This article calls for a shift in how nurses perceive key relational abilities to reclaim authority and purpose in health care.
Reframing nurses' core relational abilities from "soft skills" to "power skills" is essential to transforming health care. These capacities-such as effective communication, empathy, self-regulation, ethical grounding, and relational presence-aren't secondary to technical expertise but foundational to healing, trust, and professional identity. Power skills enable nurses to mitigate suffering, strengthen connections, and lead effectively across education, practice, and policy. This article calls on nurses in all roles to embrace, model, and structurally embed this narrative shift to reclaim nursing's authority, purpose, and enduring impact.
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Rushton et al. (2026) studied this question.
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