The American healthcare industry has been experiencing a nursing staff shortage for years. This problem is expected to intensify in the years to come as the demand for healthcare services increases while the demand for trained nurses remains insufficient. Despite the high demand for nursing professionals, securing a job can be competitive. Employers want to recruit only highly qualified professionals who offer outstanding patient care.
As a nursing student, acquiring critical skills before graduating not only prepares you for the job market but is also key in ensuring your resume stands out. The right skills help enhance patient outcomes while improving healthcare efficiency and effectiveness. Discussed below are the essential skills every nursing student should develop before graduating.
Table of Contents
1. Critical thinking
Critical thinking is a combination of skills that empower individuals to make logical choices. When it comes to nursing, critical thinking skills enable nursing professionals to make decisions that result in optimal patient care. When pursuing accelerated BSN programs online or any other programs, nursing students can develop a solid basis for critical thinking skills.
The nursing school curriculum enables them to build these skills over time, mainly via hands-on experiential learning. Building critical thinking skills is vital for nursing students because it helps facilitate clinical decision-making, problem-solving, collaboration and communication. As a nursing student, the following steps can help you develop critical thinking skills:
– Nursing simulation labs: In a nursing simulation lab, you’ll apply nursing processes, which walk you through identifying problems, developing solutions, and evaluating patient response. This allows you to implement critical thinking skills, such as gathering information through observation
– Active study techniques: Rather than reviewing your notes and learning materials passively, apply active study strategies that help build critical thinking skills. For instance, as you read, you can relate your study materials to case studies, if available
– Clinical rotations: They allow you to employ your critical thinking skills in real-life clinical situations. When observing how other nurses deal with specific patient care situations, challenge yourself to find out why they made particular decisions
2. Effective communication
Nursing professionals play a vital part in patient care, and their ability to communicate can impact patient outcomes and overall delivery of health care. In addition, effective communication among nurses impacts teamwork and the quality of care delivered. Essential skills to practice during your nursing school clinicals to enhance your communication skills include:
– Active listening: It entails being engaged and not preoccupied when communicating with others. Active listening makes patients feel heard, seen, and appreciated, improving trust between you and your patients
– Verbal communication: You should be able to speak with accuracy, honesty, and clarity. Acquiring these skills before graduating helps ensure you can speak appropriately in line with a patient’s age, health literacy level, and culture
– Written communication: As a nurse, you’ll be in charge of generating and updating patients’ medical records
– Presentation skills: They come when handing over patient care to other nurses or healthcare providers
3. Problem-solving skills
Problem-solving skills are other skills you should acquire before graduating from nursing school to ensure a successful career. In nursing, problem-solving involves using decision-making and critical thinking skills to identify, evaluate, and address challenges or issues you come across in the healthcare setting. Problem-solving skills in nursing offer the following benefits:
– They mirror effective critical thinking skills and clinical judgment: nurses depend on these skills to correctly evaluate a patient’s state, prioritize interventions, and analyze the success of these interventions
– Enhanced patient outcomes: Solid problem-solving skills allow you to examine patients and step in when issues arise quickly. Timely responses improve the possibility of enhanced patient outcomes and the quality of care being given
Problem-solving skills also help in promoting preventive care measures while fostering opportunities for improvement.
4. Time management skills
Effective time management is a critical skill that helps nurses maintain a healthy work-life balance while offering quality patient care. Many nurses work long shifts, usually 10 to 12 hours. For nurses to provide optimal patient care while adequately supporting their teams, they should be able to prioritize and manage their time effectively.
