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Hard and soft skills are essential to become a registered nurse. What are the differences between these two types of nursing skills, and how are they used?

Why are hard and soft nursing skills important?

Balancing hard and soft nursing skills helps a nurse become well-rounded and an asset in any healthcare setting. Registered nurses use countless skills to perform their duties throughout the workday. They might perform a general assessment, starting with vital signs and moving on to symptoms or signs of distress—and that's just the first few minutes after a patient walks into a room.

Nurses also demonstrate various interpersonal skills when communicating with peers, doctors, patients and patients’ loved ones in the waiting room. Ultimately, they need both hard skills and soft skills to succeed in the nursing profession.

Hard skills for nurses 

Nurses use numerous examples of hard skills to complete the day-to-day tasks of patient care. For instance, when performing a patient intake, the nurse conducts a physical assessment and takes both a medical and social history.

Nursing is a highly technical profession, which is why many courses and training opportunities focus on hard skills. Nursing can require these hard skills:

• Clinical skills: Clinical procedures can require nurses to give injections, dress wounds and assist with examinations.
• Patient assessment: Nurses need to assess patients’ conditions by monitoring vital signs, interviewing patients and performing examinations.
• Administering medication: Properly dispensing medication, calculating dosages and understanding drug interactions are key.
• Use of medical equipment: Nurses must know how to use a wide range of medical equipment, from basic tools like thermometers to complex machines like ventilators and IVs.
• CPR and first aid: Often first responders, nurses need to be skilled and confident in triage treatments like CPR and first aid.
• Electronic health record (EHR) management: means nurses must be proficient at using EHR systems to document patient information.
• Infection control: Nurses need to understand infection control protocols to prevent the spread of diseases in healthcare settings.
• Patient education: Nurses should be able to educate patients and families about disease management, care after discharge and lifestyle changes.

How to improve hard nursing skills

Education is one clear pathway to develop and hone nursing skills, especially your hard skills, but there are other ways too. These include on-the-job training and day-to-day work experience. For example, facing problems, thinking on their feet and finding solutions can help nurses strengthen their skill sets.

Soft skills for nurses

While hard skills allow nurses to complete their daily tasks, soft skills help them create better experiences for everyone they encounter. Some of the most commonly used soft skills in nursing are:

• Clear communication: It is crucial to accurately share patient information with doctors and other health professionals. also helps nurses explain medical terms to patients and ensure they understand their condition and treatment plans.
• Positive attitude: An upbeat attitude makes a world of difference in patient care. It can mitigate anxiety and reassure patients and their families as they learn about conditions and treatments. Additionally, it helps nurses cope with the stress and challenges of their work.
• Teamwork: Effective teamwork ensures coordination of patient care. Nurses work with doctors, pharmacists and other providers. Teamwork skills can foster efficient and safe patient care.
• Problem-solving: Nurses need to make quick decisions in unexpected situations. Effective problem-solving skills help nurses analyze situations, consider solutions and choose an appropriate action to ensure patient safety and well-being.
• Leadership: Nurses who want to grow in their careers — such as becoming charge nurses or directors of nursing — should cultivate leadership skills, which are essential for supervising aides and other staff. Such skills help ensure team members understand their roles and responsibilities, which might lead to better patient care.
• Empathy: Empathy and emotional intelligence allow nurses to understand their patients’ feelings. This is key to providing compassionate care. It also helps build trust with patients, which can make them more receptive to care and treatment.

How to improve soft skills as a nurse

Soft skills can be harder to teach in a formal education program. Often, nurses acquire them through experience, such as working with larger teams, collaborating or being put in situations that require management or critical thinking.

What do these skills look like in practice?

A well-balanced mix of nursing skills can help a nurse in their profession. A nurse might use a hard skill to give a patient an injection or medication but use the soft skill of compassion and communication to make it easier for them. If a patient fears needles, the nurse can pick up on these cues using emotional intelligence. The nurse might then distract the patient with a funny story or empathize with how much they hate needles too. The patient might feel better about the experience because the nurse connected with them emotionally.

Nurses are usually tasked with charting and clinical documentation. This requires being detail-oriented. Nurses also communicate when providing patient care and speaking to patients about managing their diagnoses.

Throughout a nursing career, soft skills should evolve. Nurses will likely need to practice active listening to learn and grow. They might hone leadership skills and conflict-resolution abilities as they advance in their careers and step into a management role. 

Develop essential nursing skills

Both hard and soft nursing skills including compassion in population health, professionalism in nursing and critical thinking are taught in Registered Nurse to Bachelor of Science in Nursing programs.

For licensed RNs seeking to learn these additional nursing skills that can guide them in their careers, �鶹��ý offers online nursing online programs including:

• RN to BSN 
• RN to BSN (Competency Based

Contact �鶹��ý for more information.