The Importance of Soft Skills in Nursing
Health care doesn’t stop at a patient’s chart. Quality care is as much about emotional experiences as physical procedures, and having a positive experience starts with personal connection.
Patients remember the great nurse who comforted their sick child, took extra time to explain complicated medical information, or helped them articulate their symptoms to a doctor. Other health care professionals remember the helpful colleague who always had a positive attitude, looked for solutions instead of problems, and kept them in the loop at work. The difference is “soft skills,” and understanding their importance in nursing can make a huge difference in patient care and in your career.
What Are Soft Skills?
What elevates a good nurse to a great nurse? It’s all about having the right skills. If you are a nurse, you probably learned many of them during your associate degree or bachelor’s degree program. There are the nursing clinical skills needed to pass the NCLEX-RN and start your first nursing job, and then there are the skills that only experience can teach. These are soft skills. Although they’re often difficult to quantify and measure, these nontechnical behaviors and interpersonal abilities are the key to smoothing interactions, building relationships, and cultivating a positive workplace. The following are examples of soft skills important for nurses:
- Confidence
- Communication
- Creativity
- Cultural competence
- Empathy
- Patience
In comparison, hard skills are specific, testable abilities and knowledge that can be taught and measured. Nursing clinical skills such as medication administration, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), and anatomy are a few of the basic hard skills most nurses learn during their training.
Hard skills and soft skills shouldn’t be thought of as opposites, but rather equally valuable tools every professional nurse needs to be their most successful.
How Can Soft Skills Impact Patient Care?
Any nurse can take a record of a patient’s symptoms, treat an injury, or assist with a medical procedure, but a nurse’s soft skills can make the difference between a patient following through with their treatment plan and a patient whose health suffers because of their poor experience.
Soft skills like communication, emotional intelligence, and patience help nurses more empathically understand and respond to a patient’s needs. When patients feel heard and cared for as individuals instead of just symptoms, or problems, to be solved, they can build the trusting, positive relationships with their health care providers that result in better care.
How Can Soft Skills Create a Positive Work Environment?
Health care is a stressful job, but nurses with strong soft skills have the resources to handle anything that comes their way. A nurse’s soft skills not only increase patient comfort but also benefit everyone they work with, from doctors to support staff.
For example, nurses with good communication instincts reduce misunderstandings and frustration when they effectively convey information between patients, families, and health care team members. Flexibility helps nurses find creative solutions and improve work processes, and collaboration skills can help nurses work smoothly with colleagues from diverse backgrounds, leading to better treatment coordination.
By growing your soft skills, you’re also growing your ability to care more fully for your patients, your co-workers, and your career, too.
Are you looking for other ways to advance your nursing career? Excelsior University has the information you need on nursing jobs and nursing degrees at every level.
