I have the chance to go to nursing school... In your opinion, what makes a GOOD NURSE?

What makes you tell friends and family, "she is a good nurse"?

It has to be someone who is not only compassionate, but passionate about what they do. My daughter had some substantial health problems for the first year of her life, so we had ample opportunities to meet (and rate, unofficially of course) nurses. Many were compassionate, had that edge that showed they really cared about us as people - an edge that I think is either there or not (you can't learn it!).

The other piece, for me, is really passion. This is hard to measure, but you know the person as soon as you see it. For them, nursing is not a job, it is a calling. It goes beyond the day-to-day completion of medical tasks, and becomes a fire that burns within. You see it in the twinkle in their eye, in the gusto with which they go about their tasks - glad to be there versus stuck there. They have a knack for making each patient feel as if they're the most important.

Anyhow, that's my opinion!

Caring, Dedicates her time to patients, Loving, easy going, Adaptive to any sort of patients as some are lols.. :-)

As a whole, she should be a follower of the Late Mother Therasa who has run a Charity for disabled, orphans & senior citizens..

It sounds obvious, but compassion. The best nurses I've ever worked with have had empathy and compassion for their patients. It's this empathy that makes them go that extra mile - to spend time talking to an anxious patient, to get a patient a cup of tea after their procedure, to call their relatives for them and update them on the situation.

Nurses put up with a lot, and the pay isn't fantastic, but I admire the ones I work with - they balance a highly technical job (how they remember doses and drug names is beyond me), but they do it while having the patient as their main focus.

I do not envy you one bit. Nursing is a very demanding career. But to answer the question, punctual, attentive, polite, and cheerful.

truley caring about the patients

Look your patients in the eye when you speak with them. Do not talk to their family about them as if they were not in the room.

First remember men are nurses too. What also makes a good nurse is have common sense, book smart is ok , but having good pt skills, iv start, givings IM shots. things like that also make a good nurse. Any other questions about nursing email me.

Patients say a good nurse makes them feel comfortable and they want to feel like their nurse listened to them,advocated for them if necessary and cared about them(if only for the time they were on duty). Some complaints about nurses from patients are that the nurses were too busy and too abrupt with them. Patients are often scared and need some reasurance from their nurses.

Two words: Bedside manner.

That should encompass everything. This is what my mother told me when I graduated nursing school. She's a nurse of 40 years.