Practical Nursing Skills: Administering Medications, Wound Care, and Monitoring Vital Signs

Abstract

Background
It is founded on practical nursing skills, which provide services for patient safety and recovery.For instance, they have to administer medications, provide wound care, monitor vital signs while administering medications, provide wound care and monitor vital signs, and require precision, critical thinking, and adherence to best practices.
Objective
This study examined the importance of core nursing skills in patient care, the challenges it faces in its implementation, and offers different strategies to resolve it.
Methods
A mixed method approach, a systematic literature review, and a survey of a sample of 100 nurses were used to examine nurses’ ability to administer medications, provide wound care, and monitor vital signs.
Results
It was found that 95% of nurses were competent in vital sign monitoring, 88% in medication administration, and 82% in wound care.The challenges were time constraints (72%), lack of updated training (65%), and insufficient resources (58%).The solutions most often presented were regular training and access to the most current protocols.
Conclusion
Practical nursing skills are of great importance for patient outcomes.Continuous education and system-level support can enhance the proficiency of healthcare skills, which in turn improves delivery of healthcare and patient safety.
Introduction
Nursing is a vocation that consists of technical skills and compassionate care.One of the many skills needed to be a nurse is practical nursing skills such as giving medication, wound care, and recording vital signs; these skills are vital to safe nursing practice and the achievement of good patient outcomes.Such skills are performed daily in hospitals and clinics as well as in long-term care centers and demand a fusion of accuracy, clinical sagacity, and adherence to evidence-based guidelines (1,2).
The administration of medication is a keystone in the standard operating procedures of nursing; however, errors committed in administering medication can lead to severe consequences. A study by Patel et al. (3) found that medication errors are responsible for up to 7% of preventable hospital deaths annually, highlighting the importance of proper techniques and adherence to the “five rights” of medication administration: In the right patient, with the right drug, right dose, right route, and right time.
It is important to care for wounds, a major problem for patients with chronic diseases such as diabetes, which leads to the formation of wounds that do not heal quickly.Read more in our article on proper wound care (4), which protects against infection, aids in recovery, and reduces the risk of complications.
Measuring the blood pressure, heart rate, respiratory rate, and temperature of patients are examples of vital signs and provide important insights into patients’ well-being and quickly help to recognize complications.According to previous research, 85% of adverse events in hospitalized patients may have been predicted if they had been accurately and promptly monitored (5).
Although nurses are important, they are confronted with challenges, such as time constraints, out-of-date training, and resource scarcity.This study aimed to assess the significance of these practical nursing skills, determine the barriers to their successful implementation, and develop strategies for improving proficiency in nursing practice.