The scrub set comprising of a loose top and pants is the standard uniform for nurses in the US and in several other countries. Some hospitals have come up with uniform regulations that specific colors, cut and fit. However, in most health care centers, nursing staff is allowed to wear scrubs of personal choice. If you are a first time nurse looking to buy scrubs for your job, here are a few things that you should know about selecting the right scrubs.

Your Scrub Should Not Display Skin Or Inner wear

Your scrubs should fit you comfortably and move with, not against, your body. When you try on scrubs, make sure the pants don’t slide down your hips and display your inner wear when you bend. This not only looks unprofessional but is also very embarrassing for staff and patients alike. Well fitting pants should have a wide inseam and fit comfortably at your waist. Also, make sure that the top is not so loosely cut that it allows skin to be viewed through the neckline.

Your Scrub Color Matters

Before you buy your scrubs, get an idea of your employer’s color scheme. If there’s no specific rule, pick colors that are strong and dark, such as black, navy blue, dark brown and maroon. These hold stains much better than light shades.

Choose Scrubs With Pockets

Pockets are your friends; you can stuff many handy items in them. Since you’ll be carrying a patient chart, a stethoscope or other equipment in your hands, you need pockets to store other things. Things such as alcohol pads, a pair of scissors, and even a pair of gloves must be kept in pockets for handy use. So pick tops and pants with roomy pockets. Some designers don’t include pockets for women, since bulky pockets interfere with the body shape.

Choose Scrubs Of Good Quality

Even if it means you have to spend more, buy scrubs from a good quality manufacturer. Don’t compromise on the quality just because you spotted a few cheap pairs at Walmart. Remember that you have to be in time for your shifts and you cannot bother with linty scrubs, or scrubs with the stitching coming out, or scrubs with the color washed out. Get one good pair instead of 5 bad ones.

Buy Scrubs That Are Soft

You’ll have to wear your scrubs all day long. 100% cotton, breathable scrubs in a soft finish are probably the best. Even if your scrubs have some polyester and spandex in them, get the softest ones you can afford. The material should be comfortable against your skin and should absorb sweat and keep you cool.

Buy Scrubs That Fit Well

Always try the scrubs on for fit before you buy them. They may look to be a good fit on the hanger but you won’t know till you try. You should feel as comfortable in your scrubs as you do in your favorite jeans and t-shirt. Your scrubs shouldn’t be so baggy that movement is difficult, or so tight that they’ll split.

Buy Enough Scrubs To Last A Week

The last thing you want to do when you’re getting ready for your shift is to iron your scrub. When you buy enough scrubs to last you a week, you don’t have to worry about ironing them in the morning and washing them in the night. Buy at least 3 to 4 pairs of scrubs. Use three regularly and keep the fourth as spare, for emergencies.

Buy Fade Resistant Scrubs

Check for the fade resistant label and clarify with the dealer or manufacturer that the scrubs don’t fade easily. It’s awful to pay a good sum of money for a pair of dark colored scrubs that then fades in spots, looking scruffy after a few washes. Nothing looks less professional than scrubby, faded-looking scrubs that look like they’ve seen better days. Even if the retailer says a pair is fade resistant, buy only one pair, check out if they are indeed fade resistant and then go for more.

Buy Stylish Scrubs

This one is just to pander to your vanity, but it never hurts to be stylish. As long as the design fits comfortably, there’s nothing wrong in buying scrubs with different neck cuts, ties on the back or sides, piping and embroidery. Wearing a pair of stylish scrubs will give you an extra boost of confidence as you go about your rounds. As long as your employer is ok with the style aspects, go ahead and buy them and make yourself feel good.

Buy Scrubs At Sales And Save Money

You certainly must focus on better brands to get value for money, but that does not mean hit the retailer and spend all your money on multiple outfits. Most brands hold sales. So unless you need your scrubs urgently, wait for these sales to make the most of your dollar. You can also buy scrubs at incredible deals and discounts from well known brands online. Sometimes online stores offer buy 1 get 1 free deals, which can be very lucrative while buying scrubs.

Is it good or bad to have a nursing uniform policy in hospitals? Ask this question and you’ll find that the jury’s still out on that debate. Some hospitals have decided to implement nursing uniform policies. In some hospitals, all white uniforms are used, while in some, nursing staff wear navy or black scrub pants with a white scrub top with navy trim. Not everyone is comfortable wearing white. Not everyone agrees to a standard nursing uniform policy either. So does that make the nursing uniform policy good or bad?

Case 1: Standard Color Uniform For All Nurses

Ottawa Hospital has decreed that its nurses should not wear scrubs with cartoon characters or other designs on them. Apparently the nurses are very unhappy with this call and the hospital morale is low as a result. The hospital’s HR and management teams jointly came up with this policy which has not found favor among its nurses. The new dress code imposes standard uniform on its nurses to facilitate nurse recognition to patients.

Popular Nursing Opinion Against Standard Uniforms

Nurses in this hospital feel that the changes were made based on hospital image and the patient’s desire to control his or her environment. The hospital insists that nurses also wear white scrub jackets. However, nurses at this hospital feel that many patients suffer from a “white coat syndrome”. This syndrome makes them anxious when surrounded by too many people wearing white coats. Nurses strongly state that they want to dress in “colors and patterns” because it’s fun for both the nurses and their patients.

