Quality of a good nurse

A good nurse is the best a human being can be.’ How true? To be able to reduce misery and save lives is the most incredible feat good nurses achieve on a daily basis. Nurses have the enormous privilege of touching and changing lives. I know Jesus died a long time ago, but good nurses perform miracles every second of the day. It requires an awesome level of conscientiousness.

 

So, what makes a good nurse?

 

A cousin of mine rushed his father to the emergency room with acute retention of urine. The man could not pass urine due to obstruction caused by an enlarged prostate gland. A nurse came out, took one look at the old man and called the son aside. “Your father is dying,” he said. “You should go and buy a big cow to celebrate his long life.”

 

I asked him to remove his father to another hospital immediately. At the new hospital, the nurses asked the right questions, examined the patient and passed a urinary catheter. The patient felt immediate relief. His blood pressure settled and he stopped sweating profusely while he suddenly found his voice. He lived for much longer and the family did not buy a cow!

 

There are many qualities that make a good nurse but humanity, curiosity and professionalism are the key values.

 

Humanity

 

A good nurse is a human being who can relate to others as if they are members of a family. Once you see your patients as an extension of your own humanity, you will go that extra mile to do the best you can for them. The question that really great nurses often ask is: ‘What if this was my family?’Once you answer that question correctly, you would move mountains.

 

Studies show that having a warm and accessible nurse not only makes you a more satisfied patient, it also has another important benefit. Experts say when patients trust their nurse, they are more likely to adhere to treatment plans and follow advice. They add that if you’re looking for a good nurse, start by looking for a human being who cares about people. A good nurse must be able to treat all patients equally, regardless of their ethnicity, lifestyle choices or conduct. The job is to treat your patients, not to judge them.

 

A good nurse is not looking for a community that can support his/her needs. Rather, he or she is looking for a community that desperately need his or her attention. It is an altered mindset looking for who you can help with compassion and your expertise. This is different from many who work in our hospitals or areas where they hunger to get the most pay for the least amount of work. Such nurses often have little respect for people and are largely unsupportive when they are truly needed.

 

Curiosity

 

A good nurse has fine manners and excellent communication skills. It is not enough to know your job and do it well; you are in a wrong profession if you have terrible bedside manners and lack empathy. A nurse’s ability to explain, listen and empathise has a profound impact on a patient’s care. A good bedside manners is simply good medicine.

 

The best nurses always ask courteous questions, let people talk, and listen to them carefully. They give unbiased advice, let people participate actively in all decisions related to their health and health care, assess each situation carefully, and help whatever the situation is.

 

Many patients tell us what is wrong with them and exactly where the problem is, in many situations. Usually, you might find that you have a rough idea of what is wrong with your patient within the first minute of their visit, but until you’ve dug deeper and got a real understanding of their situation, you will not be able to treat them to the best of your ability. Listening and hearing exactly right is therefore fundamental to making the right diagnosis. If you are distracted, you could miss vital clues.

 

Professionalism

 

This is of utmost importance, along with your skills. It is critical that you behave well and maintain a professional distance from your patients. They need to feel safe in your company to disclose information at their discretion, and they need to be sure that anything they say will not be broadcast. Nurse/patient confidentiality is extremely important and it has been a fundamental strand of nursing ethics.

 

If a patient feels they are being cared for by the right nurse who has taken an interest in their well-being, their body will suppress their awareness of pain and they will experience faster recovery. And, conversely, the stress of having a bad nurse who doesn’t show an interest can actually prolong the patient’s suffering.

 

Finally, the nurse should be a human being, happy, healthy, caring and competent. They should have a balanced life and care for themselves and their families too.

 

NB: There is a real need to train and test nurses in interpersonal and communication skills in Nigeria. Therefore, we have started improving nursing standards courses in Abuja. The workshops and lectures on all aspects of nursing take place every Saturday. Run by two great nurses, Joy Ugochukwu and Cecilia Nwankwo, they hope to elevate nursing care to lofty heights. See Facebook for more details.

 

By: Biodun Ogungbo

Punch News