There are almost 4.7 million registered nurses (RNs) in the United States, making it the nation’s largest healthcare profession. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number is projected to grow by almost 10%.
Nursing is one of the fastest-growing and in-demand professions. The U.S. is also known to offer some of the highest rates of pay for nurses globally and also provides comprehensive compensation packages.
With that being said, like the rest of healthcare—nursing is also a rapidly evolving field. Nursing now covers more duties than traditionally associated with the role, and skills extending beyond clinical knowledge are a must.
This article will cover the hard and soft skills that are now essential if you want to be a successful nurse. Whether you’re a nursing student or planning to advance your career through an affordable MSN to FNP program, these skills can improve your quality of care, increase the chance of positive patient outcomes, and more.
Why are nursing skills important?
Nurses use a combination of technical, clinical, and soft skills to provide care to their patients. Understanding these skills is foundational to fulfilling the duty of care to patients and working in a team environment.
Soft skills, also known as interpersonal skills, are personal attributes that can enhance the quality of care and nurse-patient relationships. For example, these include empathy, communication ability, and critical thinking.
These soft skills are just as important as ‘hard’ skills, which refers to clinical competencies essential to performing tasks, such as IV insertion and medical administration. Data shows that soft skills can improve patient experience and satisfaction.
The five nursing skills you need
Going into 2025, nurses will need to be highly adaptable, resilient, and tech-savvy. This is because data shows the United States is currently facing an aging population problem, which is causing massive strain on healthcare systems.
Healthcare is still recovering from the pandemic when it comes to the workforce burning out, retiring, or changing careers. This means in 2025 there’ll still be a nursing shortage while demand grows for care.
So, to provide care to the rapidly aging population and combat the rise in chronic diseases, nurses will need to adapt. To overcome the workforce shortage and these crises, they will need to master emerging technologies and soft skills, like emotional intelligence, to provide successful care.
1. Technological proficiency
Healthcare is becoming increasingly digital, to help combat workforce shortages and increase productivity. For example, many healthcare organizations are moving towards completely digital systems for administration.
Remote healthcare (telehealth/telemedicine) is also on the rise. So, understanding and being proficient in these emerging virtual consultation tools and electronic health record platforms are critical to being a successful nurse in 2025.
Studies have found that since the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of hospitals offering telehealth appointments has risen starkly. It has quickly become the norm, with all types of healthcare organizations, from hospitals to clinics, offering virtual appointments.
2. Critical thinking
Strong critical thinking and problem-solving skills are crucial in healthcare, especially as there is a nationwide nursing shortage. The industry will need creative solutions to compensate for the lack of staff.
Strong critical thinking skills include being able to deploy problem-solving strategies in fast-paced and high-pressure environments. Nurses need to be able to analyze and identify potential solutions efficiently.
3. Resilience and adaptability
Resilience is a term used to describe the ability to turn adversity into opportunities and learn from demanding situations. In 2025, resilience will be a must-have skill, as demand for care grows, and healthcare is facing an aging population, a rise in chronic diseases, and a mental health crisis.
Nurses, like many healthcare workers, will be facing various stressful and difficult situations daily. So, it’s important to build personal resilience skills, like through personal development classes.
Similarly, adaptability is an indispensable skill in the nursing world. Healthcare is extremely unpredictable, so having the resilience to withstand unexpected situations and adapt to sudden change is crucial.
4. Emotional intelligence
Emotion intelligence (EQ) is the ability to understand and manage your emotions and the emotions of others. It is a critical soft skill to learn as a nurse, as it can help with further understanding your patient, promote effective communication, and stress reduction.
Components of emotional intelligence include:
- Self-awareness
- Emotional regulation
- Motivation
- Empathy
- Social skills
Data shows that nurses with high emotional intelligence provide better quality of care. They also build a better rapport with their patients, increase the chance of a positive outcome, and reduce the risk of dissatisfaction.
5. Stress management
Research has long supported the idea that nursing is one of the most stressful professions. A recent government-commissioned survey added further weight to the evidence, with findings revealing nurses are 40% more likely to suffer stress than other technical and professional workers.
While nursing is considered a hard job, the work stresses can have a negative impact on health, quality of life, and the ability to provide effective care to patients. This increases the risk of mental health conditions, like depression and anxiety.
In severe cases, it can also lead to burnout—one of the leading contributors to the current nursing workforce shortage. So, nurses need to have strong stress management abilities and understand strategies to reduce stress, like mindfulness, to reduce the negative impact.
