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In my day job, I’m a Nurse. I had an experience recently that made me ask the question: What makes a Good Nurse?

I started with a mind map of my ideas (click on the Image for Full Size Image):

Mind Map: What Makes A Good Nurse? (Click for Full Size Image)

Despite the size of the mind map, there were loads of other qualities, talents and skills that I simply couldn’t fit on the mind map. These include:

• A Sense of Humour
• Patience
• A Holistic Approach to care.
• An understanding of and interest in Biology (Anatomy & Physiology), Sociology & Psychology.
• Basic Life Support – Skills in Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR).
• An understanding of public health and health promotion.
• An understanding of key issues: addiction, smoking cessation, mental health and obesity.
• Knowledge of both hospital and community services including: what services offer, how they operate and how patient’s can access them.
• Works Well in a Team.
• Has Leadership Skills.
• Aware of legislation relevant to patient care, safeguarding and other legislation related to their field of practice.
• Has three goals: to prevent patients from getting sick/unwell, to make sick patients well again, and to keep patients as well & healthy as possible.

A Good Nurse needs to have so many qualities, talents and skills. No one person will have everyone of the qualities, talents and skills listed here. But I’ve worked with some fabulous Nurses that have come pretty close.

Nurses work in teams, which is where skill mix comes into play. Having a team of Nurses with a good mix of qualities, talents and skills means excellent patient care. This is because most, if not all of these qualities, talents and skills are met by the Nursing team as a whole.

Is there a quality, talent or skill you think a Good Nurse needs to have that isn’t on the mind map or list above? If so, please leave a comment below.

Write soon,

Antony

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