What are Core Skills for Nurses

Skills, as definded by the NHS.

Academically speaking, if you were to pursue a Nursing degree, some of the courses you'd need to take would be: Anatomy and physiology, microbiology, nutrition, human growth and development, pharmacology, some kind of pathology course, etc.

triceretops said:

The definition of "core" I think is the issue here.

Damn it, I wish this could be just a simple solution, but it seems like it's relative according to the website source's interpretation of core skills.

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"Core skills" would be the things that every nurse must be able to DO in order to work effectively as a nurse.

This is indeed a separate & different question from the core body of knowledge, i.e. the things that every nurse needs to KNOW in order to do the job.

I would not expect much overlap between them except on the fringes.

triceretops said:

I'm writing an article about core skills required for nursing.
I need at least five small topics. Now, by core skills do they mean education in biology, chemistry, math and so forth? Or does this involve communication skills, judgement and decision making and customer/personal service type issues?

I'm just confused as to what the most important "core skills" are associated with nursing, or becoming a nurse. Can someone furnish some examples of the most important ones that I can elaborate on?
Tri

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I'm a little confused. You must be writing this article for a particular reason. Either it was assigned or you're writing for a particular organization/person/magazine.

Can't you ask them/him/her/it what it is they want? What do they mean?

Well, I've been a nurse for thirty years, let me see if I can remember core skills. First you need to know that nursing is one of the few professions that is not regulated as far as degrees are concerned. You can get your RN by going to school for 2 years, diploma, or three years, associate, or four years, bachelors. The difference is in the extraneous courses you take in the 3 & 4 year programs. You're still an RN at the end of the day.

Core skills to me would mean basic knowledge every nurse absolutely needs to know. Basic anatomy and physiology would be key. Communication is another absolute necessity, both with staff and patients, empathy and compassion and of course what is normal so you can detect what is abnormal. Most nurses know next to nothing when they graduate. The first year working is the start of the real education. I have seen nurses who have amazing book smArts but very little common sense. They are under the impression that their comfort is more important than their patients. To me these nurses lack many core skills that make one a good nurse.
Not sure if any of this helps, but maybe you can use some of it.

Not sure if this helps, but when I applied to nursing school (at a local community college) they said I needed to have taken biology and chemistry classes in order to qualify for their nursing class. Oddly, having taken my GED automatically gave me a biology credit, but not a chemistry credit. Unfortunately, by the time I would have finished the chemistry class, it would have been too late to sign up for the next nursing class, which meant it would have been two years before I could start my actual training. I was too impatient and decided to pursue a different path in life.

Well there's technical skills and people skills and recordkeeping skills, etc. I'd suggest touching on everything +/- academic requirements before and during nursing school, but that would make a very long article.

At the risk of actually writing your article for you

I would use ADPIE as a way to discuss the 5 core skills for nurses:

ADPIE is Assessment, Diagnosis, Planning, Implementation and Evaluation.

Assessment: assess health and illness, adaptation, needs, etc. This requires knowledge of anatomy, physiology, psychology, pathophysiology, etc.

Diagnosis: nursing diagnosis, how is the client (and a client may be a person, family, community) adapting to the issues noted in the assessment? Look up nursing diagnoses to see what issues a nurse will help a client address.

Planning: core skill in, well, planning nursing interventions.

Implementation: actually executing nursing care

Evaluation: recheck how things are going.

Hope this helps. ADPIE really are the core skills for nurses and how they care for clients.