Popular Nursing Opinion For Standard Uniforms

The majority of nurses from several specialty hospitals feel that wearing a standard uniform denotes proper respect for a patient’s condition. After all, patients come to hospitals, putting their trust and faith into the hands of doctors and nurses. They are not very comforted seeing nurses wearing colorful, patterned and sometimes cartoon-character bedecked uniforms. These uniforms do not impart a sense of seriousness and therefore act detrimental to building the patient’s confidence.

Case 2: Color Coding For Specialties And Departments

Scrubs are the official “uniform” of nurses. However, several healthcare organizations set up rules with regard to standard color codes in scrubs. Color coded standard uniform rule again varies from hospital to hospital. With some hospitals having about half dozen different colors in their color coding system, there’s confusion among nursing staff.

These hospitals believe that color coding works like a visual shorthand. With color coded uniforms, it’s easy to recognize nurses from different specialties. However, nurses are of the opinion that providing several color codes is not helping to ease patient confusion. If patients were confused about the cartoons, designer wear and patterns earlier, they’re even more confused with color-coding. How does a patient remember that a nursing aide wears green while senior nurses are to wear navy blue?

Popular Nursing Opinion For Color Coded Uniforms

Some nurses and doctors feel that color coding can be useful as a tool of communication. It’s good to stand out to prevent confusions between PCAs and nurses. If patients are informed from the get-go that RNs wear navy and blue and so on, they’ll know what to expect and whom to approach.

Some nurses feel that by deciding a color code for specialties and departments, the need to worry about what to wear every day is removed. Now nurses can just wear the color they’ve been assigned and get to work. Taking the guesswork out of choosing daily work attire is an aspect that several nurses actual like about color coded scrub uniforms.

The other reason why this method is liked by nurses is that it’s much less expensive to maintain a limited wardrobe. When nurses are allowed free choice, the pressure of buying great looking scrubs, matching them and ensuring the top and bottom are coordinated is actually stressful at times. Nurses have very challenging jobs and they can do without the stress of trying to look good is what many nurses feel. Again, the competitive level when it comes to dressing is removed when color coding is enforced. Now nurses don’t have to worry about not wearing the same thing twice and trying to look better than the others.

Popular Nursing Opinion Against Color Coded Uniforms

The opinions are diverse; for every nurse who likes wearing a single color, there’ll be two who can’t stand it. Some nurses object to a specific color designated to their department. Some nurses complain that navy blue, a standard color, fades as it washes and looks terrible. Nurses also feel that a switch to strict color coding from a relaxed dress code affects morale negatively.

Hospitals which allow individuals to wear a wide variety of colors don’t understand the point in color coding. They feel that it’s enough if staff shows up for work and does a good job. With nursing professionals in high demand and the supply being so less, many individuals feel that the focus should not be on standardizing uniforms but working on nursing morale and improving working conditions.

There’s no shortage of specialties for the avid and ambitious nurse. You have wonderful choices, right from emergency-room and operating-room nursing, to orthopedic, pediatric nursing and beyond. Then there are the traditional specialties such as OB/GYN, nurse practitioners and nurse anesthetist. There is a host of lesser-known subfields such as forensic nursing, telephone-triage nursing and correctional nursing (nursing in prison settings).

Consider That Nursing Specialties Pay More

Health care facilities across America are experiencing nursing shortages. All kinds of nurses are in great demand, but nowhere is the demand greater than in specific nursing subfields, including critical care, emergency room and telemetry. Critical care alone reports a 20 percent vacancy rate, based on a recent report by the American Organization of Nurse Executives.

These areas of specialization require nurses that possess higher levels of skills, training and certification. As such, these specialties find fewer candidates who fit the bill, which is why these specialties are high paying, to entice the best talent. If money is the object, then choosing a well paying nursing specialty might just be the ticket.

Consider The Varied Stress Levels

How much stress can you take at a job, even if it pays more and holds more prestige? You need to ask yourself this question while choosing a nursing specialty. If you find it more stressful to work long hours in the operating room, where you’ll almost always be on call, then this specialty is not for you. Perhaps you find that working in the recovery room is more stressful, since you will need to posses honed technical skills. There’s also a great deal of stress involved in working 1:1 with doctors on the surgical floor.

Consider If A Nursing Specialty Suits Your Personality Type

What would be the best fit for you, where would you feel more comfortable? Are you the kind that enjoys being independent, or do you thrive on friendships, collaboration and camaraderie with staff? When you compare your personality with the working environment, you’ll understand where you’ll fit comfortably and find your best performance. There are those active, very keen personalities that can juggle responsibilities and handle stress. And then there are those that need a slower, gentler pace of work.

A good way of evaluating which specialty suits your personality type is to be aware of what you enjoyed most during training. If you relate to children, then you might want to specialize in pediatrics or maternity. If you’re happy around older people, then perhaps you should consider geriatrics.