As an aspiring nurse, the nursing school will prepare and help you join the workforce by teaching you time management skills and how you can efficiently operate in a real-world healthcare setting. As a nursing student dealing with a demanding course and tight deadlines, the following tips can help you build effective time management skills;
– Planning ahead
– Keeping a schedule
– Prioritizing your goals
– Avoiding distractions
– Knowing when to ask for help
5. Interprofessional collaboration
For nursing professionals to provide the best possible care, they must be able to collaborate and cooperate with other healthcare experts. This results in outstanding teamwork, which boosts employee morale while ensuring the best patient outcomes. In nursing, interprofessional collaboration happens when healthcare professionals from various occupations work together to achieve shared goals or address complex issues. Interprofessional collaboration skills can help you succeed in nursing by enabling you to effectively work with other healthcare experts as part of a team. This results in:
– Improved patient outcomes
– Better quality services via open communication, mutual respect, and shared decision-making
– Well-coordinated care
Nursing students can develop interprofessional skills by:
– Taking part in IPE (interprofessional education) workshops and courses
– Role-playing various healthcare roles
– Engaging in simulated clinical scenarios
– Rotating through various clinical environments to interact with other healthcare professionals
6. Teamwork
In today’s fast-paced healthcare system, collaboration and teamwork are key to offering premium-quality patient care. Working as part of a cohesive team with other healthcare professionals across different practice areas can positively influence job satisfaction, patient outcomes, and overall efficiency. Although nurses are responsible for caring for their patients, they sometimes need their colleagues because many tasks require team effort. As a nursing student, you can build your teamwork skills by:
– Practicing with peers during simulation and skills lab: Simulation and skills labs in nursing school are an ideal place for building a collaborative mindset in a safe, supportive environment
– Learning how nursing professionals collaborate during clinical rotations: Clinical rotations allow you to experience how nursing functions in the real world. During clinicals, you’ll witness how much nursing professionals work with one another, plus with the other care team members. This teamwork ensures patients are not only safe but also supported throughout recovery
– Building a study group: Starting a study group while in nursing school is an excellent way to practice collaboration with your peers. When looking for peers, ensure they share similar goals and study styles, facilitating collaboration
7. Attention to detail
Mishaps in nursing can have serious consequences, and taking care of several patients raises the possibility of human error. This can make nursing professionals miss changes in their patient’s condition if they don’t understand the significance of even the most minor details. Attention to detail is an invaluable skill in nursing because it ensures:
– Patient safety: Being detail-oriented allows nurses to carefully monitor patients’ vital signs, notice changes in appearance or behavior, and administer medications accurately, preventing mistakes that could harm a patient
– Timely intervention: Being detail-oriented enables nurses to spot possible complications early enough, facilitating prompt intervention, which averts serious health issues
– Documentation: Attention to detail is key to ensuring accurate, detailed documentation of patient data, facilitating continuity of care
As an aspiring nurse, you can become more develop your attention to detail skills by:
– Actively practicing careful documentation
– Carefully monitoring patients’ vital signs
– Double-checking medication estimations
– Asking clarifying queries to ascertain understanding
– Actively asking for feedback from clinical partners on your attention to detail
8. Stress management skills
Long hours, the emotional demands of taking patients, and high-pressure situations can take a toll on a nurse’s mental well-being. As a nurse, you can only provide quality care if you’re physically and mentally fit. When under stress, it is nearly impossible for nursing professionals to commit all their attention to a patient’s situation.
This is where stress management skills come in. Effective stress management skills not only enhance patient care but also reduce the risk of burnout and improve your decision-making abilities. Nursing students can build stress management skills before graduation by:
– Prioritizing self-care
– Practicing stress-reducing techniques like guided imagery, yoga, aromatherapy, massages, and more
– Honing their emotional intelligence
– Developing coping skills
9. Professionalism
Professionalism emphasizes integrity, responsibility, and accountability. When it comes to nursing, professionalism is the behavior that shows a dedication to offering quality care while adhering to stringent standards. Skills that symbolize professionalism in nursing include:
– Communication: Clear communication with other nurses plus the rest of the healthcare team concerning the care a patient is receiving and any concerns they might have helped protect against mishaps that can occur due to misunderstandings
– Attention to detail: Nursing professionals offering the best care quality take a personalized approach to their patients’ treatments. Their professionalism and close attention to the treatment every patient requires ensure medications are correctly administered at the right time
As a nursing student, you can achieve professionalism by:
– Engaging in networking: Networking is an invaluable tool for those seeking to strengthen their nursing professionalism. You can build relationships with your peers and other healthcare experts to help you learn from other nurses’ experiences while building vital professional connections
– Joining professional organizations: Most of these professional organizations provide programs that help nursing professionals at any career level with professional development
Endnote
Building the right skills when still in nursing school is key to a successful career. Familiarize yourself with the essential skills every nursing student should develop before graduating, including critical thinking, effective communication, problem-solving, time management, and more.
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