Written By: Darby Faubion, RN, BSN, MBA
Are you considering becoming a registered nurse but wondering what the job involves? Have you thought about what a typical day is like for a nurse or asked, "What are the hardest and easiest duties and responsibilities of a nurse?”
In this article, I will share the 24 hardest and easiest duties and responsibilities of a registered nurse. I will offer some insight into why these duties and responsibilities are hard or easy to help you decide if becoming a nurse is something you wish to pursue.
WHAT ARE THE HARDEST DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF A NURSE?
(The following are 12 of the hardest duties and responsibilities of a registered nurse.)
HARDEST DUTY #1: Continuing a Shift After the Death of a Patient
About the Duty/Responsibility:
One of the hardest duties of a nurse is to continue working after losing a patient. Seeing the patients you cared for die and the devastation that follows for family and friends is difficult. Nurses are not exempt from the hurt that comes when someone dies.
What Makes This Duty/Responsibility Hard:
It is common for nurses to have several patients to care for each day. No matter how experienced a nurse is, facing the reality of losing a patient is not easy. Unfortunately, for nurses, there is usually no time to cry or even mentally process what has happened. Because we are responsible for caring for more than one person, we must carry on with our job and tend to those who remain.
HARDEST DUTY #2: Working Shorthanded
About the Duty/Responsibility:
When nurses do not show up for work or when there is a lack of enough nursing staff to cover a shift, the nurses who do go to work are often faced with working shorthanded. Even with proper nurse/patient ratios, nursing is physically and emotionally demanding. The current nationwide shortage of nurses only exacerbates the situation.
What Makes This Duty/Responsibility Hard:
The more nurses work shorthanded, the more stressful the job becomes. Unfortunately, when nurses feel overwhelmed, or they prefer not to work longer shifts or take on higher patient loads, not doing so could constitute abandonment, which would jeopardize their jobs or right to keep their nursing licenses. Therefore, for some nurses, the cycle may be unending.
HARDEST DUTY #3: Keeping Up with Changing Technology
About the Duty/Responsibility:
Anyone you ask will tell you we live in an age of technology. As new technological advances surface, nurses are taxed with staying abreast of.
What Makes This Duty/Responsibility Hard:
As a nurse and healthcare instructor, I always advised students that nursing is a role that requires lifelong learning. What makes keeping up with technology difficult for nurses is that the changes occur so quickly. In some cases, we learn about a new system or way of doing things only to find out things have changed, and we must learn something new. All these changes come in addition to providing patient care and other responsibilities.
HARDEST DUTY #4: Dealing with Rude Patients and Family Members
About the Duty/Responsibility:
Another one of the hardest responsibilities of a nurse is working with patients and their family members who are rude. This may seem like a trivial issue, but when you put your best effort forth and do all you can to help people recover from illness or injury, and they or their loved ones treat you rudely, it can be quite frustrating. Anger, fear, and frustration often cause people to lash out in ways they may not act under normal circ*mstances.
What Makes This Duty/Responsibility Hard:
No one likes the idea of being treated rudely or disrespectfully. It is especially hard when you are the person providing necessary, often lifesaving, care to others, and those people treat you poorly. What makes this responsibility hard is that we are expected to be compassionate and kind, even when others are not. Although it could be easy to lash out at those who treat us wrong, it is essential that we look at the whole picture and do our best to resolve any feelings of anger or frustration so we can provide effective care.
HARDEST DUTY #5: Physical Exhaustion
About the Duty/Responsibility:
For many nurses, one of the biggest challenges is continuing to work when physically exhausted. Granted, every day at work may not leave you feeling drained, but many will.
What Makes This Duty/Responsibility Hard:
Nurses work long hours, often caring for several patients daily. Your day may involve moving heavy patients and equipment, walking long hospital or nursing home halls, and standing for much of the day. It is easy to become physically exhausted, especially if you work several days a week or are required to work overtime.
HARDEST DUTY #6: Dealing with Lack of Respect for the Profession
About the Duty/Responsibility:
Another of the hardest duties of a nurse is dealing with feelings of being unappreciated by others. While it is true that most of us never think of being respected by others as a reason for becoming a nurse, after working hard and putting 110% into caring for others, it can be disheartening to feel unappreciated.
