Question

1. Describe how the education of healthcare professionals impacts the delivery of healthcare services in the community and around the world.

2. Describe two capabilities/competencies required of today’s healthcare professionals in addition to those related to their professional specialization and how these additional capabilities/competencies assist in the long-term process of optimizing global health.

Answer 1

As the expectations of the community rises healthcare providers face numerous difficulties all over the world. Knowledge and skills of providers should improve over time . Quality healthcare attainment is the goal at present and future. Quality care is delivery of right care to right person at right time at lowest cost. This can be attained when cross training, continuing education ,development of standard practices are made. Higher education can make differences in patient safety.

• The education of healthcare providers has reduced the mortality , readmission rates, has increased the rescue of patient during emergency situations, decreased the rates of nosocomial infections .
• When the healthcare providers possess specialised knowledge and skills they can work under high work load conditions too.
• The education help them to perform their tasks independently with quality
• They have appropriate critical thinking and decision making because of the skillful education
• Education has made them to practice their roles and responsibilities and work as a team to achieve a common goal
• Team work and leadership qualities improve
• They practice high discipline by sticking to their standards and protocols and also they seek way to upgrade the standards as time changes.

Attending workshops, conferences, hospital rounds helps in providing quality care. Technology has grown a lot which is educating healthcare providers in many ways.

Some of the competencies needed for healthcare providers are time management and critical thinking skills.

Critical thinking is one of the crucial competency needed for healthcare providers . Thinking clearly and rationally about the next step to be taken in any situation is critical thinking. Critical thinking is the skill of analysing, inference, interpretation, explanation, synthesis and self –regulation” (Facione, 2011). Critical thinking is a complex skill acquired through practice and education which is very important for safety and delivery of quality care for patients.

Another skill is time management. Healthcare provider needs effective communication, decision making and education to practice time management. Education helps a professional to prioritize and work towards goal of providing quality care by managing time.

Ref:

1. Lou Ann Hartley, RN, PhD, NEA-BC, PAHM
   Cassy Taylor, RN, DNP, DMP, APRN, CRNA, CNE
   Co-sponsors, Future of Nursing West Virginia,The Impact of BSN Education on Nursing Practice: Moving toward the ’80/20′ Recommendation in West Virginia,sep 2015

2. Christel A. Woodward, PhD., C. PsychProfessor, Department of Clinical Epidemiology ,2000,Strategies for assisting health workersto modify and improve skills:Developing quality health care- a process of change ,WHO

3. Facione, P. A. (2011). Critical thinking: What it is and why it counts. Insight Assessment, 2007