What sort of personalities make good nurses?

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Just wondering if there were common grounds?

I personally think it will be good for me, as I am extremely curious. Taking my kids to the peds and gettign the drs diagnosis is never enough. I always go home and research it more. Or when my mom was in the hospital with mrsa pneumonia. I wnated to know EVERYTHING that was going on and was incredibly frustrated that I didnt know what teh nurses and drs knew. (I ended up talking to a friend who works with MRSA research.)

I am not squemish.

While at home I tend to be a bit scattered, when i was at work I was very detail oriented. Yes, I worked retail(God help me!) but if it called for checking dates on specialty foods, I had all the expiration dates for a few months written down so i knew exactly when I needed to take soemthign off the shelves. When i had to front items, they were fronted very orderly. Stock was properly rotated. Too bad I dont do this at home! lol

I hate being bored. I honestly hated it at work when no one was in line, and I had no stock to put away. I had to just sit there,a nd it drove me crazy. i preferred being short staffed and extra busy to just sitting there!lol (time goes too slowly when its slow!)

I tend to deal well with people and could even keep my cool when they were yelling at me. Not that I didnt go off to friends when they were gone!lol

Oh, and I dont cry easily!

Anyhow, I think my curiosity and like for being busy will be an asset, but since i have never been a nurse, I dont know!lol I did have to volunteer in the ED once, and it was pretty enjoyable, although I manly did stuff like taking down lab samples, pickign up O2 tanks, getting some meds, cleanign beds, wheeling patients to and from xray, takign linens to laundry, gettign patients blankets, cleaning out bedside tables. And I hated anytime there was nothing to do. During that experience, one night some guy came in having cut his wrists again(apparantly he was a frequent visitor, all the nurses knew him by name) and I was only 16, and I handled it ok.lol

Yeah, I know world of difference!! But from a nurses perspective, what are good traits to have?

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Specializes in midwifery, gen surgical, community.

When I asked my husband this question, he replied

"Bossy Cow"!!!!:devil::devil::devil:

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I personally think it will be good for me, as I am extremely curious. Taking my kids to the peds and gettign the drs diagnosis is never enough. I always go home and research it more. Or when my mom was in the hospital with mrsa pneumonia. I wnated to know EVERYTHING that was going on and was incredibly frustrated that I didnt know what teh nurses and drs knew. (I ended up talking to a friend who works with MRSA research.)

I tend to deal well with people and could even keep my cool when they were yelling at me. Not that I didnt go off to friends when they were gone!lol

Oh, and I dont cry easily!

My personal perspective - to be taken only as such and nothing more - I found nursing school and nursing frustrating at times becase I was so cautious and wanted to know everything. Having really enjoyed my biology courses, I was frustrated at the more cursory coverage of pathophysiology and physiology. You'll have text books with 3-4 pages on each of hundreds of different conditions, with symptoms, etiology, pathophys, treatment and nursing care.

In regard to cautiousness, of course, nurses must be cautious, but time is of the essence in many settings. You can't possibly know everything (as patients are all different and new knowledge pops up every day) but you still have to take action despite this. You have to do the best you can with what you have even when though at times it may not feel like enough (at least if you have tendencies to want to understand things to the Nth degree). It's a lot like parenting in that regard, I think.

Nursing is a practice and it does take time and multiple exposure to various situations and conditions to "know" what's going on. I was disappointed that school and many new grad programs don't have as comprehensive clinical training as I would've liked, leaving the new nurses with full responsibility for a full load of patients but not feeling like they really know how to handle it. If a person is OVERLY cautious, they have a hard time getting everything done because there's simply not time to re-check and re-check and re-check.

The first year is incredibly stressful for many new nurses. Dealing well with people yelling at you and not crying easily definitely are assets in many settings as the expectations on nurses are often so varied that you can't possibly do everything just so but harried colleagues often don't have the time or emotional resources to let you know what was wrong in a sympathetic and supportive manner.

I hope I don't sound too discouraging. I had classmates who have thrived as nurses and felt the level of education was more than sufficient. I've got just a few sentences about you and my own interpretation of that. So I'm sharing my own experience that may or may not be relevant to you.

Good luck with whatever you do in the future!

Christine

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.

In my opinion, all types of personalities make wonderful nurses.

Unfortunately, nursing has simply too many passive-aggressive personality types in the field. These people enjoy smothering you with kindness, while gossiping behind your back and reporting you to management.

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thanks!

Gotta love the passive aggressive types. Im pretty good at spotting those people though.lol

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maturity, sensitivity, humor and intelligence.

leslie

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When I asked my husband this question, he replied

"Bossy Cow"!!!!:devil::devil::devil:

Then I will make an excellent nurse!!!!

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Specializes in Infection Preventionist/ Occ Health.

Having high standards and being cautious are good traits for a nurse, but...

I agree with a previous poster that if you are extremely cautious it can lead to high levels of frustration. There is so much to be done during a shift that you can not possibly look up every little thing. You must have the fundamentals of safe practice and a few good references available, rely on more experienced nurses, and save your studying for when you get home (if you're not too tired!).

I have a tendency to be a perfectionist and want to make everyone happy. I get very stressed out sometimes when I give a med late, make a little mistake, forget to bring a kid his juice, etc. But the truth of the matter is that these things will happen, particularly when you have another patient who needs your immediate attention (throwing up blood, needs a transfusion started stat, getting chemo, etc). My co-worker reminded me the other day that you are only one person and as such can only be in once place at a time. It is frustrating to give less than your full attention to your stable patients in favor of the more unstable ones, but sometimes that's necessary.

The first six months of nursing have been hard, but when I look back at how far I've come I realize that I am learning so much every day. A year from now I think that this job will be much more manageable, or at least I hope so!

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Specializes in ICU, PICC Nurse, Nursing Supervisor.

roflmao....:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

when i asked my husband this question, he replied

"bossy cow"!!!!:devil::devil::devil:

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Specializes in SICU, EMS, Home Health, School Nursing.

I asked my mom what she thought about my personality and she said: "commanding, calm, compassionate, passionate." She said that I know what I want, and I know how to get what I want... when I was a baby my family used to call me "baby bull" because I was so stubborn :saint: ;)

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Specializes in SICU, EMS, Home Health, School Nursing.

Oh, and you have to have a sense of humor... us nurses tend to have odd senses of humor :lol2:

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I would agree that there are many personalities that seem to make very good nurses. The things about my personality that I have found to be most valuable in nursing are: 1) the maturity/humility to be very honest about the scope of my knowledge base- you must always have the strength to admit that you need help or have questions 2) intense curiosity, a love of learning about subjects that you will never fully master because there is always more to learn 3) the ability to maintain a balance between true empathy and detached professionalism (go too far in either direction and it is a disservice to your patients) 4) being able to prioritize and manage your time 5) the ability to stay calm (or at least appear calm) in the face of anything 6) patience 7) knowing that you cannot do everything that you might wish you could do and being able to let go of that 8) a non-judgemental attitude (even if a patient is a drug abuser, homeless, etc. you can still feel a human connection) 9) being strong enough to feel stupid for a while- nursing school is extremely tough, MUCH more so than most bachelor's degrees, even after you graduate you will feel like a beginner for at least three years (so I've heard) 10) A sense of justice and interest in advocacy

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