Every patient knows when they’re interacting with a great nurse. Skilled nurses are worth their weight in gold, and every institution would swear by this. A nurse with several years of experience is often extremely competent and a great asset.
According to the World Health Organization, there are around 29 million nurses around the world. However, projections indicate that by 2030, we’ll be looking at a shortage of 4.5 million nurses. Nurses, particularly good ones, will soon be in great demand.
At the same time, healthcare isn’t a static field. Each advancement or breakthrough is another aspect that every healthcare worker, including nurses, needs to keep abreast of. While this is a responsibility that all nurses have, why is it that some manage to make a name for themselves? That’s exactly what we’ll find out in this article.
They Invest in Constant Upskilling
Great nurses are always finding new ways to add to their skill set. According to data from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, there has been noticeable growth in advanced nursing education. For instance, entry-level baccalaureate programs had grown by 8.5%, and doctor of nursing practice enrollments were up 18.5%.
One of the latest trends is evidence-based practice nursing. Traditional nursing often determines interventions based on the hospital, what other nurses are familiar with, and the resources available. Say you’re doing a post-op shift and notice a patient has been scheduled for pain medication at fixed intervals.
The patient is complaining about nausea and dizziness after each dose. Evidence-based nursing would recall that the latest guidelines suggest alternative dosing or non-opioid adjuncts. You raise the idea with the physician, and this questioning of routine just might make the patient more comfortable.
As Keypath Education notes, evidence-based nursing allows nurses to recommend what objectively works and discard what doesn’t. Great nurses understand that these are skills worth investing in. At the same time, this doesn’t mean upskilling only exists in courses.
The best nurses keep their eyes open to learn from every moment. They treat each shift as an opportunity to find out how to be 5% better than yesterday. Naturally, this takes an immense amount of energy, especially on stressful days (which tend to be most of them).
They Recognize That Emotional Intelligence Is a Core Clinical Skill
Another key distinction between good and great nurses is their emotional intelligence. Nurses are at the front line and are the most patient-facing workers in a healthcare setting. It’s with nurses that patients have to share information and discuss their problems.
As such, being able to read emotions and pick up what the patient wants to convey with unspoken words is critical. Likewise, emotional intelligence is a skill that ends up helping nurses in terms of self-regulation. This should almost be a mandatory skill given the kind of situations they work in.
One systematic review showed that almost 70% of the nursing workforce will operate in unpredictable healthcare environments. In fact, only 10% of today’s working nurses are in roles that are projected to see growth. As such, good self-regulation is going to be essential in what might be high-stress environments.
A Healthy Dose of Clinical Judgment and Decisiveness
While key patient-related decisions are often handled by doctors, there are several decisions that nurses have to handle. In fact, these decisions rarely give you time to think or deliberate. They happen on a moment-to-moment basis and require a good amount of experience.
Even if the decisions between nurses are the same, the internal experience is way different. For a good nurse, the decision fatigue and responsibility feel heavy on the shoulders. However, great nurses have the ability to get into a sort of flow state, which is something that’s already been researched. They know what they’re doing, and the lack of mental burden allows them to direct their energy to the next pressing area.
Skills like clinical judgment and decisiveness are something you just have to learn on the job. If you’re just starting out in your nursing career, the best way to improve these skills is by being open and receptive. It’s very easy and convenient to stay in your comfort zone, but you’ll never grow that way.
All things considered, the only thing stopping a good nurse from becoming a great one is time and an eagerness to learn. If you’re just six months into your career and doing your best, then in your context, you’re a great nurse. Never feel like you need to compare yourself with the chief nursing officer who has been doing this for twenty years.