Soft skills encompass a wide range of competencies, including [1]:

Nurses who develop strong soft skillsets are more able to effectively use technical abilities and knowledge. Also known as non-technical or non-clinical skills, soft skills have been recognized as more desirable and important in the ever-changing healthcare market over the past several years. It has been estimated that soft skills account for up to 85% of job retention success [2].

Due to changes in payment structuring, healthcare delivery standards, and nurse staffing, the quality of nursing care and time spent with patients in active listening have significantly declined in recent years. Nurse educators specifically have a responsibility to teach and model soft skills [2]. Developing strong personal rapport with patients and providing essential emotional support have been identified as gaps in healthcare education and delivery [2]. Healthcare leaders should encourage and mentor work environments that help develop soft skills, as part of the larger goal of improving patient outcomes. The better one is at using soft skills, the more likely one will succeed at leadership and managing others [15].

Attitudes can be positive, neutral, or negative and have explicit (conscious) and implicit (unconscious) characteristics. There are three components of attitude: affective, cognitive, and behavioral. Attitudes are expressed through thoughts, feelings, and actions and are formed from a variety of influences, including previous experience, social factors, learning, conditioning, and observations [4]. Often influenced by previous experiences or upbringings, attitude can have powerful impact on the development of biases, behaviors, and actions. While attitudes can change, they are often persistent [4].

Networking should be a consistent piece of the professional role. It is ideal to build a professional network before it becomes a necessary part of seeking a new professional opportunity. Attending networking events and reaching out on social media professional networks are great ways to build personal and professional networks [5].

Critical thinking is defined as actively and skillfully analyzing and evaluating information through observation, and making a decision for action [6]. Critical thinking is essential in nursing practice but is applied in all healthcare professions. In order to learn critical thinking, professionals should develop independence in thought, fairness, perspicacity, humility, and integrity [6]. There should also be an interest in research. Critical thinking is important to provide safe, effective, skilled patient care.

Professionalism reflects the values, respect, advocacy, and responsibility a healthcare professional must use in their field. The three main categories of professionalism are cognitive, attitudinal, and psychomotor [8].

Empathy is the ability to understand the personal experiences of others. Emotional, cognitive, and behavioral communication dimensions are all involved in empathy [10]. Research indicates that healthcare professionals with high levels of empathy can better fulfill their role in therapeutic change. However, while empathy is undeniably important, many healthcare providers find empathy difficult to adopt in everyday practice. In order to better support nursing development, empathy skills should be an aspect of the education and training of healthcare professionals and should be supported by continuing education [10]. Factors that influence empathy include age, self-reflection, appraisal, and emotions. It is important to note that empathy can be developed even without directly bonding.

As noted, communication is more than just talking. In fact, there are five main forms of communication: verbal, nonverbal, written, listening, and visual [16]. Communication is essential in many professions and is a vital element in health care. It applies to all areas of nursing practice, including prevention, treatment, therapy, rehabilitation, education, and health promotion. Communication is a fundamental characteristic of human nature, meaning all people communicate to some degree. It has two main components: content (what is said) and value (how it was said). Communication is never unidirectional; in order to communicate, there must be a receiver of the message. Failure to recognize the two-way nature of communication leads to negative conclusions and attitudes.

There are a variety of potential barriers to communication, including [25]: