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Three Skills to Master in Your First Year of Nursing

Three Skills to Master in Your First Year of Nursing

Source: Minority Nurse

With medical errors making national headlines, it is no secret that both training and experience are integral to success as a new nurse. Almost all nurses enter the field with a college degree, but recent research shows that novices make a large percentage of the errors caused by nurses. To avoid mistakes and build a strong foundation for your nursing career, here are three essential skills to prioritize during your first year as a nurse.

1) Developing Strong Instincts for Patient Safety 

Patient safety is one of your primary responsibilities as a nurse. Safe medication administration is an imperative skill to master in your first year. You are the final check between the prescribing provider and the administration of a medication to the patient. If something feels “off”—maybe the dose seems too high based on doses you have given before or the medication doesn’t seem to fit your assessment of the patient—take a timeout and ensure the prescription is accurate. Mistakes happen even in computer-driven processes, whether a decimal point is missed, a duplicate therapy is accidentally prescribed, or a medication is placed in the wrong slot of a medication dispenser. Before giving any medication, ask yourself, “Are all of the correct pieces in place for me to give this medicine right now?”

Learning to safely calculate medication dosages goes far beyond a textbook. Learning tools like UWorld’s Clinical Med Math allow students to practice and perform dosage calculations without the risk of patient harm if they make a mistake. This tool is meant to be a hands-on resource to help students study for drug calculation exams during school, but it also provides fantastic experience to prepare you for real-world nursing.

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