"what is the most important qualty for a nurse to posess?"

[kelcal]

"what is the most important qualty for a nurse to posess?"

This topic was recently assigned for an essay. I can think of so many qualities that a nurse needs, but I am having a hard time choosing the MOST important. What do you think?

[Ansumana]

I think the most quality a nurse can have that books could never teach is empathy and compassion. I think this because no matter how book smart you are, the utmost thing a person has to take into consideration is that the patient you may be dealing with doesn't know what you know, hasn't seen what you seen, and ultimately is scared depending on the situation. Even though we may have seen something a thousand times, that person hasn't and we have to understand their feelings of the situation, be it anger, delirious laughter , sadness, or joy. It doesn't matter I you aced all of your tests in nursing school. Nursing is a very interactive hands on job. If you can't properly communicate or sympathize with a person than your nursing skills needs to be refined. These patients will look for you towards comfort, someone to talk to, or someone just to make them feel better. When the doctor isn't there yet or really doesn't have time to create a bond with a person, that's where we step in. Obviously to work in a hospital, you are licensed in some way and have down well on state tests. He only thin that the state really can never test you on is your sympathy and compassion. They can give you questions on the NCLEX, but usually those are easy questions to see. Everyone who works in a hospital passed their boards but not everyone emotionally has what it takes to be a nurse.

Hoped I help :)

[itsmejuli]

patience...with oneself, with co-workers and patients

[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

Intelligence - You can learn everything else - LOL.

[futurenurseclark]

Empathy!

[Nursing2102]

I second itsmejuli!

[Kimynurse]

Compassion, empathy, and understanding.

Live by the golden rule

Treat others the way you want to be treated or how you would want your loved ones treated.

[llg, PhD, RN]

A thick skin. Nursing puts you in contact with a lot of people under stress -- both the patients and your colleagues are stressed. You need to be tough enough to handle the way they respond to that stress.

[NightNerd, MSN, RN]

I'm torn! I would say the usual empathy/compassion/etc., but llg makes a great point. I guess both empathy and toughness are hard to learn, but unfortunately they don't seem to come together naturally. I know I've only got one of them down myself...

[traumaRUs, MSN, APRN]

Nerves of steel, the bladder capacity to go 12 hours without needing to go to the bathroom, the ability to run, run, run for all of those 12 hours, keep everything organized....well you get the idea.....and yes, I've had a bad day!