Healthcare is a people-led field. Every interaction requires some level of verbal or written communication. The ability to express ideas and convey information thoughtfully is among a nurse’s most valuable skills and one that a vocational school training program can help cultivate.
What Skills Help LPNs Be Successful?
Practical nurses need a diverse skillset to be successful in their profession, including:
Compassion
Nurses need a strong sense of empathy and compassion toward people to help shoulder their suffering. The sick may be anxious, frightened, or in pain. A sense of how patients are feeling helps nurses provide comfort and emotional support when it’s most needed.
Critical Thinking
Critical thinking is the ability to evaluate complex situations and come to reasonable conclusions. Practical nurses must be able to assess a patient’s condition, recognize changes in their health status and take appropriate action.
Attention to Detail
Practical nurses deal with the essentials of patient care. They must follow instructions carefully, document patient information accurately and ensure that medications are administered properly. Focus and attention to detail are important.
Clinical Skills
LPNs perform a broad range of clinical tasks, from taking vital signs and dressing wounds to collecting fluid specimens and inserting urinary catheters. They need a strong scientific knowledge base and confidence in their hands-on skills.
Of course, no training program can cover every topic, graduation day is just the beginning of the education process for nurses. Graduates need to seize every opportunity to practice what they’ve learned while embracing continuing education opportunities.
Time Management Skills
Most nursing tasks are time-sensitive. Most medications, for example, must be given within an hour of the time ordered. Busy nurses must prioritize tasks while juggling new admissions and emergencies. Making the most of every minute.
Team Spirit
Quality healthcare is a team effort. Nurses work closely with healthcare professionals and others to coordinate care. Working well with others creates a positive work environment, improving outcomes for patients and peers.
Communication Skills
Communication is the process of exchanging information, ideas, thoughts, and emotions. For nurses, it plays a pivotal role in building interpersonal relationships, resolving conflicts, and achieving goals in personal and professional settings.
Why Is Communication Important in Nursing?
Whether it’s verbal, written or non-verbal, body language, effective communication:
Builds Trust
Good communication helps nurses establish rapport with vulnerable patients. Patients are more likely to share personal information when approached respectfully. A nurse’s ability to articulate medical concerns helps patients make better treatment decisions. Health outcomes improve when patients feel like full partners in their care.
Promotes Patient Autonomy
Nurses serve as liaisons between patients and healthcare providers. As advocates, they communicate the patient’s treatment preferences. As educators, they also keep people informed about their condition, allowing them to make decisions that align with their values. Effective communication keeps patients in the driver’s seat.
Improves Patient Safety
Medical mistakes are a serious public health problem. Medication mistakes, for example, occur at the prescribing stage. But the nurses who transcribe orders and submit prescriptions can serve as a bulwark by clarifying vague requests or questioning potential errors. They also confirm the details in a patient’s health history, confirming medication allergies and other critical factors that doctors consider when selecting pharmaceutical treatments.
Nurses also communicate among themselves, passing on information from shift to shift. Changes in pain level, for example, can make some patients more restless and likely to fall. Good oral and written communication skills save lives.
Supports Continuity of Care
Continuity of care in nursing refers to the ongoing and coordinated care of patients across various healthcare settings by different providers. The goal is to deliver seamless care from the first point of contact through the course of treatment and beyond.
Nurses play a crucial role in the continuity of care because they help coordinate multidisciplinary healthcare services. This requires that important medical information is shared efficiently and accurately between nurses, physicians, therapists, and other medical professionals.
In the past, many hospitals didn’t, for example, notify primary care physicians when their patients were discharged from the hospital. And readmissions were common because of inadequate follow-up. But today, nurses report discharges, providing details about the patient’s needs.
Boosts Health Outcomes
Nurses create care plans, and holistic assessments of patient needs, including physical findings and intervention strategies. These plans are personalized and consider the individual’s medical history, current complaints, and other data upon which wellness goals are set.
Care plans guide the entire nursing staff and other professionals, keeping the healthcare team on the page. Being able to write effectively is vital.
Establishes a Treatment Record
Nurses document the care they provide. In addition to contributing to the continuity of care, these notes serve several key purposes, including legal protection. A clear and objective nurse’s note confirms that a patient received appropriate care in keeping with regulatory requirements and best care practices.
Documentation is also used to support billing. Reimbursement for healthcare services relies on nurses’ notes to support the medical necessity of care. Medical billing specialists review these notes for clues when filling out insurance forms. Accuracy is crucial.
Nurses’ notes are also used for quality development projects, allowing facilities to target areas for improvement. Only by examining records can they understand the dynamics of nursing care and what it takes to achieve the best outcomes.
Reduces Workplace Stress
Poor communication can be a factor in nursing turnover. When nurses feel at odds with their peers, it creates stress in an already emotionally charged workplace. Minor conflicts can escalate, leading to discord that impacts both patients and staff.
Effective communication creates a sense of camaraderie and teamwork, alleviating tension, and burnout. And when nurses get the emotional support they need, it filters through to patients.
Helps Cultivate the Profession
Good communication helps nurses create a culture of improvement within the profession by allowing them to share knowledge, exchange ideas and learn from one another. It also gives nurses a voice in public policy.
Whether it’s testifying at a legislative hearing, presenting data at a professional gathering, or representing fellow nurses before management, nurses are powerful voices for change.
Final Thoughts
Communication is the oil that keeps the healthcare machine running, preventing friction between the parts. Clear and open communication from nurses brings peers, patients, and professionals together to work in tandem toward the best possible outcomes.
Did learning about how to become a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) on Long Island interest you? Ready for an exciting new career in the healthcare field? The Practical Nursing certificate program provides the graduate with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to function as a licensed practical nurse or LPN. Part of the practical nurse training curriculum is devoted to theory and the rest to hands-on laboratory skills practice and off-site clinical externship rotations. These rotations include work at long-term care and rehabilitation facilities, hospitals, and childbearing and pediatric outpatient settings.
Upon successful completion of NCLEX-PN, the National Council Licensure Examination, which is a nationwide examination for the licensing of nurses in the United States, the licensed practical nurse (LPN) works under the direction of a registered nurse or licensed physician in a variety of health care settings.
Contact us today to find out more on how to become an LPN on Long Island.