Psychology

Abstract
This research paper describes three essential characteristics of a successful nurse.  This nurse is committed to his or her job, that is, the alleviation of human suffering.  He or she is emotionally intelligent, that is, compassionate, a good communicator, and adept at managing stress.  Moreover, the successful nurse is he or she that has achieved professional competence.  Lacking any of these three characteristics, a nurse cannot achieve his or her professional goals.  These characteristics are interconnected.  In fact, these are conditions for a successful nursing career.

To be successful in his or her profession, a nurse must be committed to the cause of easing human suffering (What areattributes necessary to become a nurse).  It takes perseverance in the face of human hardships to be a successful nurse (Characteristics Required to be a Successful Nurse).  What is more, a successful nurse must have high emotional intelligence not only to communicate well with patients and other healthcare professionals and show compassion toward patients, but also deal effectively with stress and conflicts in the workplace (Spinks, 2009 Eason, 2009).  The third most essential characteristic of a successful nurse is professional competence, without which even the noblest of intentions to ease human suffering may be fruitless (McConnell, 1998).  As McConnell states, Like any health care technology, emergency equipment is a double-edged sword.  Used correctly, it can save your patients life used incorrectly, it can cause serious harm.  Hence, a successful nurse is he or she that is committed, emotionally intelligent and professionally competent.  

The Commitment to Alleviate Human Suffering
Healthcare professions are rather demanding as relations between patients and human service professionals can be emotionally charged and stressful (Ilhan et. al., 2007, 100).  Nurses may face other kinds of frustrations to boot, for example, lack of appropriate equipment in a time of need.  In short, there may be any number of problems in a healthcare setting, including unexplainable diseases that nurses may not easily find a way to help their patients recover from.  Regardless, it is the job of a nurse to alleviate human suffering.  Unless a nurse is committed to his or her job, she cannot be successful.  
   
The example of Paul Farmer illustrates the importance of perseverance in the healthcare profession.  Every nurse who nurtures Farmers commitment to the healthcare profession is bound to be successful.  A doctor raised by a low socioeconomic class family, Farmer made it to Duke University and Harvard University in search of a cure for all people suffering from diseases.  Indeed, he is a messiah for ailing folks around the world, especially the underprivileged people of countries such as Haiti and Peru.  By fighting for social justice in such nations, he would like to set an example.  At the same time, however, the messiah realizes that his job would perhaps remain undone even though he has worked plentiful hours to eradicate poverty as far as availability of healthcare resources is concerned (Kidder, 2004).  
   
A model for every healthcare professional, Farmer has worked strenuously to bridge the gap between the haves and the have-nots by helping the latter access healthcare facilities in their times of need.  There are plenty of problems that the doctor has confronted, one of which is the inflexibility of governments run by high income officials that desire to maintain the status quo.  The doctor believes that there is a mountain beyond every mountain.  In other words, as soon as a difficulty has been surpassed, another problem is likely to show up.  He works with Partners in Health and deals with almost all levels of healthcare management.  Still, he despairs, having slaved for the task at hand, that is, his desire to help everybody meet his or her healthcare needs, regardless of cost as he watches the entire system collapse into nothingness, even in the United States, where healthcare needs are clearly not being met.  Nevertheless, Farmer joins hands with the likes of George Soros and the Gates Foundation to help change the world (Kidder).    
     
Tagliareni  Perkins (2008) write that integrity is the mark of the National League of Nursing.  According to the authors,
       
Integrity is inherently linked to diversity, as it respects the dignity and moral wholeness of every person, without conditions or limitations.  This core value, intrinsic to the very character of the nurse, represents one of the most authentic, indelible, and enduring marks of nursing. (Tagliareni  Perkins)
In other words, a successful nurse is he or she that does not discriminate on the basis of gender, nationality, race, culture or religion when confronted by human suffering.  Rather, his or her desire to alleviate human suffering is akin to that of Farmers.  More importantly, the nurse who is successful in his or her profession is he or she that perseveres without turning his or her back on human suffering.

High Emotional Intelligence
Integrity is related to honest and open communication in addition to ethical decision making in the healthcare setting (Tagliareni  Perkins).  It takes high emotional intelligence for a nurse to deal appropriately with patients and other healthcare professionals, as this characteristic of a sucessful nurse allows for ease of understanding emotions and reactions of oneself and others (Spinks).  Doherty (2009) writes that emotional intelligence is absolutely vital for patient safety (5).  This is because high emotional intelligence allows one to focus on goal-based decision making and not to be led totally by emotions, regardless of the stresses faced by the nurse in the workplace and beyond (Eason).
   
According to Maddi (2005), Findings have shown that hardiness enhances resiliency in a wide range of stressful circumstances, such as when nurses regularly confront death and dying in hospice settings  Needless to say, it takes emotional intelligence for a nurse to show hardiness.  Giordano (1997) defines resiliency as emotional stamina, which is undoubtedly an element of emotional intelligence.  Referring to a flood in the states of Minnesota and North Dakota, the author describes emotionally intelligent nurses thus

Perioperative nurses were among the floods heroes and heroines.  For example, the surgery department manager from the civilian hospital organized the equipment and supply evacuation from her facility, ensured that all items were accounted for, located staff  members, and produced staffing schedules -- all the while knowing that her home was being inundated with flood water.  Other staff members worked in our facility by day and lived in shelters at night, often taking call there.
             
