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Nursing skills include everything from completing intake and output paperwork to counseling a dying patient. What point you are at in your career will determine your skill set, but every nurse should have at least a basic understanding of the required skills.
Taking Vital Signs
A nurse must be able to assess the condition of a patient's body temperature, heart function and breathing by accurately taking his temperature, pulse and blood pressure and listening to his lungs and heart.
Medication Administration
Nurses must have an understanding of medications, their uses and how to administer them to the patient. They must also understand basic drug-interaction precautions.
Wound Care
Proper bandaging of wounds and post-surgical care while adhering to strict sanitary guidelines is a basic skill all nurses must know.
Injections
Basic nursing includes preparing and administering injections in a safe and hygienic way. Nurses must know injection sites and what to do in emergencies.
Bathing and Hygeine
Keeping patients clean and their environments sanitary is another skill beginning nurses must have. Nurses are responsible for bathing patients and often changing bed linen and sanitizing patient rooms and nursing stations.
CPR
All entry-level nurses should know cardiopulmonary resuscitation techniques and methods in case of an emergency.
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