Nurses need several different skills to excel in their profession and to provide quality, compassionate care for their patients. In addition to learning science, math, and other nursing-related topics, nurses must have soft skills.
What are soft skills? Soft skills, also known as interpersonal skills, are traits that are transferable across your education and career. They can benefit you in the workplace because they are essential to working with others and solving problems. Soft skills are different than hard (or technical) skills, which are measurable abilities relating to a job or task. They are valuable skills and will help you have a successful nursing career.
The University of Colorado College of Nursing at Anschutz Medical Campus identified essential soft skills that nurses should have to succeed.
🗨️ Communication
Having excellent communication skills is critical for nurses. You will be communicating with patients and their families, as well as other nurses, doctors, and healthcare professionals. You need to communicate clearly and effectively. A lot of times, you’ll be giving important information or asking critical questions to people with no healthcare knowledge (like patients and/or their families), so you’ll have to explain things in an approachable, understandable way. Clear communication is critical to reduce miscommunications and errors, allowing patients to make informed decisions about their care.
❤️ Compassion
Nurses should be compassionate when speaking with patients and their families. Compassion shows a patient you’re there to ease their pain and suffering while offering nursing care. Nurses should also be empathetic, which is similar to compassion. Empathy is when you relate to what a patient is experiencing. Both qualities help you build trust with patients so you can give them quality care.
❓Critical thinking
As a nurse, there will be times you’re working in high-pressure situations – either by yourself or with a group – and you’ll have to make important decisions relating to a patient’s care. Having a foundation of nursing knowledge is important so you can make informed decisions in critical situations.
✔️ Dependability and flexibility
Nurses need to be dependable. Your patients depend on you for care, and your co-workers rely on you to help and to show up on time and consistently for your shifts. While being dependable is important, so is being flexible. You might get called in to work an extra shift or you might need to help in a different area of a hospital or clinic.
👬 Teamwork
Teamwork is important in a healthcare setting. Think about being a nursing student. You worked on team projects, studying, and homework to complete CU Nursing’s programs. You made sure no one was left behind and came up with solutions together. The same concepts apply to a hospital setting. You’re working with other nurses and healthcare professionals to treat patients. Working as a team leads to better patient outcomes because everyone is involved. Being a team player inspires your fellow nurses to work with you and vice versa.
🔎 Attention to detail
Details are important in nursing. You’re giving patients medications, taking (or monitoring) their vital signs, and doing other things that impact their care. Something could happen to a patient if you miss certain details or signs. While human error and mistakes do happen, you don’t want it to become the norm.
📖 Willingness to learn
Healthcare is constantly changing, so you need to be willing to expand your nursing skills. You can continue your education formally or informally through opportunities where you work or by joining a mentorship program or professional nursing association. You can also return to school and enroll in programs to earn a master’s, DNP, PhD, or post-graduate certificate (all offered at CU Nursing!), or enroll in continuing education programs.