Consider If The Job Setting Suits You

Another important consideration to choose the right specialty for you is the job setting. The pace of work, the technology that’s involved and the patient acuity you’ll experience are three key factors you need to consider. At one end are fast-paced settings involving state of the art technology solutions, and urgent treatment situations: think trauma, ICU and operating room. At the other end are the slower paces that use minimal technology, aided by low patient acuity.

Consider Special Certifications And Qualifications

You can become a medical or surgical floor nurse with a certification in Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation. However, if you want to work in the emergency room, you will need to obtain Advanced Cardiac Life Support training. Similarly, you will need special chemotherapy training from the Oncology Nursing Society to be able to work with cancer patients. So the question you’ll need to ask yourself is, are you willing to continue education and advance your skills based on your chosen specialty?

Consider The Job Role

What suits you best, managerial and non-managerial roles? You can enjoy direct patient care in some roles such as clinical specialist, staff nurse, nurse practitioner, and school nurse, nurse midwife, home health nurse and so on, in areas such as dialysis, cardiac perfusion, interventional radiology, IV access and maintenance. Other job roles involve infection control, utilization review, case management, researcher and educator. So see what role fits which specialty and choose your specialty accordingly.

Suitability Testing

If you’re still not sure which specialty to take up, take advantage of the program that allows you to test different specialties before you make a career commitment. Most major hospitals throughout America offer this facility.

These are paid 16 week nurse internship programs for newly licensed RNs. Here you’ll learn the cultures within various medical units and practice necessary technical skills. You can choose different specialties and test yourself at it, such as women and infant, critical care, cardiothoracic and so on. You will be paid a full salary along with benefits and provided classroom instruction particular to clinical and track rotations. The training you obtain here will prepare you to come to a decision and take up the relevant courses, leading to a job placement.

Patients can behave rudely, or turn downright aggressive if they feel they’ve been wronged, ignored or dealt a bad card. Some patients maintain high and sometimes unrealistic expectations of a doctor’s power to treat them. When they feel that their demands are not met or are delayed, these patients can demonstrate their frustration and anxiety through aggression. Sometimes, aggression marks poor or absent interpersonal and communication skills. As a nurse, you’ll have to learn how to keep your cool and calm an aggressive patient down. If a patient is over aggressive, your calm attitude and presence of mind will help you stay safe.

Watch Out For Aggressive Tendencies

You cannot predict which patient can turn violent. However, there will be some indication during consultation and at the time of admission and treatment. Watch out for signs of agitation, angry voice tone, clenched fists and abrupt movements. Speak to your head nurse and the treating doctor about these observations. Check the front desk system for comments against a patient’s name that indicate aggression. Being forewarned about the patients in your care is being forearmed.

Stay Calm

No matter how agitated the patient becomes, keep your inner core calm and collected. Don’t show your own agitation or alarm. If a patient is being rude and not aggressive, remember that aggression can be only moments away. Maintain a calm, friendly, polite but firm attitude but do not come across as patronizing. Keep your voice at a conversational level.

Keep Your Body Language Neutral

Remember that 80% of human communication is non-verbal. Even if you don’t give out verbal signs of your own agitation, your patient might be picking up on your fear, disgust and dislike. Work on your body language. Don’t clench your fist, or thin your lips, narrow your eyes, or hold your shoulders stiff.

Maintain Eye Contact

Maintain eye contact and keep your gaze neutral so that the patient can see that even if he is being unreasonable, you’re willing to give him a chance. Maintaining eye contact also indicates that you respect the patient’s viewpoints and you are willing to reason with him or her. A patient demonstrates rude or aggressive behavior mostly to be heard and have someone’s attention focused fully on them.

Demonstrate Your Empathy

Shown your empathy can help; indicate through your words and your body language that you do understand the root of the patient’s anger. Explain in a clear voice that while you do understand that they’d been kept waiting, you’d like to help them with their issue now. Make it look like you’re not questioning a patient’s aggressive behavior, and you feel they’re almost justified. This is only to diffuse the situation.

Ask Questions

You can regain control of a situation that’s potentially volatile by distracting the patient. Ask the patients to tell you their side of the story. Make the patients feel that you feel they should be heard, but do not take sides. Do not make any comments that could be expensive for the facility later on. Ask questions about the patient’s needs, expectations, and health concerns and try to identify the cause of his or her aggression. Document patient’s concerns and your conversations carefully.

Keep Your Physical Distance

Don’t ever turn your back on a potentially aggressive patient. Position your body closest to the open door, just in case you need to make a quick escape.

Never Say No To A Violent Patient

Never say no to the face of a violent or potentially violent person. For example, if the patient wants more pain killers, or specific care, explain that you don’t have it right now and that you’ll need to speak to a hospital consultant. Offer alternatives and keep the patient’s options open. When completely negated, aggressive patients lose control.

Know Where Panic Alarms Are Located

If you find yourself alone with a patient and it’s late in the evening, you could find yourself in a potentially dangerous situation. It’s best that you know where panic alarms are located in the hospital. You never know when you’ll need to press one. It’s a fact that 44% of practices experienced problems with panic alarms. If an incident occurs during a home visit, use an attack alarm to stun the patient. Never go alone to visit a potentially aggressive patient at home.

