More and more people aspire to become a nurse. There are many reasons why this profession is getting a lot of attention too. For starters, the healthcare industry remains a fast-growing industry in the market, with multiple and very rewarding positions being made available. The profession is also very rewarding mentally, particularly for those who want to help people.
There are several ways to pursue a career in nursing too. You can decide to get a nursing degree or continue your education by earning a master’s degree in this field. You also have the option to take an online accelerated BSN program and earn a degree from Baylor University Online or other reputable names in as little as 12 weeks.
Regardless of how you want to pursue a career in nursing, you will have to complete a nursing program and earn a Bachelor of Nursing or an equivalent degree. While working towards completing the course, there are a number of skills that will make you an exceptional nurse.
Confidence
Nurses are trained to be confident in any circumstance. You cannot provide care for others without confidence. That heightened level of confidence is also something that will help you cultivate trust and stronger relationships with your patients.
Don’t forget that confidence is also tied to decision-making. To be able to make quick and calculated decisions, confidence is essential. Mastery of the field, a good understanding of patients, and the ability to think in a structured way are all essential to mastering confidence.
If you think confidence is not a skill, think again. While there is no specific course on confidence within the BSN program, the courses you take will help you become more confident as a healthcare provider. This will also boost your confidence on a personal level.
Critical Thinking
As a nurse, you are required to be very analytical. You must approach every situation with a critical mind. Simply accepting the information provided to you is not enough. You also have to analyze the information you have and provide insights to fellow healthcare workers.
It is a nurse’s job to provide physicians and practitioners with additional information. This is where critical thinking and the skills that help you think critically become essential. Not only do you need to observe well and absorb information quickly, but you also need to be able to question certain details.
As mentioned previously, critical thinking is closely related to your ability to make quick decisions in difficult situations. The better you are at capturing, processing, and analyzing information, the more confident you will be in your role as a nurse.
Leadership
Leadership is another crucial skill to have as a nurse, and it is a skill that you will master as part of your BSN program. Nurses do more than just follow orders. They are required to organize care for patients, which translates to leading other healthcare service providers.
Nurses work in teams and provide care in unity. In most healthcare institutions, nurses also work with physicians, examiners, lab personnel, and pharmacists. Among nurses, there are smaller teams designed to work together seamlessly.
Leadership is a great skill to have early on, because it will also make pursuing a higher career easy. When you show great leadership early in your nursing career, you will find paths towards managerial roles easier to explore.
Communication
There is no skill more important in the field of nursing than communication. In fact, 80% of your work is about communicating with others. Whether it is providing information to doctors or calming patients down during a procedure, good communication is key.
Communication is about more than conveying a message or information; it is more about listening and being able to understand others before providing suitable responses. It is a two-way street and it requires active participation of all parties involved.
A good nurse will often assume others’ points of view when communicating. When talking to family members, for instance, nurses may need to communicate certain information in a delicate way to avoid emotional harm, all while remaining clear enough.
Tech-Savviness
No nurse can survive today’s healthcare landscape without some degree of tech-savviness. Almost every part of a nurse’s job is now tied to technology. Rather than physical files, nurses now use medical tablets to access patients’ information.
The same is true for document management. Gone are the days of physical forms. Forms and paper documents are being replaced by digital kiosks and files in the cloud. Even medical records are now stored digitally.
Tech-savviness doesn’t just mean being able to use gadgets to perform work as a nurse either. It means knowing how to maintain sufficient information security standards and identifying potential data leaks. These basics are now part of online BSN programs too.
Time Management
A lot of people assume that life as a nurse is very taxing. In some ways, they are right. Nurses who are not able to manage their time often suffer from burnouts. This is due to the fact that nursing as a profession can be very demanding.
However, good time management eliminates this issue. When you know how to maximize the time you have in a shift, maintaining work-life balance is no longer a challenge. Many nurses are pursuing higher degrees online because they can now find more time for studying.
Time management is a skill that will also come in handy as you study to become a nurse. Juggling between classes and course assignments doesn’t need to be complicated. You simply must know how to prioritize your tasks and allocate time accordingly.
All these skills will prepare you for a bright career in nursing – and in healthcare as a whole – but they are not complete without one extra ingredient: perseverance. Nurses persevere in the most difficult situations. That extra patience and drive to deliver the best care possible is what keep nurses going. As long as you have the patience and drive, you can master the other skills you need to be successful as a nurse while completing your Bachelor of Science in Nursing program.
