Abstract
Aim: As healthcare environments grow increasingly complex within the patient-centered care paradigm, the importance of nurses’ soft skills has become more evident than ever. In nursing, soft skills include personal attributes, interpersonal skills, and creativity, while hard skills refer to technical and measurable job-specific abilities. Soft skills enhance patient outcomes and care quality beyond technical expertise. Despite their importance, early-career nurses often struggle with underdeveloped soft skills, hindering their transition into clinical practice. This scoping review investigates how soft skills have been conceptualized in nursing education and training, identifying current gaps and directions for improvement.
Methods: A systematic search was conducted across MEDLINE, CINAHL, Embase, Cochrane Library, and PsycINFO for studies published between 2015 and 2025 that described and evaluated educational interventions on soft skills in nursing. Twenty-four studies were included for final analysis. To categorize the soft skills addressed, the research team applied Song’s (2024) framework, comprising five domains—Effective Interaction, Professionalism, Teamwork, Personal Growth, and Caring Role—and added an “Others” domain for cognitive, intercultural skills, and psychological resources.
Results: Of the 24 studies, most focused on nursing students and employed quasi-experimental designs. Across these, 64 soft skills were identified. The most frequent domains were Effective Interaction and Professionalism, followed by Others, Teamwork, Personal Growth, and Caring Role. Cultural competence and resilience appeared as emerging soft skills. Student-focused programs emphasized interpersonal and cognitive aspects, whereas training for practicing nurses centered on professional competencies vital for clinical performance, including preparedness, work management, and teamwork.
Conclusions: This review shows a developmental progression of nursing soft skills from education to practice. Foundational interpersonal and cognitive skills cultivated in classrooms evolve into professional competencies essential for safe, effective, and collaborative nursing care. The findings underscore the need for curricula incorporating coping, prioritization, and time management to bridge the education-practice gap. The growing relevance of intercultural understanding and psychological resilience calls for broader frameworks reflecting the complexity of healthcare systems.
Notes
References:
1. Laari. (2024). Defining soft skills in nursing: a concept analysis. Frontiers of Nursing, 11(3), 243-251.
2. Lyu, W., & Liu, J. (2021). Soft skills, hard skills: What matters most? Evidence from job postings. Applied Energy, 300, 117307.
3. Morrell, B. L., Eukel, H. N., & Santurri, L. E. (2020). Soft skills and implications for future professional practice: Qualitative findings of a nursing education escape room. Nurse Education Today, 93, 104462.
4. Song, Y., Lafond, C. M., Vincent, C., Kim, M. J., Park, C. G., & McCreary, L. L. (2024). Critical soft skill competencies that clinical nurse educators consider important to evaluate in nurses. Nursing Open, 11(10), e70047.
5. Tawash, E., Cowman, S., & Anwar, M. (2024). New graduate nurses’ readiness for practice, transition and integration into the workplace: A longitudinal study with mixed methods research. Nurse Education in Practice, 79, 104076.
Sigma Membership
Lambda Alpha at-Large
Type
Poster
Format Type
Text-based Document
Study Design/Type
Other
Research Approach
Other
Keywords:
Competence, Teaching and Learning Strategies, Transition to Practice or Onboarding, Nursing Skills, Skill Acquisition
Recommended Citation
Kim, Eunkyung; Lee, Ji Yea; Hong, Soomin; and Lee, MiJin, "Soft Skills Matter: A Scoping Review of Nursing Education and Training" (2026). International Nursing Research Congress (INRC). 46.
https://www.sigmarepository.org/inrc/2026/posters_2026/46
Conference Name
37th International Nursing Research Congress
Conference Host
Sigma Theta Tau International
Conference Location
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Conference Year
2026
Rights Holder
All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record. All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository. All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.
Review Type
Abstract Review Only: Reviewed by Event Host
Acquisition
Proxy-submission
Date of Issue
2026-07-30
Soft Skills Matter: A Scoping Review of Nursing Education and Training
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Aim: As healthcare environments grow increasingly complex within the patient-centered care paradigm, the importance of nurses’ soft skills has become more evident than ever. In nursing, soft skills include personal attributes, interpersonal skills, and creativity, while hard skills refer to technical and measurable job-specific abilities. Soft skills enhance patient outcomes and care quality beyond technical expertise. Despite their importance, early-career nurses often struggle with underdeveloped soft skills, hindering their transition into clinical practice. This scoping review investigates how soft skills have been conceptualized in nursing education and training, identifying current gaps and directions for improvement.
Methods: A systematic search was conducted across MEDLINE, CINAHL, Embase, Cochrane Library, and PsycINFO for studies published between 2015 and 2025 that described and evaluated educational interventions on soft skills in nursing. Twenty-four studies were included for final analysis. To categorize the soft skills addressed, the research team applied Song’s (2024) framework, comprising five domains—Effective Interaction, Professionalism, Teamwork, Personal Growth, and Caring Role—and added an “Others” domain for cognitive, intercultural skills, and psychological resources.
Results: Of the 24 studies, most focused on nursing students and employed quasi-experimental designs. Across these, 64 soft skills were identified. The most frequent domains were Effective Interaction and Professionalism, followed by Others, Teamwork, Personal Growth, and Caring Role. Cultural competence and resilience appeared as emerging soft skills. Student-focused programs emphasized interpersonal and cognitive aspects, whereas training for practicing nurses centered on professional competencies vital for clinical performance, including preparedness, work management, and teamwork.
Conclusions: This review shows a developmental progression of nursing soft skills from education to practice. Foundational interpersonal and cognitive skills cultivated in classrooms evolve into professional competencies essential for safe, effective, and collaborative nursing care. The findings underscore the need for curricula incorporating coping, prioritization, and time management to bridge the education-practice gap. The growing relevance of intercultural understanding and psychological resilience calls for broader frameworks reflecting the complexity of healthcare systems.
Description
This scoping review explores how soft skills are defined in nursing education and training. Twenty-four studies published between 2015 and 2025 were analyzed using Song’s (2024) framework, with an added “Others” domain. Most studies focused on students and used quasi-experimental designs. Findings highlight a developmental shift of nursing soft skills, emphasizing the need for structured curricula bridging education and clinical readiness.