Keep Your Head Nurse And Doctor Informed

Also make sure that if you suspect a particular patient under your care has aggressive tendencies, you keep your head nurse and treating doctor informed. Keep them informed of any untoward behavior from the patient such as:
• sexual harassment
• rude comments
• physical violence with objects
• verbal or physical abuse
• threats or gestures
• discriminatory abuse
• stalking
• inappropriate emotional attachment

Qualities Desired In A Head Nurse

Qualification

To become a head nurse, you need at least BSN in nursing, though a master’s degree from an accredited school is preferred in most hospitals. The master’s degree endows a nurse with skills in the areas of leadership, communication and critical thinking during emergencies.

Experience

You should put in three to five years of experience in a care facility before you can apply for the position of a head nurse, or be considered for this position. Nurses with experience in a long term care facility are preferred.

Qualities And Desired Characteristics

The following qualities and characteristics are desired in head nurses in most long term health care facilities. Many of these qualities must be inherent, while some are expected from nursing experience.

Compassionate Approach

Head nurses are required to possess a compassionate approach that does not wane in the face of pressure under critical situations.

Coordination

A nursing manager or head nurse must be able to facilitate and deliver quality nursing care, while managing the environment. This includes coordinating with other nurses involved in patient care. The ability to perform management duties should be part of a nurse’s work experience in order to qualify for this post.

Analytical skills

The ability to quickly grasp a situation and analyze it is a carefully cultivated skill. Though this skill is inherent in some people, it can be grown. In a head nurse, this skill can prevent emergencies from occurring in a patient care scenario. A head nurse with strong analytical skills will know which nurse to place in care of which patient and how to handle patient’s families, doctors and their demands and how to defuse situations before they blow out of control.

Negotiation And Conflict Resolution

Nursing candidates for a head nurse post must possess effective negotiation and conflict resolution skills. A head nurse or nurse manager is required to smoothly manage the care environment of the nursing unit under him or her. This means that the head nurse has to effectively manage any conflicts that may arise with regard to patient care schedules, or even personal conflicts that can occur among the staff. All issues of bickering, non-cooperation, unethical behavior and non-compliances are first dealt with by the head nurse. The head nurse performs the initial evaluation, primary negotiations, necessary monitoring and disciplining of non-compliant staff. Matters are escalated to HR and hospital management only if they don’t get sorted at the head nurse’s level.

Humanistic Management Philosophy

The head nurse is encouraged to practice a humanistic management philosophy that involves considering staff as people first and nurses later. Though this attitude can be taught, some nurses possess this quality inherently. Approaching any situation from a humanistic perspective allows for greater staff morale and better performance.

Ability to multi-task

Head nurses, apart from their management duties also have to be in charge of the overall care a patient receives. This means the head nurse has to supervise patient treatments, progress, reporting to doctors, monitoring nurses, changing routines, managing staff schedules and so on. All these tasks require the head nurse to have excellent multitasking abilities.

Excellent Interpersonal Skills

A nurse manager is essentially a manager and in general, managers are not liked in any facility. This makes any head nurse’s job challenging. Excellent interpersonal skills need to be partly inherent, partly cultivated and carefully grown during nursing experience. It’s an effort to ensure that members of the nursing staff remain calm, focused and work as a cooperative group. Great interpersonal skills along with an even tempered, calm attitude can help head nurses manage their staff better.

Excellent Organizational Skills

A head nurse cannot manage each individual patient. That’s why it’s important for the head nurse to structure the nursing unit’s activities and responsibilities, manage the staff rotation calendar, ensure critical medications are obtained in time, and determine effective resource distribution. All of these tasks require considerable organizational skills, similar to those of a corporate manager.

Impartial Advocacy

Head nurses should be seen as highly credible, even tempered and innovative people when it comes to advocacy. It’s the head nurse’s job to meet the needs of nurses: clinical, professional, or personal. Helping nurses to resolve their issues and manage advocacy for them with management is a task that requires an unbiased attitude and sincerity.

Responsibility And Leadership

Some people have inherent leadership skills while others have to cultivate them. It’s important for a head nurse to have a strong self esteem, sense of responsibility and belief in himself or herself as the group leader. Without this, the head nurse has no hope of getting anyone to listen to him or her. Understanding that the post comes with grave responsibilities is the first step to developing a certain level of believable authority, which lends assurance and confidence. If the head nurse does not trust himself or herself, then the staff nurses won’t trust the person either! The nurse manager should demonstrate the ability to foster sound relationships with staff, management and other specialty departments, in order to create a patient-centered environment. Last but not the least, a friendly, open attitude is always a winner.

Not everyone can be a nurse. There are certain aspects of the nursing job that can seriously deter nurse-hopefuls from making the attempt. Before deciding that a nursing career is exactly what you want, you might want to read out 10 reasons why nursing may not be for you. The idea behind compiling this list is not to scare people off nursing, but to help them evaluate their own abilities critically before taking the plunge.

If You’re Getting Into Nursing For The Money

Nurses are paid decently in most states in the US. However, certain areas of nursing are paid much better than some others. Unless you are willing to put in the years of study and certification to become a registered nurse, you won’t be paid all that much as a licensed private nurse or a junior staff nurse. So if you’re in it for the money, this is probably not the best career option for you.

