Nurse Job Description, Skills, and Salary
Get to know about the duties, responsibilities, qualifications, and skills requirements of a nurse. Feel free to use our nurse job description template to produce your own. We also provide you with information about the salary you can earn as a nurse.
Who is a Nurse?
A nurse is someone who has been trained to provide care for people who are injured or sick. To make patients feel well and keep them healthy, nurses work closely with doctors and other health professionals.
As part of the health system, nursing is concerned with the promotion of health and the prevention of illness. It also includes the care of people who are physically or mentally disabled. This can be done in any healthcare setting and health facility.
In caring for the sick, nurses have a unique function. They evaluate their health and assist them in performing activities that contribute to recovery or health. To ensure the quality of the health care system, nurses work together with other health professionals, as well as people in other parts of the public service, on planning, implementation, assessment, and evaluation.
Nurses work in hospitals, rehab facilities, medical clinics, and different healthcare facilities. They are closely associated with doctors to assess patients and adjust treatment techniques as required. They perform physical exams on patients, give vaccines to protect them from illness, and have a positive impact on their lives and patients’ progress. They may be asked to communicate with loved ones regarding their loved one’s health and offer education about how to change or administer medication.
Nurse Job Description
Below are the nurse job description examples you can use to develop your resume or write a nurse job description for your employee. Employers can also use it to sieve out job seekers when choosing candidates for interviews.
- Monitoring and administering intravenous medication
- Taking patient samples, blood pressures, temperatures, pulses, and temperature data
- Providing emotional support and guidance to patients and their relatives
- Tutoring medical students on the basics of nursing
- Keeping accurate and complete records of patients’ health care.
- Assisting patients with medication, administration, and monitoring for side effects or reactions.
- Prescribing assistive medical devices and treatments
- Recording medical information and vital signs of patients.
- Ordering clinical and diagnostic tests.
- Monitoring, recording, and reporting symptoms or changes in patient health conditions.
- Assisting healthcare team members in assessing, planning, implementing, and evaluating patient care plans.
- Modifying treatment plans for patients by following their responses and conditions.
- Keeping track of patient behavior and observing them.
- Performing physical exams and diagnostic tests
- Collecting patient health history
- Counseling the patients and their families about treatment plans.
- Reading and interpreting patient information to make treatment decisions
- Talking to the doctor and supervisor to help you decide the best treatment plan.
- Supervising, directing, and supervising nurses, nursing assistants, and nurse aids
- Investigating ways to improve healthcare outcomes and processes
- Assessing, watching, and speaking with patients.
- Recording the details and symptoms of a patient’s medical history and current health
- Preparing patients and their families for treatment and exams
- Preparing and administering medications, and then monitoring patients for side effects and reactions
- Creating, implementing, and evaluating patient care plans together with the medical staff
- Assisting with wound care, including cleaning and bandaging.
- Assisting in any medical procedure as required
- Collecting blood, urine, and other fluids.
- Educating patients and their families on care plans and treatment.
- Supervising licensed vocational and practical nurses, nursing assistants, or nursing students
Qualifications
- Master’s or bachelor’s degree in nursing
- You must successfully pass the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX-RN).
- You must have current state licensure to be a registered nurse or BLS certification.
- Have an ACLS certification
- Effective communication with patients, family members, doctors, and hospital staff.
- Basic computer skills.
- Possess a friendly and professional attitude
- Having a home health care experience is an advantage
- You will need to be able to provide intensive or emergency care.
Essential Skills
Few careers are more rewarding than nursing. There are many benefits to nursing, including professional respect, flexibility in job opportunities, advancement potential, and the possibility of making a difference in someone’s life. Students need to understand that healthcare is not without its difficulties.
You need to have certain personality traits and characteristics to be successful in nursing. Here are some characteristics that make a nurse a great one.
- Empathy
Empathy can be defined as the ability to understand and feel what another person feels from their perspective. Empathy is for nurses what it means to be able to see the world through their eyes and understand their perspective. Patients who call for help, then watch in horror as nurses pass by their hospital beds don’t see the many others that the nurse is trying her best to help. They don’t see anyone who seems to care about their needs.
A nurse can stop for a second to ensure that help is available. This will change the patient’s entire healthcare experience, and create trust. Nurses can work with people of all backgrounds. Empathy is crucial if nurses are going to be able to anticipate the patient’s needs and understand their emotional responses.
Not all people are born with empathy, many people lack it because they don’t know what the full extent of life has been like for others and how it has affected them.
- Emotional Stability
Each day can bring with it a wide range of emotions such as joy, surprise, and sadness. A nurse can face difficult situations every day. However, to be able to effectively manage patients, colleagues, and family members, they must remain calm in the face of problems and challenges.
Does that mean nurses shouldn’t be troubled by difficult, even tragic circumstances? However, emotional stability shouldn’t be confused with a lack of emotion. It simply means that nurses need to be able to manage their emotions to help patients get the support and care they need. Research shows that emotionally stable nurses can be more focused, problem solve and keep their patients safe.
Empathy and emotional stability are skills that nurses can learn, but they take time. The nursing staff needs patience. Reframing expectations, balancing viewpoints, and remaining mindful are all effective methods to dissipate intense reactions.
- Communication skills
Nurses need top-notch communication skills. As nurses act as a link between patients and doctors, they also communicate vital information to family members. It can lead to serious consequences if someone is not on the ball. Poor communication can lead to common medical mistakes, such as errors in medication orders transcription, missing information on hospital discharge paperwork, or life-threatening allergies that are not listed in a patient’s charts. If these errors are made correctly, they can cause serious harm.
