In 2002, Peter Drucker stated that large healthcare organizations are incredibly complex and that even small healthcare organizations are almost unmanageable. A good amount of time has passed since this observation, but these large healthcare organizations have not become any less complicated. Healthcare executives in today’s world have to navigate an intricate political and social landscape to make any decisions (Dias & Ryland, 2017). These intricacies include shortages of professional healthcare individuals, calls for transparency, and dwindling reimbursements. This white paper highlights the main competencies required of healthcare experts and the features of these competencies.
A committee tasked by the Health Leadership Alliance found that there are a set of simple core competencies required of all healthcare professionals. According to Stefl (2008), these were
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Communication and Relationship Management: This encompasses the ability to communicate openly and succinctly with all stakeholders to maintain a conducive environment and facilitate productive relationships.
Leadership: The ability to inspire organizational excellence and achieve a shared vision to effectively manage an organization is an essential quality of healthcare professionals.
Professionalism: It is essential for healthcare professionals to be able to behave themselves ethically and proficiently to fulfill their duty to their patients and the community at large.
Healthcare environment knowledge: Healthcare professionals must demonstrate an understanding of the healthcare structure and the atmosphere in which they function.
Business Skills: Healthcare Professionals must demonstrate an ability to apply business principles such as strategic marketing, financial management, and human resource management amongst others to the healthcare industry. These principles ensure the healthcare industry is managed as effectively as possible.
The Quality Chasm Report proposed a set of simple core competencies that were required by all healthcare professionals, regardless of their professional disciplines, to meet the requirements of the healthcare system. According to Langins & Borgermans (2016), these are:
Providing patient-centered care: This involves identifying and respecting the patient’s values and needs relieving pain and educating the patients until they are fully informed.
Team-work: This involves cooperation and collaboration in teams to ensure that consistent and constant care is provided.
Employing a practice based on evidence: Integrating thorough research with healthcare practices is essential for the provision of optimal care for all patients.
Quality improvement: this involves identifying the various hazards and errors in healthcare and enforcing basic safety design principles. Healthcare professionals should continually understand and measure the quality of healthcare in terms of the systems and processes that exist concerning patient needs.
Informatics: This encompasses using information technology in order to mitigate all errors and support the decision making process.
According to Beech (2004), six features are essential to understand the core competencies of healthcare professionals.
Competencies take time to acquire: These competencies are very intricate. Over time healthcare professionals move from being rookies in their fields to becoming experts. Over time, healthcare professionals move across the various levels of competency
Competencies inform evaluation and training: These competencies serve to design the standards by which healthcare professionals can be assessed. Healthcare professionals can be made aware that upon entry into their profession, they are required to master these competencies to be deemed as competent.
According to Verma, Paterson & Medves, J. (2006), other features include:
Competencies are measurable: Despite the complex nature of these competencies, they can be readily assessed. These assessments should focus on improving these competencies and not penalizing those who lack the necessary skills.
Competencies must be flexible: A strict definition of these competencies may limit innovation, whereas an ambiguous definition may compromise outcomes. These competencies need to be improved continuously based on the changing nature of patient needs.
Competencies are not only limited to medical skills: These competencies are not only limited to medical skills, but there are some skills such as communication and teamwork known as soft skills. These soft skills allow healthcare professionals to be sensitive to the cultural and ethical beliefs of their patients and maintain professionalism.
Competencies unite all healthcare professionals: Some competencies are common to all healthcare professionals
Patients and their families will also be expected to master some proficiencies for their safety. These competencies include the ability to make informed decisions, playing an active role in coming up with a healthcare plan, and taking responsibility for their health and well-being (Albarqouni et al., 2018). Furthermore, patients are required to provide an overview of their complaints and come up with specific goals and challenges that enable them to build healthy relationships with healthcare providers (Weber, 2006). Core competencies of healthcare professionals balance and support the growth of the patient competencies.
According to a report, broad competencies have limited usefulness since their lack of precision prevents any real applications in the real world. Each type of healthcare manager will require different skills, for example, a chief financial officer in a health organization will be required to have a broader set of financial competencies (Hopkins, O'Neil & Stoller, 2015). Similarly, an information systems manager will be required to have a broader knowledge in technology design.
These common competencies contribute to the growing knowledge of the healthcare industry. These competencies can be used for the individual and organizational assessment of the healthcare industry. These competencies can be used to foster collaboration and advancement across the healthcare industry. These benefits are essential in the broad and intricate healthcare field.
References
Albarqouni, L., Hoffmann, T., Straus, S., Olsen, N. R., Young, T., Ilic, D., ... & Glasziou, P. (2018). Core competencies in evidence-based practice for health professionals: consensus statement based on a systematic review and Delphi survey. JAMA network open , 1 (2), e180281-e180281.
Beech, D. J. (2004). Health Professions Education: A Bridge to Quality. Journal of the National Medical Association , 96 (12), 1675.
Dias, M. C., & Ryland, H. (2017). Core competencies for health professionals in global health. European Psychiatry , 41 , S58.
Hopkins, M. M., O'Neil, D. A., & Stoller, J. K. (2015). Distinguishing competencies of effective physician leaders. Journal of Management Development , 34 (5), 566-584.
Langins, M., & Borgermans, L. (2016). Strengthening a competent health workforce for the provision of coordinated/integrated health services. International Journal of Integrated Care (IJIC) , 16 (6).
Stefl, M. E. (2008). Common competencies for all healthcare managers: the Healthcare Leadership Alliance model. Journal of healthcare management , 53 (6).
Verma, S., Paterson, M., & Medves, J. (2006). Core competencies for health care professionals: what medicine, nursing, occupational therapy, and physiotherapy share. Journal of allied health , 35 (2), 109-115.
Weber, J. M. (2006). Core Competencies for Health Care Professionals. Journal of allied health , 35 (3), 185