If You Want To Be Recognized And Well Known

Some of us get into careers wanting to be recognized, appreciated and to become well known in our spheres of work. Most of the people that enter corporate or specialty fields do it for linear career graphs, travel opportunities and fame. If this is what you want, then you must know that nursing is a noble vocation. And as far as vocations go, it’s a thankless job of many hours and days spent caring for patients who won’t thank you, and management that may not give you credit. That does not mean that as a nurse you cannot build a viable reputation; you can. With true compassion, dedication, sincerity, responsibility and discipline, you can shine as a nurse, be promoted and become well known. However, it takes enormous dedication to become famous at a hospital for nursing.

If You Cannot Stand The Sight Of Blood

As a nurse, the sight of blood will become commonplace in your life. You’ll have to see torn limbs, shredded flesh, graphical surgeries, transfusions and cleanups. All this requires a calm, detached attitude and a very strong stomach. If this is not you, then don’t attempt this career.

If Your Sense Of Smell Is Sensitive

If you’re offended by nasty odors, then stay away from nursing. You’ll be exposed to all kinds of smells: the smell of blood, medications, body fluids, cleaning fluids, acids, chemicals, and drugs and so on. If your sensitive sense of smell prevents you from being close to any such smells, it’s best not to consider the nursing career option.

If You Prefer A Desk Job

Seldom do nurses sit and relax. This job involves walking briskly along hospital corridors carrying patient charts, visiting patients and monitoring various aspects of patient care. You’ll have to keep moving up and down hospital floors to locate doctors, visit surgeries, help patient’s families and in general, do a lot of footwork. If you like sitting behind a desk and working at a minimum movement job, then nursing is not for you.

If You Are Averse To Change

Nurses have to learn to expect change, since change is the only constant in the nursing profession. Patients come and go; shifts change, schedules shift, guidelines and practices shift and nurses have to constantly adapt to change. If you want a steady job that won’t change except when you’re promoted, nursing is not for you.

If You Are Averse To Continued Learning

As a nurse, your learning does not stop. Continual learning is part of the health care profession. Nurses need to maintain their skill and knowledge level at par with the innovation curve. This is absolutely essential, because a nurse who doesn’t learn risks harming patients or compromising patient care. That apart, nurses also need to take advanced courses, training in specialties and must renew their licenses in order to grow in their profession. If this is not for you, then don’t attempt the nursing career.

If You’re Reclusive And Lack Interpersonal Skills

A nurse’s interpersonal, or people skills, is probably the highest valued skills. As a nurse, you’ll have to maintain a positive, friendly and open attitude with patients, other nurses, medical staff, patient’s families, administration and management members. A nurse must be socially competent in order to provide excellent patient care. Education, skill and knowledge will only get you so far.

If You Don’t Care About Your Care

As a nurse you have to care about the care you provide. You cannot just do a job because you’re asked to do it. Each patient is a personal responsibility and you’ll have to put out your utmost with them. If you are half hearted about your care, your patient will sense it and care will be compromised. You must sincerely feel a vocation for care and feel the compassion to help someone in pain, in order to succeed as a nurse.

If You Are Biased, Opinionated And Judgmental

As a nurse, you’ll be expected to care for all patients without showing bias for gender, race, color, size, background or any other demographic. You also must retain a firm leash over your opinions. It won’t do to comment on someone’s ethical choices such as pro-choice versus pro-life. Remember any treatment decision is the patient’s and your job is to only ensure good patient care. You cannot get involved in ethical dramas. Finally, if you are someone who frequently judges others as strong or weak or clingy or whiny, nursing is not for you.

Let’s face it. You aced nursing school and now you’ve started a job. You’ve hit the floor running, and you’re feeling good about yourself. Still, as the days pass, you start thinking you don’t know anything at all, like you didn’t learn anything at school. Nurses all over the world feel the same way. They feel that nursing school only minimally prepares you for the actual job. Here are 10 things that they didn’t teach you at nursing school.

1. School Didn’t Prepare You For How Nursing Changes You

At school, you won’t learn how nursing changes you. How you become someone more aware of his or her environment, more sensitive to pain and care needs. Nursing becomes a part of your overall personality and moves from being just a job to your calling.

2. School Didn’t Teach You How To Give A Good Report

School did teach you the basics of how to give a good report. But it’s only when you hit the floor and learn how to coordinate your brain and communication skills to deliver the right message that you understand. Giving or taking a report effectively requires you to be alert, on the point, in possession of all salient facts and confident.

3. Only experience teaches you this.

School Doesn’t Teach You Have To Keep Up Or Be Left Behind
Nurses are a busy lot and cannot make time to mollycoddle a new recruit. You’ll have to hit the floor running and get on with the job. Your senior nurses will only expect you to do the job and work as a team with you. You’ll learn patient care, charting and the nuances of team work. If you don’t keep up with the pace, you’ll be left behind.

4. School Didn’t Teach You Good Time Management Skills
You have to manage a lot of duties within your shift. Charting is one such. Managing patient charts quickly, thoroughly and efficiently before your shift gets done is a skill that nursing school will not teach you. Only when you are a practicing nurse will you understand how to juggle your tasks and responsibilities to get everything done on time. Time management skills need to be learnt on the job, they cannot be taught.