What Makes This Duty/Responsibility Hard:
It takes hard work and dedication to become a nurse. Hours of studying to meet graduation requirements, passing licensure exams, and staying on top of changes in healthcare are no easy tasks. Knowing what it takes to be a knowledgeable nurse, capable of providing high-quality care makes it difficult to accept the fact that others may not appreciate the impact our care has on the lives of so many others.
HARDEST DUTY #7: Not Getting Emotionally Involved
About the Duty/Responsibility:
We all deal with situations differently, but for me, one of the hardest responsibilities of a nurse is not getting too emotionally involved. As a nurse, it is important to remain objective and aware of how patient scenarios affect us emotionally. When we let our personal feelings get the best of us, it can blur the lines between what we feel is personally or professionally right, which can negatively impact patient outcomes.
What Makes This Duty/Responsibility Hard:
Nursing is a profession known for compassion and empathy, and as nurses, many of us have strong feelings about our patients and the care we provide. Because we care so much, it can be challenging not to get emotionally involved. Situations may arise when patients or their caregivers must make difficult decisions about how to proceed with their care. If they choose options that do not align with our personal beliefs or convictions, it may be difficult to remain emotionally objective.
HARDEST DUTY #8: Preventing Personal Beliefs from Interfering with Patient Care
About the Duty/Responsibility:
Nurses are responsible for providing nonjudgmental patient care. While you have a right to refuse participation in procedures that conflict with your religious beliefs, you may not refuse care based on personal dislike or discrimination.
What Makes This Duty/Responsibility Hard:
It can be challenging to provide care to patients when their choice of treatment goes against our feelings or convictions. If you object to providing care based on your moral beliefs, you could face disciplinary action for discriminating against your patient’s beliefs. If your religious beliefs prevent you from being involved with procedures (such as abortion) or other treatment, you should discuss this with a supervisor immediately. Most nurses can avoid issues by working in practice areas where moral dilemmas are less likely to occur.
HARDEST DUTY #9: Reporting Cases of Abuse or Neglect
About the Duty/Responsibility:
Most of us would like to think if we were faced with a situation where abuse or neglect is suspected that we would find it easy to report the situation to the proper authorities. However, in some cases, it can be difficult to know what is reportable and what is not. Although nurses are mandated reporters, doing so can be one of the hardest responsibilities of a nurse.
What Makes This Duty/Responsibility Hard:
Not only is knowing what to report often challenging, but it is common for nurses to second-guess their intuition, especially if an alleged victim denies abuse or neglect. While some signs of abuse may seem obvious, such as children with repeated emergency visits for broken bones or unexplained accidents, other signs are less conspicuous.
Even the most experienced nurses may feel they lack the knowledge needed to definitively identify signs of abuse or neglect. In my experience as a supervisor, I would rather have a nurse report an issue to me and the proper authorities and find out no abuse or neglect occurred instead of failing to report and something worse happening to a patient.
HARDEST DUTY #10: Helping Patients Cope with a Terminal Diagnosis
About the Duty/Responsibility:
Although doctors are typically the person to reveal bad news, such as a terminal diagnosis, nurses are usually the ones who spend more time helping patients and their loved ones face the news. Depending on where you work and the scope of your job, you may be required to provide education about options for care, such as home health or hospice. You may need to spend extra time with patients and their families or answer tough questions about death and dying.
What Makes This Duty/Responsibility Hard:
It is difficult to help patients cope with a terminal illness for several reasons. We pour ourselves into those we care for, and it is difficult to know that, despite our best efforts, some will not survive. Further, the heartache that our patients and their loved ones face when the reality of their situations sinks in is devastating. The compassionate side of nurses leads us to be supportive, but it does not change the fact that loss of life will occur.
HARDEST DUTY #11: Continuing to Work Through Mental Fatigue
About the Duty/Responsibility:
Nursing, as wonderful a career as it is, is no walk in the park. In addition to working long shifts, being shorthanded, and dealing with difficult patients, having to work despite feeling mentally exhausted is enough to make the toughest nurse feel like crumbling (at times).
What Makes This Duty/Responsibility Hard:
Patients, our employers, and our team members depend on us to get our work done. However, when you feel mentally tired, it is hard to accomplish any task. As nurses, we often have no choice but to push through the fatigue and keep working. Mental fatigue can also affect your physical health, which can make working under these circ*mstances all the more challenging.
