Top 30 skills every nurse(RN) should possess

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What are the essential skills of 30, rns should possess, i know we have numerous skills and every if not all are essential, but if you had to pick what would be yr top 30?

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
What are the essential skills of 30, rns should possess, i know we have numerous skills and every if not all are essential, but if you had to pick what would be yr top 30?
Top 30 skills? You're not asking for much, are you? A nurse needs a good, strong backbone and a good moral compass. You need the moral integrity to advocate for your patients, to stand up for what is right even when others are willing to let it slide. You have to be ethical, honest and trustworthy. Don't just chart that dressing change as done when you haven't actually done it because you're so busy, and don't let it slide when you come in to work after a long stretch off and find YOUR dressing still on the patient and ten shifts of nurses have charted that they changed it.

You have to be competent. No one graduates from school or takes a new job knowing everything, but you have to take responsibility for knowing what you don't know and learning it. LEARN how to start an IV rather than trying to get someone else to do it for you. LEARN the rationale for giving this drug in this dose to this patient now, don't just fall back on "the doctor ordered it." Doctors make mistakes; it's our job to catch them before they reach the patient. Then have the backbone to address it with the doctor.

You have to be willing and able to learn. If you're not learning something new every day, you're not doing it right. If you're not learning something from each preceptor (or orientee or student) you work with, you're not doing it right.

Be dependable. Show up for work when you're supposed to even if your friends are at the beach and your neighbors are having a neighborhood barbecue. Even when there's four feet of snow on the ground and more coming. Even when there's a Category 5 hurricane headed your way. Even when it's your child's first Christmas.

That's a start.

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What are the essential skills of 30, rns should possess, i know we have numerous skills and every if not all are essential, but if you had to pick what would be yr top 30?

Did one of your nursing instructors assign you the task of listing what YOU consider to be the top 30 nursing skills, or did she ask you to ask nurses what THEY think the top 30 skills would be?

You aren't asking for say the Top Five which would probably apply to all RNs, but THIRTY. And with that many you are going to be varying your answer by whatever specialty the nurse is working in.

So, what is your exact assignment?

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THIRTY?! :roflmao:

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OP, what's the answer? Or did you already finish your assignment?

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I'm only a nursing student, but...

Mastery of proper hang hygiene.

I think that covers 1-30.

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