5. School Didn’t Teach You To Multitask And Prioritize

Learning to multitask is part of the job description if you are a nurse. You cannot say that you have been assigned a task and you’ll take up something else only when task 1 is done. You’ll have to comply with different requests from staff and patients and manage to juggle them all efficiently. More important than multitasking is prioritizing. When you have multiple patients in your care awaiting medications, checkups, and follow ups and so on, you’ll have to learn to prioritize patient needs.

6. School Did Not Teach How To Manage Your Stress

Even in nursing school the enormous pressure to learn causes stress among students. Yet, healthy methods of coping stress are not taught in school. You’ll have to learn how to cope with your stresses on the job and pick up pointers via research and your colleagues. Either you learn to cope with your stresses or fall into the standard stress responses: overeating, under-eating, worrying, missing sleep and burning out.

7. School Did Not Teach You How To Deal With Death

Can anything prepare you for your very first patient death? As a new nurse, you might tend to bond with certain critically ill patients and not be prepared to watch them die. It takes a great emotional toll out of any nurse who has to watch his or her patient die. It’ll take you time, counseling by seniors and personal effort to learn how to deal with death in a professional and healthy manner.

8. School Did Not Teach You To Deal With Feelings

You’ll be exposed to all kinds of feelings in your nursing job. Feelings of joy, depression and excitement when the adrenaline courses through you. Bringing out all your efficiency in a pressured situation when your hands are shaking due to adrenaline is not easy. You’ll make silly mistakes, try to laugh it off and neither of these is acceptable in the professional scenario. In an emergency situation, you have to work without any regard whatsoever for your personal feelings or responses.

9. School Didn’t Teach You How To Deal With Doctors
School taught you many things but not how to communicate with ill tempered and impatient doctors. Doctors as a rule don’t have much patience with anyone who’s slow on the uptake. They are constantly on the move and need to get their things done, stat. In life and death situations, the stress levels are unbelievable and you’ll have to deal with doctors who never sleep, hate their jobs and see you as a nuisance.

10. School Did Not Prepare You For Wonderful Benefits

Nursing school also does not prepare you for the wonderful benefits you gain by working with core professionals. Working as a team teaches you coordination, the importance of a positive attitude, patience and timeliness. The learning of time management, effective interpersonal relations, multitasking and prioritizing skills is nothing but gifts. There are the other benefits as well, such as the wonderful and supportive friendships you’ll build. Nursing schools give you a basic foundation of knowledge. You build on this knowledge a lifetime of learning from your nursing experience.

Nursing is challenging work. It’s the kind of work that calls an average human being to display superhuman qualities when pushed. Qualities such as inordinate patience, even temperament, lack of bias and continual discipline. However, nurses are still human beings and extreme situations such as patient criticality, medicine overdose and night time emergencies in the absence of a doctor do occur. How should a nurse behave in such extreme situations?

When A Patient Dies

All nurses go through several patient deaths in the course of their career. Nursing being an empathetic vocation, it’s natural for nurses to bond with critically ill patients and root for their recovery. When a patient dies, the resulting trauma can leave the nurse feeling guilty, angry, depressed and pointless.

Here are few tips to handle this situation:

1. Tell yourself that you’ve done all you can to help. Leave the patient’s room if possible, and breathe out while counting to ten to calm yourself down.

2. Talk to a senior nurse or a non-gossipy friend whom you trust and unburden your feelings. It’s likely that whoever it is would have gone through similar experiences and will be able to help you cope.

3. You’re a nurse and not a miracle worker and cannot save people from death if that is their lot. Put it out your mind; don’t feel that by putting it out of your mind you’re showing yourself as a cold-hearted person. The truth is, you can survive and continue to serve the same way only by putting such fatalities out of your mind.

When A Nurse Is Blamed For Negative Patient Outcome

This happens now and then even in good hospitals. It’s possible that a patient dies or goes into critical mode owing to your oversight. It’s also possible that you’re not responsible for it.

Here are a few tips on how to handle this situation:

1. Remember not to react immediately. Ask for more information and evaluate what you’re being told.

2. If you feel you’re responsible, be truthful about it. This is where your professionalism should show.

3. If you’re not responsible, state your case clearly and explain why you’re not responsible. Your calm and professional approach to the situation will be noted and appreciated.

Handling Emotional And Aggressive Family Members Of Patients

It’s one thing to take care of your patient and quite another to handle their worried, nervous, anxious and many a belligerent families. Some nurses swear that patients are angels while their families can be the very devil. How do you handle a bunch of family members talking at the same time, asking for information and blaming the hospital for everything that goes wrong?

Here are a few tips to help you handle families:

1. The more aggressive others are, the more patient you should be. Your calm voice and manner will eventually soothe agitated family members.

2. Be firm with them; they have the right to worry or be angry based on the situation but that should not translate into abuse of you. Tell them in calm but firm tones that you would love to help them but you will not be spoken to without respect.