It rapidly became clear that OR coverage would not be our only task.  Perioperative staff members joined other health care colleagues in providing assistance wherever it was  needed.  When 300 nursing home residents were moved to the military base elementary school,our utilization management nurse became the shelter manager.  Perioperative staff members gave medications, changed dressings, and bathed and fed these displaced elderly patients.  We also used our clinical skills in treating other flood-related problems (eg, hypothermia from exposure to cold water) (Giordano)

Had the nurses lost their courage after the flood, seeing that their own homes and families were equally devastated by the natural disaster, healthcare delivery would have been virtually impossible in the affected regions.  Thus, resiliency  a part of emotional intelligence  helps a nurse to remain focused on her commitment to alleviate human suffering, regardless of time, place, availability of resources and personal problems.  An emotionally intelligent nurse remains motivated in the face of frustrations, as his or her emotions are regulated (Eason).
   
Furthermore, emotional intelligence allows a nurse to be empathetic, compassionate and caring, as it eases communication between patients and nurses (Spinks).  Without compassion, a nurse cannot even remain committed to her vocation.  Hence, emotional intelligence is intimately tied to the first characteristic of a successful nurse described in this discussion, that is, the commitment to alleviate human suffering.  A nurse who is committed to his or her vocation and has gathered sufficient knowledge to practice his or her profession with competence may nevertheless fail if he or she lacks emotional intelligence, as he or she may not possess interpersonal skills to deal effectively with patients and other healthcare professionals.  On the other hand, an emotionally intelligent nurse is in an excellent position to become a nursing leader with the ability to guide others in the healthcare setting (Eason).

According to Eason, Emotional intelligence exemplifies the process of sensing, understanding, valuing, and effectively applying the power and acumen of emotions as a source of human energy, information, trust, creativity, and influence.  For a nurse who possesses this characteristic, therefore, the sky is the limit as far as advancement in his or her profession is concerned.

Professional Competence
A nurse with very high emotional intelligence is likely to fail if he or she does not achieve competency in the nursing profession.  Likewise, a hospital may purchase the most expensive equipment for patient care but nevertheless meet with failure if it does not employ competent healthcare professionals to make use of it as they ought to.  Thus, one of the standards of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) reads, The leaders ensure that the competence of all staff members is assessed, maintained, demonstrated, and improved continually (McConnell).  Regardless of this standard, it is the characteristic of a successful nurse to maintain professional competence whilst continuously seeking improvement in his or her quality of healthcare delivery.
   
Whereas professional training of nurses is essential, and all nurses learn about human anatomy, diseases and equipment to use in the healthcare setting, it is the quality of a successful nurse to be a lover of knowledge.  Lifelong learning is a fundamental part of the nursing profession, as medical knowledge is constantly growing at a rapid pace along with advances in healthcare technology.  Moreover, as hands-on learning is vital to the nursing profession, a successful nurse is he or she that makes an effort to regularly sharpen his or her skills even if some of them appear as redundant at any given time (McConnell).  McConnell advises nurses thus
       
Retaining knowledge and skills depends to a great extent on continued use and familiarity with the subject matter.  Whats more, research indicates a distinction between the retention of knowledge and of skills.
             
Psychomotor skills seem to deteriorate faster than knowledge.  So some experts recommend periodic review of cardiopulmonary resuscitation skills and knowledge, for example, on a 6- to 12month basis.  Others recommend an initial review as early as 2 to 4 weeks after training, with periodic reviews every 3 to 6 months until retraining at 1 year.

You may need to review high-risk and morecomplex devices, such as defibrillators and  infusion pumps, every 2 to 6 months, depending on department policies.
             
Hands-on experience is essential to attaining and maintaining psychomotor skills, and nurses value such experience.  They like playing with equipment in a safe environment such as a simulation lab where a mistake has no serious outcome. (McConnell)

With a commitment to alleviate human suffering, a successful nurse realizes that he or she must offer top-quality service to his or her patients even if the hospital does not regularly evalute his or her performance.  In addition, emotional intelligence allows the nurse to look upon his or her weaknesses with a positive attitude without feeling defensive about them.  A nurse who understands the need to maintain his or her professional competence is more likely to be successful than he or she who aims to maintain professional competence only because the hospital is watching his or her performance to keep its quality standards.  Similarly, a nurse who volunteers to participate in regular training and retraining sessions to maintain or improve his or her skills is more likely to be successful than a nurse who feels forced to do so.  Hence, it takes a positive attitude  another element of emotional intelligence  to keep ones commitment to alleviate human suffering in the best possible ways.

Conclusion
The commitment to alleviate human suffering comes with emotional intelligence, which in turn is tied to professional competence given that nurses are caregivers with both compassion and professional knowledge to help others.  Lacking any of the three characteristics vital to attainment of success in the nursing profession, that is, the commitment to alleviate human suffering, emotional intelligence, and professional competence, a nurse cannot achieve his or her professional goals.  On the other hand, a nurse who is committed to his or her job, has high emotional intelligence and is professionally competent may be highly successful.  In fact, such a nurse may continuously advance in his or her career.  He or she may choose to become a nursing leader, if not a messiah like Farmer, reaching across borders to ease the suffering of others.