even blame the medical staff
• Communicating in a gracious, polite manner
• Ensuring that the patients are as secure and comfortable as possible, regardless of their situation
• Building up a rapport with the patients (this will also win their trust and make them more willing to follow the correct course of treatment)

5. Physical Endurance for a Grueling Job

Whether they work in a hospital or private setting, nurses usually have to deal with very long shifts. These shifts will also probably require them to be on their feet, both mentally and physically. As a result, physical endurance is all-important for anyone who wants to pursue nursing as a profession. Here are some more reasons to have optimal physical endurance as a nurse:

• Helps in staying on your feet for several hours in one go
• Fulfilling demanding physical tasks like moving heavy equipment or patients
• This leads to fewer chances of injuries, fatigue, exhaustion, and other risks
• It helps the nurse provide the best possible patient care without worrying about their own physical well-being.

6. The Basics of Urgent Care

Every nursing role needs to have someone who is capable of providing initial basic urgent care. Patients may come to nurses with life-threatening diseases and issues like extreme bleeding, an airway obstruction, a heart attack, or a stroke. Keeping this in mind, nurses should be proficient in certain medical care skills. These may include the following:

• Wound cleaning and care
• CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation)
• Triaging patients, assessing their condition to determine the required treatment and directing them to the relevant department or specialist.
• Treatment of minor injuries and ailments such as cuts, bruises, fractures, sprains, etc.

Conclusion

The essential skills above may not all be part of a nursing school curriculum. However, dedicated nurses will probably learn and hone these skills during their careers. There may also be some nursing education programs that one can take to improve their skills as a nurse. With both soft and technical skills, nurses can best fulfill their potential no matter where they work. And in the end, they can be sure that their hard work and commitment have helped save lives.