Community health nurse skills for your resume and career

Communication, critical thinking, problem-solving, flexibility.

Clinical skills specific to the nurse's setting, electronic recordkeeping, patient assessment, and prioritizing appropriate interventions.

Communication will never go away, but is moving to a highly virtual format. You need to be able to articulate well in writing and orally. You also need to be relatable and personable. Working interprofessionally and collaboratively is going to be the expectation. Managing high volumes of information in shorter time periods. This is usually seen through the electronic health records and electronic communication.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. With that said, there will always be universal skills that are required for the nursing profession. Skills such as being a great listener. A great listener to me is a nurse who has empathy. A nurse who has empathy can put themselves in the patient's shoes and therefore, will be better at meeting that particular patient's needs. A nurse with empathy will know how to ask the right questions, in a way that is nonjudgmental, and uses open-ended questions that empower the patient to share their true self.

Building relationships with patients is vital for patient education and teaching. So much of nursing is teaching. If the nurse does not have the skill of relationship building, many opportunities to truly create change in the patient's life will be lost. When we (the nursing profession) truly see and understand what our patient's lives look like, then we put ourselves and our patients in the best possible position to create life-long change.

Life-long learning - nursing is based on Evidence-Based Practice. What that means is that the nursing profession is constantly researching and developing best practices. That means, if you are entering the profession, you have to be quick to adapt and open to constant change. Even more so than open, eager to find the best way to deliver world-class patient care.

Maintaining life balance - I have been a nurse for 28 years, and this profession is much more difficult now than it was when I started. In order for bedside nurses to be effective, and to not develop compassion fatigue/burnout... homeostasis has to be achieved. A young nurse just entering the profession has to know how to keep balance. Whether it is yoga, journaling, exercising, eating well, sleeping well,... all of these components have to be in balance so the nurse can come to work refreshed and recharged.

Obviously - one of the key components to being a great nurse and having sustainability in this profession is to be a critical thinker. Nothing is as it seems, and this profession demands nurses to constantly be on their toes and to be thinking critically about why they do what they do. Whether it is passing a specific medication, performing a diagnostic test, ... the ability to constantly think critically is vital for patient safety.
There are so many more, but I have to get back to work, and this is taking longer than I thought...

To properly implement this new, inevitable working culture which will impact the job market, the employers will start looking for the new type of employee, capable of efficiently working alone, remotely, flexible in the hours, and schedule accommodation since no physical buildings will be necessary thus eliminating the need for the teams sharing a location in a given city or even country. Meeting, conferences, discussions will be held with participants in different geographical and time zones. The capacity to adapt to continuous changes and innovation will be an indispensable skill sought after by employers second only to the most important, the highest valued skill technical knowledge and expertise in the new formats. Computer, digitalization, web navigation, encryption of data and messages.