Being a nurse means a lot of things. It means having the skill to recognize when things are going wrong with your patient and being able to handle the unfortunate times when a patient is dying. There are many traits that make for a good nurse and perhaps you have some of them.

If you are thinking of becoming a nurse, these are the things you need to have in order to be a good one:

1. Compassion. This means having sympathy for the suffering of another without showing any judgment. For nurses, it means a lot to have compassion. You get to change lives every day and make a difference in your patients’ lives. Compassion will help you decrease your patient’s suffering. Compassion is what makes nurses so important in your patients’ care.
2. Respect for others. If your patients are worrying about their illnesses or are sick with a serious disease, you will see them at the most anxious time in their lives. By having respect for your patient’s, you will be able to be with them when they are at their worst. Every patient deserves your utmost respect and consideration.
3. Remaining calm when pressured. As a nurse, you will have to make quick conditions under a great deal of pressure. It is crucial that you keep your cool under this kind of pressure. Good nurses are naturally calm under pressure but your education is important, too. You gain extra confidence and coolness by being educated and knowing what it is you need to do next. The more you know, the less frazzled you will be.
4. Being oriented to detail. When it comes to giving adequate patient care or giving out medications, the details do matter. Doctors and nurses both must be extremely oriented to detail so that mistakes are not made and that care is given with the utmost of care and consideration to detail.
5. Good communication skills. You will work with doctors, nurses, and patients on a day-to-day basis. You actually have to communicate with your patients rather than just caring for them as though they were veterinary patients. You will have to talk to them about complicated medical issues in simple ways that your patients will understand. You will have to clearly communicate what you are doing to your patient and will have to communicate with your patient’s other nurses and doctors.
6. A font of knowledge. You will need to learn a lot of things in nursing school that will guide your clinical abilities. Understanding what the various diseases are and how to treat them are things you will need to know in order to be a good nurse. This is why it is a good idea to go to the best possible nursing school that you can afford.
7. Withstand emotional and physical demands. You will have to be able to lift heavy patients and deal with serious emotional issues. Your patients are counting on you to be there for them so if you have problems with the emotional and physical demands of being a nurse, this might not be the profession for you.
8. Deal with stress. Nursing is a stressful position where there is a wealth of traumatic incidences that happen every day. You need to learn how to accept suffering and death as this will be a part of your job on a day to day basis. You will have to advocate for your patients and anticipate their needs while keeping a cool head and decreasing your own personal stress, regardless of what is going on.
9. Empathy. This means having the ability to recognize pain and suffering while keeping a level head. Your patients are counting on you to be empathic to their needs and care for them with compassion. Be prepared that you may not always feel empathy for your patients. This is called “compassion fatigue” and it affects every nurse at one time or another. Even so, your patients are counting on your empathy to keep them going.
10. Flexibility. You will need to really role with the punches when you are a nurse. A lot of things are going on at once and you must be able to be flexible and multitask at all times in your job. You will be working long hours and you must anticipate this and be prepared to be flexible.
11. Having good interpersonal skills. Nurses are the main interface between the patients and the doctors. A good nurse will have great interpersonal skills and will be able to converse with just about anyone. They will be able to successfully work with doctors, other nurses, and the ancillary staff. Nurses hold everything in the hospital together. Without good nursing interpersonal skills, the management of the hospital will fall apart.
12. Physical skills. Nurses have a lot of physical skills they need to endure. They need to be on their feet much of the time, lift heavy patients, and do other heavy maneuvers throughout their day. They will need to use these skills on a daily basis. This is not a desk job and you need to be prepared for that. You need a constant amount of energy to get through your daily tasks.
13. Ability to Problem Solve. You need to be able to face a problem and deal with it on a regular basis. Problems and troubles crop up all the time and you will have to be able to cope with them. It may be dealing with an irate patient, a demanding doctor, or a grieving family—whatever it is, you must problem solve your way through it.
14. Quick response times. Nurses need to be able to drop what they’re doing to handle whatever emergency happens to crop up. They need to be able to be prepared for the unexpected occurrences that are a natural part of a nurse’s day. You need to act cool, even when everything is falling apart around you and nothing seems to be going right. Staying quick on the draw is something a nurse must be able to do at any time.

Perhaps, you are thinking about becoming a nurse? If so,

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