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If You Have These 3 Skills, You Should Become a Practical Nurse


female nurse with child patient

Are you an avid Grey’s Anatomy addict? While real life on the front-line as a healthcare worker may not be as dramatic and sensational as Hollywood makes it out to be, it is a sincerely rewarding career with several benefits like personal growth, a competitive salary, and career advancement opportunities.

If you’re considering a career as a licensed practical nurse, having a few notable traits and soft skills can help you succeed in the field. In this feature, we’ll highlight three skills that mean a career as a practical nurse might be in the stars for you! Plus, we’ll also highlight a bonus fourth skill that means you should really, really consider becoming a nurse! Read until the end to find out!

1. Detail-Oriented

As a nurse, small actions can instill a big impact. Because of this, it’s important for you to have meticulous attention to detail when working with patients, their families, and others in the health care team.

On a daily basis, some of the roles nurses take on include keeping track of multiple patients and their condition, status, vital signs, dietary needs, medication schedules, and much more – and this is just the tip of the iceberg! Being a nurse means that you need to be able to understand the situation, ask the right questions, and administer the right medication at the right time. Juggling all of these tasks while maintaining keen attention to detail at the same time will help you become a successful nurse.

2. Empathy and Compassion

Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another person. Compassion is the ability to have sympathetic concern for the suffering or misfortune of others.

As a nurse, you’re going to meet and work with a range of patients who are sick and injured. Because of this, you need to be compassionate, empathetic, and nurturing to the patients they provide care for.

As front-line care workers, nurses need to be able to understand their patients’ conditions and sympathetically communicate the situation with their family members and loved ones – especially in regrettable circumstances.

3. Patience 

female nurse with male patient in the background

Patience is a fundamental virtue that nurses need to have – and it becomes even more relevant when they see patients at their worst. As a result of this, they need to have the ability to calmly approach situations no matter how frantic they are.

Having patience not only helps nurses in their own role, but also helps the patient feel calm in situations of pain or discomfort. A distressed nurse is only going to make the patient feel more anxious.  

4. Bonus Skill!

Quite often, working in a hospital or clinic is physically tiring – especially when the role involves having to move and be on your feet for 8 to 12 hours at a time. Most times, responsibilities will even involve physical labour like moving heavy equipment and patients around. Given this, those in the nursing profession need to have the physical, mental, and emotional stamina to sustain themselves in a typical workday.

If you have the three skills mentioned above plus stamina, then a career as a nurse is something you should definitely consider and look into!

Learn more about the program here or contact one of our advisors below to review the admission requirements!

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Interested in taking a program at Sprott Shaw? 

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