RNS PLEASE REPLY!!!

The most important skill today in nursing is the ability to say, "I'm sorry." If you work on a med/surg floor or in a nursing home, be prepared to be short staffed and therefore, even if you are a very caring, talented, hard working nurse, you will have to say, "I'm sorry." about 20 times a day. I no longer work as a floor nurse, just a paper-pushing RN. Most of the nurses I know agree with me. Most of the floor nurses I see (that is,if they are not inadequate PRN or agency nurses) that are surviving the system have become calloused, unfeeling robots who have forgotten the words, "I'm sorry." They need their paychecks.

Hi. Nursing is complex discipline that is grounded in psychology, sociology, pharmacy, physiology, pathology, biochemistry, mathematics and medicine. So, nurses use a variety of skills (not just technical) to help patients. You will need and will learn technical skills (how to do IVs, etc).

You will also need and learn physical assessment skills and must be able to use them to help patients (for example, it's not enough to know that someone's heart rate became faster; you should anticipate why that is occuring (lack of hydration, heart attack, etc).

You will need an understanding of how not only to work with people, but people who are sick and their families. There is a difference. That is why you take psych and sociology.

Nurses need to familiar with certain technologies, and the clinical area you work in will dictate the level of technology. For example, I work in the Medical Intensive Care Unit, and I am responible for knowing how to use and troubleshoot certain machines (ventilators, invasive monitoring devices, defibrillator,etc). In a general sense, many hospitals are going computerized, and nurses may do their charting on computer.

Hope this helps. Lenore