nursing skills

This essay is going describe the skills that student nurses need to demonstrate to show that they have a clear understanding of good nursing practice. This essay will focus on four inter-related skills that complement each other in achieving goals (Barker 2007). The goal that these nursing skills seek to achieve is good nursing practice as according to Nursing and Midwifery Council’s (NMC 2008) mission of protecting the health and welfare of the public. NMC is the National Regulatory body that stipulates and regulates standards of education, training, and conduct of nurses and midwives throughout Great Britain and islands. They have published four core principles to ensure people are treated as individuals with respect and dignity and to ensure professional integrity is upheld. The four inter-related skills that is described in this article are as follows; communication skill, observational skill, reflective skill, hand hygiene and infection control. One of the essential skills that a student nurse should demonstrate to show understanding of good nursing practice is effective communication. Communication is defined as the process of transmission or exchange between two or more people of information and feelings. (Department of Health 2003 cited in Brackenridge and Blows 2008). Effective communication is indispensable in Healthcare environment, especially in nursing care because it enables establishment of the therapeutic interpersonal relationship between nurses and patients (Sully 2012). Breckenridge and Blow (2003) classified communication into verbal and non-verbal communication. They referred verbal communication as the actual vocal words used to transmit a message. Whilst the non-verbal consist of body language and facial expression, paralanguages such as vocal tones. Nurse should be aware of these because they are often transmitted unconsciously.
Communication may be interpersonal, that is between two or more individuals or it can be written

References: Nursing and Midwifery Council (2008) Guidance on professional conduct, pp4-18. Alexander, M, (2011) Nursing practice, 4th Edit, pp 2-5 ,499-515 Barker, P, (2007) Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, 2nd Edit, pp 3-10 O’Regean H, Fawcett T (2006), Learning to nurse ; reflection on bathing a patient; Nursing standards 20,46,60-64. Miller J and Gibb S (2010) Care in Practice for Higher, 2nd Edit, pp 63-76