HARDEST DUTY #12: Taking Care of Several Patients Per Shift
About the Duty/Responsibility:
It is not uncommon for nurses to have eight or more patients to care for daily. Whether nurse/patient ratios are off slightly due to a lack of enough nurses to cover a shift or a rapid influx of patients, being responsible for the well-being of several patients at once is one of the hardest responsibilities of a nurse.
What Makes This Duty/Responsibility Hard:
Although all patients are not as difficult to care for as others, the responsibility that comes with caring for multiple patients is serious. Nurses must work with one another, nursing assistants, and other members of the disciplinary team to monitor for changes in their patients’ statuses, administer medications and other treatments, and document on each patient. These are routine duties and do not take into account what nurses must do if a patient's status changes and requires lifesaving interventions. Bearing the weight of this responsibility is one the hardest things a nurse must do.
WHAT ARE THE EASIEST DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF A NURSE?
(The following are 12 of the easiest duties and responsibilities of a registered nurse.)
EASIEST DUTY #1: Showing Compassion
About the Duty/Responsibility:
One of the main characteristics and duties of nurses is to show compassion to patients, their loved ones, and peers. Showing compassion is also one of the easiest responsibilities of a nurse.
What Makes This Duty/Responsibility Hard:
Being compassionate means showing concern or sympathetic pity for the misfortune and suffering others experience. It is easy for nurses to show compassion (if they choose to) because we all have experienced some type of pain, heartache, or suffering at some point in our lives.
EASIEST DUTY #2: Promoting Patient Safety
About the Duty/Responsibility:
Implementing and promoting patient safety measures is another easy task for nurses. It is important to acknowledge that although some patients may not follow safety protocols, nurses can still implement protocols and educate patients on their importance.
What Makes This Duty/Responsibility Hard:
Promoting patient safety can be as simple or complex as you make it. In general, it involves educating patients and staff about ways to prevent injury, illness, or the spread of disease. Simple steps like keeping the bed in the lowest position, cleaning up spills, and disposing of used sharps are essential in promoting patient safety and some of the easiest things you can do as a nurse.
EASIEST DUTY #3: Being a Patient Advocate
About the Duty/Responsibility:
Every nurse is responsible for advocating for patients. Whether you express a patient’s concern, promote patient safety, or work to give them access to needed treatment, if you represent a patient’s rights and needs, you are advocating for them.
What Makes This Duty/Responsibility Hard:
Advocating is simply the act of standing up for or supporting someone else. Although there may be situations where speaking up is more challenging than others, overall, being a patient advocate is one of the easiest responsibilities of a nurse.
EASIEST DUTY #4: Promoting Infection Control Measures
About the Duty/Responsibility:
Infection control measures are designed to prevent or control the spread of infection. It is every nurse’s job to demonstrate infection control precautions in patient care, and it is one of the easiest duties of a nurse.
What Makes This Duty/Responsibility Hard:
Promoting infection prevention and control measures is easy because it involves many standards of daily hygiene practice, such as covering your mouth when you cough, washing hands, bandaging cuts, and disposing of contaminated things in the appropriate place. Nursing students learn about infection control in the first semester of school and use infection control practices from then on, making it seem like second nature.
EASIEST DUTY #5: Monitoring Vital Signs
About the Duty/Responsibility:
One of the first skills nursing students learn is how to measure and monitor changes in a patient’s vital signs. From taking blood pressure to measuring temperature, pulse, and respiratory rates, monitoring vital signs is an essential skill all nurses must learn.
What Makes This Duty/Responsibility Hard:
Measuring vital signs involves counting and reading monitors. Once a nursing student learns how to measure a manual blood pressure monitor or use digital vital sign machines, the process is quite simple. Granted, there are some cases when a patient’s vital signs may be a bit more challenging to assess than others. For the most part, though, this duty is one of the easiest responsibilities of a nurse.
EASIEST DUTY #6: Charting in Patient Records
About the Duty/Responsibility:
Having up-to-date, accurate patient medical records or charts is essential for providing quality patient care. The patient’s medical record is a way of communicating between nurses and other interdisciplinary team members. Nurses chart everything from patient vital signs, documentation of medication administration or treatments, and narratives about the patient’s status.
What Makes This Duty/Responsibility Hard:
Today, nurses typically maintain patient records on computers in the Electronic Health Record (EHR) instead of on paper. Although charting can be time-consuming, depending on the patient's condition, the overall task of documentation is one of the easiest duties of a nurse.