Nursing professionals must communicate clearly by being able to read, write, and present information verbally.
The therapeutic tool of communication is used by healthcare professionals to establish relationships with their patients. Therapy communication allows nurses to communicate with patients using proven verbal and nonverbal techniques. This helps them make patients feel more at ease and more open to discussing their problems. Healthcare professionals can perform their duties and patients will benefit from a better experience when they can have an open dialogue.
For patients, lack of information can cause anxiety and fear. They might delay making difficult decisions or decline care altogether, rather than risking embarrassment and asking questions they fear will make them look uninformed. Instead of waiting to receive information, nurses can encourage patients to share their concerns with them. This helps them feel more at ease and establishes a trusting relationship.
Communication is a skill used nurses use every single day. From breaking down communication barriers between colleagues to using therapeutic methods to increase dialogue with patients and families to facilitate effective communication among colleagues, it’s a skill that nurses use daily.
- Desire For Learning
A professional license in nursing is necessary because caring for others when lives are at risk requires proven clinical skills. Vocational school graduates are not expected to be able to do everything.
Healthcare is ever-changing. Although nursing programs can teach you all the clinical skills necessary for a career in nursing, it’s important to keep learning and practicing to become fully qualified, especially in specialty areas like critical care or infusion therapy.
Nurses are responsible for evaluating their skills and avoiding taking on additional tasks without any support. Healthcare providers are required to take a vow of no harm.
Being a nurse is a profession that requires dedication to learning and motivation to keep up with the latest developments. It is expected that nurses will continue to learn and grow through continuous training. In most states, this requirement is needed for the renewal of their licenses. It’s a remarkable achievement to graduate from a vocational school, but it’s only the beginning.
- Critical Thinking
Critical thinking refers to the ability to critically evaluate information and draw objective conclusions. This is a systematic, self-directed approach to thinking that allows nurses to quickly interpret data and prioritize patient needs.
Critical thinking is important because nurses are often part of a healthcare team. However, their practice is independent and they make all the decisions. While nurses may be able to place catheters quickly, fix leaking bladders, and manage intravenous lines with blindfolds, they will not be able to handle high-pressure situations.
While not all healthcare settings are at the same speed, nurses cannot avoid making difficult decisions. It’s possible to learn and cultivate critical thinking skills in school and beyond.
- Open-Mindedness
Many people have different experiences which can have a profound impact on their thinking and behavior. Some may also have unique opinions that nurses might not be able to accept.
Patients who refuse to receive a blood transfusion due to their religious beliefs, parents who don’t want to vaccinate their children for safety reasons, or a client with a terminal illness who decides not to take life-sustaining treatment are all examples of unique emotional challenges. The principle of autonomy is the right of a patient to make their own healthcare decisions. It applies to all patients, regardless of what choices they make.
Nurses today must also be culturally competent. Cultural competence refers to the ability to care for and support patients from different cultures, religions, languages, and customs. Nurses can help in many ways, including by working with interpreters and assigning patients of religiously sensitive genders to their providers. They also need to respect the patient’s right to modesty during physical exams.
Nursing is a profession that many people choose to enter. However, nurses must be open-minded and willing to learn from others to provide culturally appropriate and patient-centered care.
How to Become a Nurse
Step 1: Get a degree
To become a registered nurse practitioner (RN), you must have a formal education. Except for a few rare exceptions, most positions in nursing require a bachelor’s degree. Some positions are possible for candidates with an associate degree, while others require advanced degrees. Although it may seem difficult to choose from the many degree programs, this is a good thing. You have many options. This will allow you to choose the right degree program for you. It may also help you decide what type of nurse you want or what university you would like to attend.
Step 2: Get a license
The most important thing in a nurse’s career is to earn a nursing license by passing the national nursing licensure exam (NCLEX). Individuals will not be allowed to practice nursing if they do not have the right credentials. The requirements for licensure vary depending on the state, nursing specialty, and occupation. Although most administrative departments of nursing programs can assist you in obtaining the right licensure, it is important to understand what examinations you need to take.
Step 3: Find employment
Once you have been properly educated, licensed, and certified, all that is left is to find a job. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, nursing is a growing profession that will grow by 15% in 2026. This is more than twice the national average growth rate for all occupations. Not to be overlooked is that nursing has grown in popularity, which will increase competition for available positions.
The location and the specific area of nursing may have an impact on employment opportunities. Long-term care facilities will see an increase in demand for registered nurses. There are also exciting opportunities in places that have established medical communities. New York City and Philadelphia are two examples. Both cities and the surrounding areas have outstanding hospitals and universities that offer top-notch nursing degrees.
Step 4: Select a specialty
After graduating from a nursing program, passing the NCLEX, and completing a qualifying exam, you can choose to go into a specialty in nursing. It is not necessary to choose a specialty immediately. Certain nursing positions that are associated with other specialties may require additional certifications or advanced degrees.
Step 5: Continue your nursing career by pursuing additional training
This may not be for everyone, but it may be beneficial to those with career goals. As in other professions, nursing is a field where further education can lead to higher salaries and more responsibility. There are many options available for advanced nursing degrees.
Where to Work
Registered nurses can work in hospitals, doctors’ offices, nursing homes, and other healthcare settings. Other nurses work in schools and outpatient clinics.
Nurse Salary Scale
On average, a registered nurse earns $33.85 an hour. The pay rate for a nurse will vary depending on the level of education, experience, and geographical location. The average salary for a registered nurse in the United States is $80,000, while the median salary is $75,330.
