• Providing care and comfort to the sick and injured, nurses are esteemed members of the modern health care team. To become a nurse, you'll need certain soft skills -- or personal qualities -- that you can't learn in a school or find in a book. Soft skills can be just as important as technical skills when it comes to professional success, and employers may look for these qualities in addition to examples of formal training during the hiring process.
  
  

Communication Skills

• Nurses need to effectively give and receive information. This is sometimes difficult if the patient is upset, speaks another language or has a condition that hinders communication, such as deafness or trauma to the mouth. Nurses need listening skills to decipher what the patient is communicating through his words, his facial expression and his behaviors. Providing information to patients is another aspect of communication. Nurses have to choose an appropriate time to talk to patients and families, providing information in simple, clear and honest ways.
  
  

Empathy

• The World English Dictionary defines empathy as "the power of understanding and imaginatively entering into another person's feelings." In other words, empathy is the ability to put yourself in someone else's shoes. The World Health Organization identifies this soft skill as the most important element of communication with patients: "The key is to care about the patient as a person, to recognize that this is a human being like you, who is sick and perhaps in pain, who is in need of your help."
  
  

Teamwork

• Nurses are part of an interdisciplinary health care team that includes other professionals, such as physicians, pharmacists, physical therapists and social workers. The nurses' role on the team involves several activities that are essential to patient care. They carry out treatments prescribed by the doctor, they coordinate the activities of other professionals and they empower the patient to participate in his care.
  
  

Decision-Making Skills

• Nurses have to use good judgment and make quick decisions about the patient's care. They decide when to administer treatments or medications that are prescribed "as needed," and they respond to unexpected patient needs throughout the day. Nurses have to use their judgment and balance what they know about the individual patient, that patient's needs and the likely consequences of their decisions.
  
  

Ability to Multitask

• The Mayo Clinic looks for nurses who have "skills in managing multiple tasks by prioritizing and delegating as necessary." This is especially true in hospitals, where nurses are responsible for many patients with complex needs. A study by researchers at the University of Michigan found that in two Midwestern U.S. hospitals, nurses spent an average of 34 percent of their time multitasking.