What they don't teach you in nursing school

Let's talk about the 'attitude' elephant in the room, Interpersonal skills! They didn't teach you that in nursing school! You absolutely can not thrive as a nurse without it! Sure, but you may have bought into the old line, "Either you got it or you don't!" I'm here to tell you good news. You CAN develop great interpersonal skills. The following article will show you how to do just that! Nurses Announcements Archive Article

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What they don't teach you in nursing school

Great interpersonal skills - It all starts with attitude, but it doesn't end there. You will need wisdom. Intellect will only get you so far. We all know some intelligent people who are clueless, thoughtless, and careless. We simply can not avoid the 'attitude' elephant in the room! It's in every hospital, in every clinic, in short, clueless people are everywhere!

But know this, you will never attain great interpersonal skills by osmosis. It's not hope so, think so, or perhaps so, you absolutely must have a specific interpersonal skill set to thrive in today's nursing environment. There is no getting around it. Anyone in the field can tell you of the horror stories of those clueless people who carelessly lose promotional opportunities, who thoughtlessly diminish work place morale, but do you not also know of the countless numbers of others who are mean-spirited, touchy, resentful, and fretful? They too have been carried away with the cultural tide.

How many of us have thought or even said some of the following: "How could she do that?!" "What were they thinking?!" "I'm glad I'm not the manager. You couldn't pay me enough to deal with that ****"

OK, so we all know the problem. So what's the solution? Is there even a solution? I mean, if we knew that we'd be rich, right!?! Let me tell you there is absolutely a solution. And if you look around you may well have an example of it right where you live and work. You know the people, never the majority, who seem to roll with the punches, keep a positive attitude, and never get carried away with the grape-vine.

You know the grapevine I'm talking about, right? In fact haven't you "heard it through the grave-vine, that so-n-so did such-n-such to YOU KNOW WHO? No way!?! Get out of here!?! Seriously!?!. No ****!!!?! I can't believe it!?!

To those who are already given way to a sour attitude, I'll tell you more in my next article but let me just wet your whistle by saying, start today by looking around you with a different focus. See this thing with different eyes. I mean to say this, in most environments there is usually that one or the few who never seem(s) to get caught up in the drama, who is/are not the touchy, fretful, resentful type. You know the one's. They are welcoming, professional, warm-spirited, and thoughtful.

Think of it. They live or work in the same environment that you do. They experience the same insanity that you do. But they are different. Why? What do they got that you haven't got? You remember the time that so-n-so, said such-n-such to them. Recall how they responded. They didn't reply in like manner. They didn't go and talk to 15 other people about how sorry they were treated. They didn't spend the next day, week, month repeating the matter on Facebook, twitter, or any other social media. They didn't devise ways to get back at them. And the next time they saw the mean individual that confronted them, they were professional, even thoughtful. And when curious others asked them about it, they said nothing hurtful, mean-spirited, or demeaning about the mean person. Not only that, even their day did not appear to be negatively impacted.

How could this be? Are they alien or secretly planning to shoot up the building? They have to have a lot of pent up anger inside, right? No, not at all. Learn from them. Take mental notes from them. Observe them. Take this on for curiosity and you can not help but gaining from them. Take this on as a practice and you will become like them.

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littlelight07

About littlelight07

I'm an RN of 5 years, and a recent LPN instructor. I am one in a family of four - seven if you include the dog and two guinea pigs. If you would like a dog or guinea pigs, they're free!

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Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.

Good article, thank you for sharing. And welcome to Allnurses! :)

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I voted not helpful not because I don't agree in the power of a positive work culture but because it needs to begin with upper management,

And you need to offer a way to get there.

And and, positive culture doesn't grow from a forum of random ever changing online profiles, if you want an impact you will need to nurture it in the workplace.

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Great article!! Thanks for the read

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