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DiversityNursing Blog

Top 10 Attributes of a Great Nurse

Posted by Sarah West APRN, FNP-BC

Fri, Mar 08, 2024 @ 12:49 PM

It takes a special person with specific attributes to be a great Nurse. Great Nurses bring their best qualities into the profession to enhance the healthcare team and promote positive patient outcomes. Here are 10 attributes needed to be a great Nurse!

High-Quality Communication Skills: A great Nurse must be proficient in effective communication. Nurses are often the liaison between doctors, patients, and families, so they must be able to convey information clearly to avoid errors or miscommunications. Good communication not only helps to build trust among coworkers and patients but ensures that shared information is understood.

Compassion and Empathy: Nurses carry a heavy mental and emotional load. We are constantly exposed to high-stress, emotional situations that require us to portray compassion and empathy to comfort our patients. Great Nurses understand the emotional needs of patients and their families and strive to foster a supportive and healing environment.

Critical Thinking: Critical thinking skills are critical to a remarkable Nurse. The ability to think clearly under pressure, assess the situation, and make quick decisions to solve problems is essential. Critical thinking is crucial to provide safe and effective patient care. Critical thinking is a learned skill, not usually learned overnight, but practiced and developed over time. 

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Attention to Detail: When it comes to providing Nursing care to our patients, attention to detail is a crucial skill that all Nurses must master. In the busy and hectic environment of Nursing, you must remain focused on details to ensure that care is being provided safely. When small details go overlooked, medication, communication, and documentation errors can occur.

Flexibility: The healthcare setting is dynamic, and situations can change rapidly without much warning or indication. A great Nurse needs to be flexible, adapt to new situations, and cope with unexpected challenges. Flexibility allows Nurses to respond effectively to changes and continue to ensure that patient care is delivered timely and safely.

Professionalism: Professionalism in Nursing means maintaining ethical standards, respecting patient confidentiality, and interacting respectfully with colleagues, patients, and their families. Nurses who demonstrate professionalism also share an ongoing commitment to learning and development. The Nursing profession is highly regarded, and this is in large part due to the professionalism of its members.

Excellent Time Management Skills: Nursing is a fast-paced profession with multiple responsibilities. A great Nurse manages their time efficiently to ensure all tasks are completed in a timely and correct manner. Excellent time management skills help Nurses prioritize their tasks while ensuring that patient care remains a top priority.

Cultural Competence: Cultural competence in Nursing is essential for providing holistic, patient-centered care that respects the diverse values and needs of individuals of different cultural backgrounds. Cultural competence contributes to improved communication and patient satisfaction and ultimately enhances the quality of healthcare delivery to our patients.

Advocacy: Advocacy is an integral aspect of the Nursing profession. Advocacy Nurses speak up for patient rights, their wellbeing, and contribute to positive changes in the healthcare system. Advocacy is a dynamic and essential component of providing compassionate and patient-centered care.

Teamwork: Teamwork and collaboration with other healthcare team members are integral to providing comprehensive patient care. Nurses should always strive to be influential team members by communicating well with colleagues and contributing to a collaborative healthcare environment. When Nurses work as a team, workplace morale improves, and patients thrive.

Bonus Attribute - A Sense of Humor!: A sense of humor is a valuable asset to a great Nurse. The Nursing profession can be stressful, and it’s easy to become overwhelmed and burnt out with the high mental demands and stress.

A sense of humor enhances your ability to cope with challenges and positively influence the quality of patient care. Although a sense of humor has many positives, it is also important that Nurses be mindful of the context of their humor to remain respectful and sensitive to colleagues, patients, and families.

Becoming a great Nurse takes time, experience, and commitment to both personal and professional growth. At the end of the day, what makes a great Nurse is someone who truly wants the best outcomes for patients and strives to make that happen.

Topics: nursing career, nursing traits, nursing skills, nurse traits, nurse characteristics, nursing practice, nursing field

Traits Every Great Nurse Has

Posted by Erica Bettencourt

Fri, Mar 23, 2018 @ 09:19 AM

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What makes a good Nurse? What are the qualities of terrific Nurses? The Nursing profession is about kindness and caring for the whole person as well as medical, emotional and technical knowledge, and so much more. Below are a few traits that make Nurses so great!
 

Good Communication

Communication is essential to patient safety, health and well-being. As you are at the center of patient care, it is your responsibility to facilitate dialog. As you care for older and more culturally diverse populations, you will need to strengthen your communication skills. Without strong communication skills, serious errors can occur.
 

Emotional stability

As you know, Nursing is a stressful job where traumatic situations are common. The ability to accept suffering and death without letting it get personal is crucial. Some days can seem like non-stop gloom and doom. There are heartwarming moments like helping a patient recover, reuniting families, or bonding with fellow Nurses. But those moments are less common than the tougher situations. So remember to take care of YOU too so you can handle the inevitable crises.
 

Empathy

Empathy is a complex emotion and can be a complex concept while working with many patients who have different kinds of needs. Responding with empathy requires the ability to put yourself in your patient’s shoes, see situations from their perspective and demonstrate that you understand their feelings and are reading them accurately. Most importantly, it requires you to act on that understanding in appropriate and therapeutic ways.
 

Attention to detail

Paying attention to minute details is important in the Nursing profession, especially when you have a lot on your plate. You must document everything you do on patients’ charts, listen closely to their description of symptoms, ask the right questions, and remember to bring medications at appropriate times. It’s critical to remember even the smallest detail amidst all of the commotion. At the end of the day, one small slip-up could become a fatal mistake.
 

Physical Endurance

You encounter many patients with lifestyle-related disorders. With this in mind, a basic understanding of the role physical fitness plays in prevention and rehabilitation is key. You can be a positive influence on patients who have to make life­style choices if they see you’ve made good choices. If you stay fit, you not only feel good, you’re a great role model for your patients.
 
Physical fitness improves your ability to effectively perform the physical tasks you do every day. One study of 146 Registered Nurses, over a 12-hour shift, found they covered an average of 4 to 5 miles per shift. I’m sure you’re not surprised by this information!
 

Desire to continue learning

Medical knowledge and technology are advancing rapidly. As a great Nurse, you know the importance of working on your professional development and skills, and learning new things.
 

SENSE OF HUMOR

This is imperative! A joke and a few laughs can take the edge off of a tough day and…it feels good. Need we say more?
 
It takes many great qualities to be a good and effective Nurse. What are traits you would add to this list? Please comment below!

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Topics: nursing traits, nurse qualities, qualities of a nurse

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