Need of Soft skills for nurses

Nursing profession is not limited to medical treatment, it's beyond that. Doctors deal with patients in short intervals of time, but it's not the case of nurses who will be in constant interaction with patients. More often inpatients at the hospital communicate with nurses about their status, difficulty they face and so on. It's the duty of nurse to act as a bridge between doctor and patient.



Many nurses face the problem with a lack of exposure to the real time situation of soft skills. Students when they study might be exposed to too much on the technical part of nursing rather than on other skills. It is the responsibility of the nurses to act according to situations and for that they need to develop themselves the professional behavior in listening, interpersonal, social and communication skills, and ethical attitudes to interact with patients.



In the early stages of nursing profession the need for management skills can be avoidable to a certain extent, but it's not for the experienced one. Hospital management in charge of nursing department must come up with plans to enhance their soft and technical skills. Better understanding of professional ethics starting from dress codes, telephone etiquette, Basic drug administration, Collection of specimens and samples, Bio waste management, Management of unit/ward and so. Most important of them are understanding of the hospital policy which helps them to behave with the benchmark set by the hospital higher-up.



Critical situation management is an art, and it will arise in the hospital frequently. On time unavailability of doctor's presence insist the nurses to play active role in hospital, such a situation make them uncomfortable due to lack of exposure. To handle such a situation continuous training programmes must be given to them. One such situation was a telephone conversation with doctor, nurses must get prior training to handle it with certain protocol if needed- it can be with the proper introduction to a physician, which department they are from, patient and room number, status, and importantly good descriptions on the situation where doctor can understand the situation clearly.



Soft skill development won't come up with one day training program. It's a continuous effort from the individual to rank up to the expectation in the competitive world. As Myra E. Levine said "The quality of the moral commitment is a measure of the nurse's excellence". To achieve such a quality of excellence, they must polish both their technical and soft skills through a continuous education programme conducted internally. Orientation Programme 2010 for the staff nurses and regular extracurricular activities help the nurses at Vydehi Nursing College Bangalore to build a strong foundation.

Praveen working at Vydehi medical college speaks about the need for continuous improvement in soft skills training at Nursing College to seed a future for the upcoming nurses.