Nurse practitioners are some of the most in-demand and essential professionals in the healthcare industry. Any registered nurse who holds a BSN can train to become a family nurse practitioner with a range of master’s and other advanced degree programs designed to prepare them for this career. These advanced nursing professionals are specially trained to take on a higher level of responsibility than registered nurses, including diagnosing conditions, prescribing medications, and referring patients for further treatment without being signed off by a physician in many states across the US. Once qualified and licensed, nurse practitioners can often run their own clinics and work in other healthcare settings.
Here are some of the critical skills and qualities needed to become a successful nurse practitioner.
Communication Skills
Nurse practitioners need to have strong communication skills to succeed. As a nurse practitioner, you will need to effectively communicate with people who might be going through some of the worst or scariest times of their lives. Nurse practitioners treat their patients and act as an advocate for them. Coach patients to improve their recovery by offering clear information and guidelines regarding medication, treatments, and more options.
Quick-Thinking
While family nurse practitioners will often tend to work in more predictable healthcare environments such as clinics, they do need to possess the ability to think on their feet and make the right decisions quickly. Some nurse practitioners might work in the ER or in an urgent care center where they could be dealing with emergency situations where their decision will hold a lot of weight. Being calm and level-headed even when under a lot of pressure to make the right call is crucial.
Empathy and Compassion
A good nurse practitioner is somebody who can put themselves in their patient’s shoes and build a solid and trusting relationship with them. Patients expect nurse practitioners to be somebody they can trust to do the right thing by themselves and be committed to providing them with the highest standards of care. Since family nurse practitioners might sometimes be working with patients who are in a lot of pain, confused, or scared for the future, being able to imagine how they are feeling in that moment and treat them accordingly can go a very long way.
Confidence
Since many states permit nurse practitioners to work independently and trust the judgments and decisions, nurse practitioners need to be somebody confident in themselves and their work. To achieve this, family nurse practitioners must often become dedicated to learning more and ensuring that their knowledge is always current and up-to-date. Nurse practitioners need to be confident in their understanding and sure that they can carry out their work without the risk of making mistakes; this might sometimes mean having the confidence to be able to admit when you might not be sure about something and call in another healthcare professional to get their opinion and advice.
Ethical
A good nurse practitioner takes ethics seriously and puts patient dignity and respect at the forefront of every aspect of their job. Adhering to nursing ethics will usually mean that you are a person who has a lot of integrity, always doing the right thing even when nobody’s watching. Patients trust nurse practitioners to make the right decisions about their care on their behalf and trust them to treat them with respect and follow strict ethics guidelines at every step of the process.
Adaptability
Adapting to situations that can change very quickly is a top quality that is needed in any good family nurse practitioner. No two days will be the same in this job, and a slow day could turn into a fast-paced one in just minutes. No matter the setting that they work in, any health professional knows that there will always be this potential for things to change at any point during a typical working day. In addition to adapting to day-to-day changes at work, nurse practitioners must also embrace and adapt to more significant changes in the broader healthcare industry, such as new diseases like COVID-19 or the use of new equipment across the board.
Leadership
Nurse practitioners are often seen as leaders in the nursing field and might often charge nursing teams and clinical work. Many family nurse practitioners run their own clinics or manage retail clinics, which are fast-growing healthcare providers that allow patients to get healthcare advice and treatment for minor issues inside stores like Walmart. Nurse practitioners are likely to find themselves in some kind of authority position during their career, so good leadership skills are absolutely crucial to their success.
Learning Commitment
Finally, any good nurse practitioner needs to know that things are constantly changing in this career. There will always be new healthcare policies introduced, research that leads to new treatments and medications, changes to guidelines and best practices, and new diseases that appear in the population. Nurse practitioners need to commit to constant learning and improvement to remain good at their jobs. Despite having advanced nursing qualifications, nurse practitioners know that their knowledge at graduation might go out of date and are constantly striving to ensure that they have the most current and updated knowledge and skills. They might do this by taking online courses, further on-the-job training classes, or regularly researching the latest updates in healthcare.
Today, nurse practitioners are more important than ever in healthcare. If you consider this role for your future career, these are just some of the main qualities needed to succeed.