Interpersonal skills are also considered soft skills. Interpersonal skills are how one interacts with others. These may include intuition, caring skills such as therapeutic touch, effective communication and utilizing past experiences and knowledge (Laari et al., 2022).

The Nursing Leadership Academy (NLA) includes professional development classes for charge nurses at Houston Methodist Hospital. The introductory course presents a focus on the soft skill of communication. This initial education focuses on body language, tone, mindfulness and conflict management. Charge nurses are also given group work with real-life scenarios that force them to find the most appropriate way to address conflict. As a comparison, there is also discussion regarding interventions that produce less than optimal potential outcomes. Future courses will build on the initial course principles with simulation scenarios, diving deeper into communication principles and tools and practicing hard skills such as assessment.

Developing soft skills in nursing is paramount to better outcomes for our patients. Improving communication skills, exploring therapeutic touch, team building, and the ability to use subjective data and experience will push nursing to greater heights at Houston Methodist, with better patient outcomes and higher levels of staff and patient satisfaction. Maya Angelou sums it up best with the quote, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” How can your soft skills help someone else?