Workplace Competencies in the Healthcare Sector

Today, healthcare practitioners should be competent enough to meet the sector’s increasing complexities. Notably, they are supposed to have the right competencies that guarantee quality care services for all. This will be relevant to the primary goal of the healthcare sector, which is to provide quality care services by meeting patients’ exact medical needs. In the long-run, there will be high levels of satisfaction amongst patients due to the high success rates. Detailed below are seven necessary competencies and reasons why they are required. Besides, the paper will explore two main competencies and reasons why they are the core competencies. 

Seven Common Core Competencies and why they are Critical in Healthcare 

The first core competency in the healthcare sector is the ability to work together in disciplinary teams. Human personnel in healthcare centers should be able to collaborate through effective communication and integrate their ideas with the core purpose of ensuring quality services for patients. Current complexities in the healthcare sector require various departments to collaborate and incorporate their ideas and practices while dealing with patients (Rothwell & Graber, 2010). For instance, medical practitioners in the laboratory sector can work collectively with those in the pharmacy department to determine effective drugs for a patient. In the long run, quality care will be ensured. 

Secondly, healthcare providers should be able to apply evidence-based care practices in medical care. They should incorporate medical research and consider patient values for quality care (Rigby et al., 2016). This would be important when dealing with the ever-changing health of human beings. For instance, there are new diseases and medical conditions that did not exist a long time ago. Therefore, practitioners should be keener and apply only verified evidence-based practices in dealing with such conditions. Also, the practices are verified and sure to produce positive results. Consequently, applying evidence-based practices in healthcare is paramount. 

Thirdly, health practitioners in the world today should be able to utilize informatics in the healthcare sector effectively. In this case, they should be able to communicate with patients and within themselves well. They should also be able to acquire and manage knowledge concerning various aspects of healthcare. Additionally, they should be able to utilize the latest technologies to minimize errors and ensure optimal care for patients. With the ever-increasing population and limited healthcare resources, the need to be effective and serve many patients is on demand. Thus, healthcare practitioners can utilize these technologies to ensure efficient and quality services for all. 

Similarly, healthcare practitioners should be able to provide patient-centered care. They should understand that patients have varying values, differences, and preferences (Ogden et al., 2017). They should, therefore, work to ensure that they provide personalized care that meets the exact medical needs of patients (Fix et al., 2017). They can listen to patients' suggestions, opinions, and complaints and incorporate this feedback in formulating a proper decision, which can ensure satisfactory care services in healthcare centers. Patient-centred care is paramount and contributes significantly to the attitudes of patients towards healthcare services. Thus, doctors and medical providers should be able to embrace the concept effectively while serving patients. 

Medical providers and doctors should also consider professionalism as one of the essential competencies. This is related to work ethics as it compels practitioners to observe and apply skills, attitudes, knowledge, concepts, and experience acquired over time in serving patients. In addition, professionalism helps medical practitioners to observe work ethics by ensuring they adhere to policies governing the healthcare sector. This ensures they provide the required services to patients, hence, elevate satisfaction and overall success rates (Vogenberg & Santilli, 2018). Moreover, this builds good relations between patients and the medical practitioners in the healthcare sector. 

Medical-based learning and personal development are also vital for medical practitioners. Due to the dynamic nature of human health, new developments are always realized. So, medical practitioners need to learn about this new development to enhance accurate decision making in healthcare (Sonnino, 2016). This ensures that patients' exact medical needs are met at any given moment. Therefore, healthcare practitioners need to embrace continuous learning and training to expand their knowledge and expertise. Thus, for quality services to be guaranteed, medical practitioners should embrace medical-based learning and personal development. 

Lastly, medical practitioners should be able to embrace effective team building strategies. In this case, they can form groups based on specialities and update each other on matters to do with their areas of specialization (Kumar et al., 2014). This can also ensure that they undergo collective growth and development in the medical field, hence, foster quality care as a result. Teams can also integrate their ideas and inputs concerning an issue in healthcare and come up with rich decisions. The aspect of team building also enhances collaboration and oneness, which is essential for smooth internal operations within the healthcare sector. It is, therefore, necessary to have an ideal team building ability. 

Evidence-Based Practices and the Ability to Use Informatics Are the Two main Core Competencies 

The ability to apply evidence-based practices is much critical in healthcare. First, evidence-based practices ensure quality care services for patients. Medical practitioners, in this case, apply principles, concepts, and theories that are tested and verified to provide quality care services. Moreover, it elevates the attitude of inquiry amongst medical practitioners. They learn to question whatever they do, thus, minimize errors and enhance more learning. In this case, they learn to use evidence to solve arising questions from their practice in healthcare centers. Evidence-based care also enhances the effective use of available healthcare resources. This efficiency leads to sustainability of various healthcare programs leading to overall quality services. 

Evidence-based practices in healthcare are based on four main factors. They include professional medical expertise, medical research evidence, patients’ values, and data from practice context. This makes the competency quite critical in influencing the quality of care within the healthcare sector. For example, in a healthcare facility, the number of evidence-based practices was indicated concerning the success rate and level of satisfaction. The success rate and satisfaction increased with the number of practices used. 

Then also, the ability to use informatics is quite essential in the healthcare sector. First, it ensures efficiency since medical practitioners can effectively collect and manage data, which leads to accurate decisions. Secondly, the ability to use informatics enhances interactions between patients and medical providers fostering the quality of services. Likewise, informatics encourage patients’ participation, which enables medical providers to ascertain their exact needs. In the long-run, the facility achieves quality care services. 

In the example shown above, the ability to use informatics significantly enhanced the success rates and level of satisfaction. 

It is a core competence since it involves instant feedback from patients. Decision making in a healthcare center can be based on this to foster quality care services. In the long-run, it leads to patients' satisfaction and overall success. 

Conclusion 

The demand for high-quality care services in the world requires that all practitioners should have ideal competencies. For instance, they are supposed to have the ability to use informatics, embrace patient-centered care, the ability to build teams, adhere to professionalism, continually undergo learning, and use evidence-based practices. These competencies ensure that patients receive quality care practices meeting their exact medical needs. 

References 

Fix, G. M., VanDeusen Lukas, C., Bolton, R. E., Hill, J. N., Mueller, N., LaVela, S. L., & Bokhour, B. G. (2017). Patient-centered care is a way of doing things: How healthcare employees conceptualize patient-centered care. Health expectations: an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy ,  21 (1), 300-307. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5750758/ 

Kumar, S., Deshmukh, V., & Adhish, V. S. (2014). Building and leading teams.  Indian journal of community medicine: official publication of Indian Association of Preventive & Social Medicine ,  39 (4), 208-13. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4215500/ 

Ogden, K., Barr, J., & Greenfield, D. (2017). Determining requirements for patient-centered care: a participatory concept mapping study.  BMC health services research ,  17 (1), 780. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5704567/ 

Rigby, M., Magrabi, F., Scott, P., Doupi, P., Hypponen, H., & Ammenwerth, E. (2016). Steps in Moving Evidence-Based Health Informatics from Theory to Practice.  Healthcare informatics research ,  22 (4), 255-260. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5116536/ 

Rothwell. W. J., & Graber. J. M. (2010). Competency-Bases Training. American Society for Training and Development. 

Sonnino R. E. (2016). Health care leadership development and training: progress and pitfalls.  Journal of healthcare leadership ,  8 , 19-29. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5741005/ 

Vogenberg, F. R., & Santilli, J. (2018). Healthcare Trends for 2018.  American health & drug benefits ,  11 (1), 48-54. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5902765/