EASIEST DUTY #7: Providing Emotional Support
About the Duty/Responsibility:
One of the easiest and most important duties a nurse can fulfill is to provide emotional support to patients. Whether a patient is scared, angry, sad, or a combination of all these, simply being there to offer emotional support is an essential nursing role.
What Makes This Duty/Responsibility Hard:
Providing emotional support is easy because, most of the time, it takes little effort. I like to encourage nursing students and staff to simply consider how they feel when you are hurting or afraid and try to understand that providing emotional support does not mean always knowing the right thing to say. Instead, it can be as simple as being present and listening, holding someone’s hand, or letting them cry without passing judgment.
EASIEST DUTY #8: Administering Medications
About the Duty/Responsibility:
Another of the easiest duties of a nurse is giving medications. Registered nurses administer medications through a variety of routes based on physicians' or nurse practitioners' orders.
What Makes This Duty/Responsibility Hard:
One thing that makes this an easy duty is that physicians and nurse practitioners write orders for medications, and nurses administer them according to the orders. Although you should verify orders you feel unsure about, most of the time, medication orders are clear and easy to follow, which makes administering medications one of the easiest responsibilities of a nurse.
EASIEST DUTY #9: Performing Routine Wound Dressing Changes
About the Duty/Responsibility:
While many facilities have wound care nurses dedicated to providing care for serious wounds, bedside nurses often perform routine wound care and dressing changes. This may include changing dressings around feeding tubes, IV sites, or small wounds.
What Makes This Duty/Responsibility Hard:
Routine care for minor wounds is an easy task for nurses because they typically require simple cleansing and applying fresh bandages.
EASIEST DUTY #10: Educating Patients and Caregivers
About the Duty/Responsibility:
In addition to providing clinical care, another responsibility of nurses is to provide education to patients and caregivers. Our job as nurses is to teach patients ways to improve and maintain good health and manage any illness or disease they have.
What Makes This Duty/Responsibility Hard:
Patient education involves sharing what you know about an illness, disease, treatment options, and regimens with patients and those caring for them. Although individuals learn differently, educating patients is typically easy because you are sharing what you already know to help them understand what to expect, such as signs and symptoms associated with their diagnosis and when to report them to the doctor or how to take a medication or change a wound dressing.
EASIEST DUTY #11: Being Ethical
About the Duty/Responsibility:
Being ethical means you choose to act within principles of morality, following rules, standards, or guidelines. In nursing, ethical practice deals with the boundaries of your practice and the duties of your role, including and extending beyond patient encounters. Ethical practice is so important that the American Nurses Association established a Nursing Code of Ethics.
What Makes This Duty/Responsibility Hard:
Being ethical is one of the easiest responsibilities of a nurse, and it is something all nurses should strive to do. It is easy because it simply means you choose to do what is moral, right, and just.
EASIEST DUTY #12: Practicing Active Listening
About the Duty/Responsibility:
When you think of nursing duties, listening may not be the first thing that comes to mind. However, listening is a responsibility and one of the easiest duties of a nurse. Actively listening to patients, their caregivers, and team members is the best way to gather vital information that is used to create care plans and track their progress.
What Makes This Duty/Responsibility Hard:
Active listening is easy because it does not require major skills. When you practice active listening, you listen not only to what your patient says but also pay attention to how they say it. Active listening involves both hearing and observing, which takes patience but little effort.
MY FINAL THOUGHTS
Anyone who has been a nurse for any length of time will tell you it is truly a work of heart. It takes hard work and dedication, with some duties being hard and others easy. If you are considering a career as a nurse, you may wonder, “What are the hardest and easiest duties and responsibilities of a nurse?" In this article, I answered that question by sharing the 24 hardest and easiest duties and responsibilities of a registered nurse. If you are considering becoming a nurse, I encourage you to think about the duties and responsibilities of a nurse I shared to help you decide if this is truly the path you want to pursue.
Darby Faubion, RN, BSN, MBA
Darby Faubion is a nurse and Allied Health educator with over twenty years of experience. She has assisted in developing curriculum for nursing programs and has instructed students at both community college and university levels. Because of her love of nursing education, Darby became a test-taking strategist and NCLEX prep coach and assists nursing graduates across the United States who are preparing to take the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX).