3. If need be, call other nurses, your senior nurse, or even a doctor to help you manage aggressive family members.

When A Nurse Is Put In Charge Of A Patient In ICU

Caring for intensive care patients is a very stressful job as the least indicator on the life support equipment can cause nervousness. Unless you’re an old ICU hand, you’ll definitely feel the stress eating at you.

Here are a few tips to handle this situation:

1. All you can do is your best. You’re not personally responsible for things that go wrong despite your care.

2. Don’t worry that you might be blamed if something goes wrong. The worry will keep you from doing your job. Make sure you’re doing everything you need to do, and do it right.

3. Follow all standard hospital doubts when it comes to intensive care. Don’t make any personal judgments outside of the rules, even if it seems right to you at the time. There’s a reason why those rules are in place.

When A Nurse Has To Handle Trauma Cases

In the case of accidents, nurses have to attend to a range of extreme situations that require medical intervention. Even though doctors and other medical professionals will be on hand, a great deal of the responsibility plus active team work falls to the nurse. Emergency nurses are usually trained to handle trauma cases; even so, this kind of situation requires special coping skills.

Here are a few tips to handle this situation:

1. Do not let the trauma and the extent of the injuries affect you. Focus on the medical personnel and follow instructions explicitly.

2. Fight down the adrenalin that courses through you, breathe out, and force yourself to stay calm. You will need the ability to think very clearly to be of any use. Your quick thinking, multi-skilled and multi-tasking abilities will be useful only if you are able to use them because of nervousness.

3. When a doctor gives an instruction, repeat it to yourself twice to make sure you don’t get it wrong. You’ll be rushed, many people will be yelling for this and that but force yourself to stay cool. Pretend that even though it’s you that’s running and doing things, one part of you is watching. This will help you gain perspective.

How Important Is Professionalism For A Nurse?

Why Professionalism Is Required In Nursing

Professional nurses are expected to demonstrate a certain degree of altruism, special attainment, self sacrifice and the right attitude in their dealings. Each nurse needs to understand the responsibilities and concerns that are integral to the nursing profession. Working with a team of health care professionals to provide care for patients in need requires a discipline and internal and external composure that stays steady throughout the day.

The core values that are expected and appreciated in nurses are responsibility, honesty, integrity, belief in human dignity, patient equality, and the desire to prevent and alleviate suffering. A nurse’s professionalism is judged based on personal behaviors, appearance, presentation, and so on.

1. Non-Biased Care For Patients

Health care centers see patients of all ages, sizes, colors, races and backgrounds. A nurse’s job is to see a patient as a patient, and not focus on attributes that might be personally disliked. Showing any kind of prejudice will hinder the quality of patient care, not to speak of earning a bad reputation for the hospital. A truly professional nurse would ensure high standard, non-biased care for all patients.

2. Integrity

Maintaining medical records for patients also needs a level of professionalism. Medical records are meant to be confidential and a loose-mouthed nurse can inadvertently release this confidential data to the wrong party. Nurses are trusted with a great deal of delicate information. The medical field counts on a nurse’s professionalism and integrity to keep confidential matters confidential.

3. Respect For Patients

Patients can be difficult to deal with, but a professional nurse cannot lose his or her temper. It’s imperative to remember that the patient is in the hospital to receive care. No one likes being the receiver, subject to the moods and generosity of the giver. This makes some patients cranky. A professional nurse is prepared to treat all patients with the utmost respect and dignity, no matter what the provocation.

4. Attitude

A nurse with a terrible attitude can make things difficult for patients and staff alike. Those who behave like this are usually looking for attention. By sucking others into their own drama, these attention-seeking people try to control their environment. The nursing profession aims to help others than to focus on individual problems. A professional nurse will work through his or her bad attitude and will try to work well with others.

5. Appearance

People will always judge you by your appearance; there’s no way of getting around this. When it comes to nursing, a nurse’s appearance can either instill confidence in the patient, or total mistrust. Imagine a nurse who walks in with unwashed or ungroomed hair, chewed-on nails, wrinkly and shabby scrubs and junk jewelry? Such a nurse would lose respect in the patient’s eyes. If you look sloppy, the other staff, patients and their families will see you as lazy, unorganized and worse of all, uncaring.

6. Willingness To Help Others

A professional nurse understands that everyone needs help now and then. In fact, the nurse himself or herself will be in need of help at times. Willingness to help is a part of a nurse’s professional attitude that is most appreciated. A nurse who is willing to help other nurses, patients and patient’s families is seen as someone who can be trusted, and who has a core of goodness. Goodness and caring are the ground values on which Florence Nightingale built the nursing profession. Nurses in the previous century were mostly nuns who were used to charitable thinking and doings.

7. Team Work

A professional nurse is a team worker; he or she understands that the entire hospital’s staff has to work as a team to ensure ultimate patient care. Hospitals are in the business of making money, and a nurse who does not work well with the team can cause expensive hassles. In order to be a good team worker, a nurse must eliminate any ‘self first’ attitude. For example, when a hospital is full to capacity and all hands are required, a nurse cannot insist on taking vacation time off. This is the kind of attitude that shows a nurse is a team worker and not a selfish individual.

