Rethinking nursing's basic competencies.

An increasing tendency to focus primarily on the intellectual and technical competence of nurses is radically redefining nursing and threatening nursing's ability to respond to human need. After exploring why interpersonal skills and moral competence are essential to the practice of nursing, the article describes practical strategies to develop interpersonal competence and challenges nurses to hold themselves and one another accountable for interpersonal proficiency. The discussion redirects nursing's attention to the human outcomes of nursing and health care.