5 Reasons Why Moms Can Be Better Nurses
Nursing is a challenging profession. Not only do nurses have to take care of patients with their clinical skills, but they also have to meet their patients’ emotional needs. Such are the requirements of the nursing profession that very few have what it takes to make it in the profession. On the other hand, some people are just better suited for the role than others.
Mothers are best suited for the nursing profession based on the qualities they develop when child-rearing. Mothers are better nurses than others because they bring maternal and nurturing qualities developed through motherhood to their nursing profession.
But moms cannot become quality nurses based solely on their motherhood skills, and they need to receive the proper education to make it into the nursing profession.
Nursing Programs Help Mothers Upskill
One of the best ways nurses can bolster their skill levels is by gaining more knowledge and experience. By doing so, a nurse practically enhances not only her chances of employability but improved performance as well. A more advanced degree helps a nurse in developing a well-rounded knowledge base of the medical diseases and diagnoses.
Judging by today’s standards, where pursuing a traditional degree is not only expensive but also time consuming, it is hard for working nurses to pursue advanced degrees.
A better way to realize your dream is to go for online nursing programs. There are tons of options available here, for example, the Bradley University’s family nurse practitioner online programs is a great way for FNP nurses to pursue advanced degree programs.
Nurses are frontline workers
Before diving into the reasons why moms make better nurses, lets first try to understand the invaluable service that nurses play. Within the clinical context, nurses have many roles to play. They are there to not only care for the patients’ medical needs but also their emotional needs for support.
Some key nursing duties include: –
- Providing emotional support and care to patients
- Conducting health checkups
- Record medical history
- Keeping tabs on patient files
- Administration of medicine
- Operation of medical tools/machinery
- Performing diagnostic tests
Mom Skills That Make You a Better Nurse
1 – Multitasking and Stress Management
Moms are always multitasking by constantly supervising their children and taking care of chores around the house. Multitasking becomes second nature after you’ve had a few babies to feed, clothe, and clean.
The repertoire of multitasking skills translates well to nursing as nurses are known for their busy schedules. Nurses operate in the most high-stakes situations. Despite the added pressure of the stakes involved, nurses have to maintain extreme accuracy of medical knowledge and professionalism. These skills are hard to come by and might take years to master. Moms, on the other hand, know what it takes to have your hands full at all times.
2 – Communication
Good communication skills are essential to be a successful nurse. Without proper communication, a lot of things can go wrong within the clinical setting. For instance, if a nurse fails to clearly communicate effectively with doctors about a particular patient’s medical condition, it may lead to an error in medical diagnosis and treatment, which could lead to some tragic results.
Moms hone their communication skills through child-rearing. Picking up on non-verbal cues, moms know what the child needs. Another valuable skill in this regard is the ability to frameshift, or to put yourself in someone else’s perspective, to identify their needs. Moms are always doing this with their children, a skill that can be invaluable in a clinical setting.
3 – Motherly Sacrifice
A mother’s ability to forego her own wants and desires for meeting those of her children is legendary. And, we all owe to it our mothers who have sacrificed so much in raising us. Nurses are making many of the same sacrifices throughout their day. They’ve to forego eating lunch or dinner when a patient needs them, much like a mother would attend to her children’s wants before fulfilling her own needs.
4 – Supervision Skills
Toddlers are notorious troublemakers. Their curious minds lead them to places where they shouldn’t be, i.e., they’ll poke fingers into a plugging hole in the wall or touch the fire stove while something is cooking. Given this, moms have to be on high-alert all times. To keep the children from putting themselves in danger, moms have to supervise their activities from time to time.
Being constantly on the lookout for danger that could hurt their offspring, mothers develop the supervision skills required to perform in nursing. Nurses, too, have to be on the lookout for signs of possible danger in a patient. Often, a disease can be nipped in the bud after proper diagnosis of the symptoms is made. Nurses are required to be on the lookout for how the patient is responding to treatment. While the constant supervision may feel overwhelming, it is indispensable to the nurse’s job.
5 – Critical Skills
Critical thinking is defined as the ability to assess a situation and make the best judgment accordingly. It is a tough trait to master as it requires years of experience and knowledge to think critically. A prerequisite in critical thinking is to evaluate the different angles inherent in a problem, identifying the strengths and weaknesses of treatments, or even to make critical judgement decisions based on limited information available. And sometimes, the decision may come down to choosing something that is the lesser evil of the options available. Making these decisions requires the nurses to be able to think on their feet and make split decisions. However, the final decision has to factor in all the possibilities.
After raising a few children on your own, you start to think in terms of pros and cons almost on autopilot. That’s why moms have this innate ability to weigh options better than others. Their sense of responsibility for their children and patients also factors in and guides their decisions from being cold calculations without any empathy to ones that are full of motherly warmth.
6 – Empathy and Care
To empathize with someone is to put yourself in their shoes and feel what they feel. In order to establish trust with the patients, nurses have to understand their situation. Building trust leads to better communication and a good standard of care. Toward this end, nurses will often tolerate rude behavior because their goal is not to win arguments, but to provide the best care that they can; a lot like how a mother would suffer the demanding behavior of a child. The ability to think from the child’s perspective is a great skill that moms can use in the hospital setting.
Final Thoughts
Moms lead hectic lives due to their responsibilities as mothers. Skills that they acquire while taking care of their children become invaluable for their career as nurses. The nurturing and caring qualities of mothers needed in nursing makes this an ideal career choice for mothers. Mom-skills that have a carryover to nursing include communication, critical thinking, multitasking, stress management, and empathy. These are also essential nursing skills that moms develop innately after taking care of their children. The fact is that motherhood is much like nursing, and nurses are often seen as nurturing and caring figures.