8. Honesty

Too much cannot be said about this vital quality in a real nursing professional. Honesty comes into place in several areas. For example, if a nurse has over medicated a patient by mistake and an error occurs, honesty in time will help save the patient. Most people choose to lie and avoid taking the responsibility but this only leads to cumulative issues.

9. Responsibility

A nurse has to take up a great deal of responsibility and must prove worthy of it. Everything from responsible patient care, to monitoring delicate equipment to which the patient is hooked, to responsible handling of medication is the nurse’s lot. A professional nurse is one who takes this responsibility very seriously and understands the consequences of mistakes, accidental or otherwise.

10.Discipline

Last but not the least, let’s talk about discipline. When taking care of patients round the clock, it would be so easy to just sit back in a chair and doze off. But if a nurse were to do that, medication schedules and patient monitoring will not happen on time, which means patient care is compromised. Again, nurses have to report for duty at the hour specified and relieve the previous nurse. Lack of discipline in any area will bring everything from mild annoyance, to downright chaos in a hospital.

Sometimes it’s easier to handle patients than their families. If you are a quiet and timid type of person, you’ll find it harder to deal with stressed and nervous family members. Again, if you are aggressive and impatient, you’ll feel that the family members should realize you’re here to do good, and they shouldn’t pester you. Yes, people can be strange and they might say many unfair things but you’ve got a job to do.

Here are a few tips on how to deal with your patient’s family.

Be Truthful

If the family is close to a doctor, the doctor will take care of this. If the doctor is busy, nurses will need to communicate news of bereavement, negative outcomes or other updates. If it’s your lot to communicate something that you know the family will not like, do your best to be truthful. Don’t paint the truth in different colors just because it’s hard for you to be straight with the facts. Hide your own sensitivity and tell the facts as they are. This does not mean you have to be cold and harsh. Empathize with the family but do not put your emotions on display. With your calm, honest, professional and sober attitude, you’ll be able to calm grieving and angry family members.

Do Not Volunteer Information

Only communicate what you need to communicate. If surgery is being held up by a few hours because the surgeon has a migraine, just communicate that the surgery will be delayed. Do not give out reasons that can come back and bite you later. Never over communicate. Do not express your personal opinions as to how things are being run in the hospital and why you think the surgery was delayed. Remember patients are always suing hospitals for a variety of reasons. Do not give out information that can be used against the hospital.

Do Not Indulge In Personal Conversations

A patient’s family is just that; a patient’s family. They’re not there for you; they’re there for their family member. You have no reason to make personal friends out of them. Keep your conversations polite, calm, professional and to the point. If it looks as though a patient’s family member wants to talk to you to relieve their anxiety, just assure them, repeatedly if you need to, that everything possible is being done. Refuse to contribute to personal questions, gossip about the hospital and any other kind of personal talk. All this gives a hospital a bad reputation, apart from being potentially litigious at a later date.

Stay Calm In The Face Of Grief Or Anger

Grief is the toughest emotion and most of us find ourselves ill equipped to deal with it. It’s one thing to experience grief; it’s another to watch someone go through it and feel helpless. Nurses feel helpless when they have to deal with grief-ridden patients who’ve just been told that a loved one didn’t make it. First off, if you’re the nurse, you need to stay calm. Show your sympathy through your voice and your expression but stay detached. Grief causes people to behave in strange ways. The first reaction is usually to find someone to blame for their loss and that person might be you. Offer your condolences and help them with their paperwork if that’s your job, but stay unruffled, detached and professional. Let the grieving family know that while you’re sad for them, deaths are part of your vocation at the hospital.

Dealing With Ethical Issues That Involve Patient’s Family

A number of ethical dramas occur in hospitals. For example, a nurse could be pro-life, while a patient insisting on abortion could be pro-choice. It’s the patient’s decision and if the law permits it, there’s nothing the nurse can do. However, the nurse will still have to support the patient through their decision and deal with the patient’s family calmly. All this calls for a major adjustment of attitude.

Sometimes a patient might need to be told the truth about a certain medical condition he or she is facing. It’s possible that the family is preventing the nurse from telling the patient the truth. What does the nurse do in this case? Tell the truth and antagonize the family and perhaps give them grounds for litigation? Or go with the family and not tell the truth, in which case the patient’s right to the truth is violated?
Distribution of resources causes another issue. Patients on life support vie with patients with a good chance of recovery for the same limited resources. Who deserves these resources better? The family members of the vegetating patient will obviously choose their loved one while the nurses will feel more of a duty towards the one that they can save.

Here are few tips on how to deal with ethical dilemmas that involve patient’s family:
1.Check hospital rules in each case, as well as what the law says. If you find the right guidance, go by it.
2.Talk to your seniors and get the majority opinion in critical cases. Abide by the majority opinion.
3.If the matter is left to you, make the choice that you have to make as part of the care giving team. When there’s a choice, there’s just one way to go, either left or right. You cannot please everyone.
4.Convey your decision to the family members as calmly as possible. Deal with their reactions in a professional manner. Let them know that when they trust you to provide care, they have to leave certain decisions to you.
5.Get someone from the staff to support you through any adverse family reactions.
6.Always keep your seniors and the administrators informed of any major decision you need to take. Obtaining their ok and support in advance can keep you safe.