Summary
The work of a healthcare specialist implies the presence of a variety of skills and knowledge allowing one to deal with everyday situations. However, these indicators are not measurable, and the only way to ensure one’s correspondence to professional standards, as well as future growth, is to consider the most vital competencies they should possess. For this paper, leadership in healthcare, establishing quality and safety while reducing costs, interprofessional collaboration, and integration of professional standards are assessed. Hence, a specialist’s task is to develop the competencies mentioned above for more efficient work of the facility and their personal growth.
Lead People and Processes to Improve Patient, Systems, and Population Outcomes
The first competency under consideration is leadership that contributes to better control over patients, systems, and population outcomes. This concept covers a wide range of aspects, including effective communication, personal integrity, ethical values, critical thinking, and many others (Hargett et al., 2017). It starts on an individual level when a medical worker creates care coordination plans for patients considering all the specificities of their conditions as in the paper Health Issues and Patient-Centered Health Interventions. In this way, the leadership of a healthcare specialist is perceived as their ability to manage one’s treatment and prevent complications properly.
Another application of the ability to lead people and processes is a more global approach covering specific population groups with their needs. Thus, for example, in the case of The United Nations Children’s Fund, the efforts of a person or a single healthcare facility are insufficient in terms of addressing worldwide health issues. In addition, they require the involvement of international organizations. Therefore, global initiatives also indicate the importance of leadership in managing people and processes. As a healthcare specialist striving for improvements in my daily work, I emphasize the role of leading in my career since my decisions made concerning this concept tend to be more accurate and efficient.
Transform Processes to Improve Quality, Enhance Patient Safety, and Reduce the Cost of Care
The second competency is the transformation of processes that aims at improving the quality of provided medical services, enhancing patient safety, and reducing the cost of care for them. It is explicitly illustrated in Enhancing Quality and Safety on the example of the issue of falls leading to other complications for people staying in hospitals or even to their death. This paper considers the risk factors to propose an evidence-based solution to the problem. It also highlights the role of a nurse in addressing patient-safety risk and allows to conclude on the necessity to perform changes on a personal level to make a more significant shift.
The idea of the need for transformation presented above adds to the central place of this competency in the field of healthcare. It describes the influence of contextual factors on the overall outcome of facilities’ daily operations and allows to include all possible circumstances in safety improvement plans (Coles et al., 2017). The paper Root-Cause Analysis and Safety Improvement Plan present an example of best-practice strategy and plans’ implementation in detail, contributing to a better understanding of the process. Hence, transformation is the key to improving quality, enhancing safety, and reducing costs.
Collaborate Interprofessionally to Improve Patient and Population Outcomes
The third competency is interprofessional collaboration, and it is extremely important in terms of improving patient and population outcomes. The paper Interview and Interdisciplinary Issue Identification provides comprehensive information on ensuring the best care within a healthcare facility. It is especially valuable due to the contribution of an experienced nurse who presented her perspective on the issue. According to it, the most significant problem of interdisciplinary teams is the lack of a common goal that provides the vision of an expected outcome. Hence, the inability to collaborate indicates the failure of the healthcare system to ensure the positive results of treatment for patients and, consequently, the population as a whole. In this situation, the only solution is to create a goal and a strategy based on this goal so that hospitals could organize efficient collaboration.
This conclusion is supported by the paper Interdisciplinary Plan Proposal, which presents the practical implementation of a purpose within a common strategy carried out in the nursing department. It implies creating strong professional relationships between healthcare workers at all levels intended to improve the overall outcome of their activity. This competency is added to leading people and processes and reinforces the efficiency and responsibility of medical specialists for the treatment of patients in the long run. The intersection of these two competencies is seen in the use of the transformational leadership strategy to encourage individuals to think about others. In this way, patients and the population as a whole benefit from the ability of healthcare specialists to collaborate for the efficient resolution of their issues.
Integrate Professional Standards and Values into Practice
The fourth competency is the integration of professional standards and values into the daily practice of healthcare facilities by increasing awareness of their employees. Its importance is defined by several problems leading to the violation of such standards. They include staffing shortages, inadequate competence, and expertise of nurses, and omitted care resulting from the first two issues (Harrington & Edelman, 2018). Therefore, to ensure the correspondence of one’s actions to professional standards and values, it is critical to consider their integration.
The first paper that examines the competency is Applying Ethical Principles, and it is focused on the use of ethics by medical specialists in their work. They are essential for maintaining professional standards since ethical principles can serve as the basis for them. The moral dilemmas accompanying the work of healthcare employees are vital for dealing with sensitive situations. The inclusion of these considerations into the daily practice of nurses will be greatly beneficial in terms of finding solutions to the issues identified above. Thus, for example, the guidance in the form of ethical and professional standards will eliminate the problem of inadequate competence and expertise of healthcare workers.
Another paper that emphasizes the role of standards and values is Protected Health Information. It presents one of the most critical issues regarding the ethics of rendering healthcare services, which is medical data that is supposed to be protected by facilities. Hence, confidentiality is the primary concern of hospitals that strive for compliance with state standards and regulations. It allows us to conclude that the best way to achieve this objective is by instilling the values and ethics of an organization in its employees so that they could serve as a guide for them.
Conclusion
To sum up, my accomplishments and future growth are directly connected to the development of specific competencies. My ability to manage patients’ treatment and give them correct recommendations is extremely beneficial for the outcome of my work and related to the other specified competencies. It adds to the significance of the role of an individual in eliminating inefficiencies of the healthcare systems in collaboration with others and respect for professional standards and values.
References
Coles, E., Wells, M., Maxwell, M., Harris, F. M., Anderson, J., Gray, N. M., Milner, G., & MacGillivray, S. (2017). The influence of contextual factors on healthcare quality improvement initiatives: What works, for whom and in what setting? Protocol for a realist review. Systematic Reviews, 6(1). Web.
Hargett, C. W., Doty, J. P., Hauck, J. N., Webb, A. M., Cook, S. H., Tsipis, N. E., Neumann, J.A., Andolsek, K.M., & Taylor, D. C. (2017). Developing a model for effective leadership in healthcare: A concept mapping approach. Journal of Healthcare Leadership, 9, 69. Web.
Harrington, C., & Edelman, T. S. (2018). Failure to meet nurse staffing standards: A litigation case study of a Large US Nursing Home Chain. INQUIRY: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, and Financing, 55. Web.