Soft Skills for Healthcare Professionals

The delivery of healthcare is changing as “technology—the internet, electronic medical records, even social media” transforms the delivery of healthcare. Some practitioners perceive the move from “practicing direct patient care to spending time behind the computer” to be one that transforms the “patient from a person into an icon or iPatient”

These shifts in the medical landscape further necessitate that healthcare employees work collaboratively to ensure the delivery of high quality care. This awareness has led many schools of medicine, public health, and other health professions “to define core competencies that are essential for success in the inter-professional healthcare context”.

While “hard skills” have always been emphasized, the increased call for collaboration to safeguard patient health is rooted in the need for healthcare employees to be proficient in “soft skills.”

Soft skills are defined here as the cluster of personality traits and behaviors combined with effective verbal and non-verbal communication skills that impact intra-personal and interpersonal relationships.

The cluster of soft skills also includes social graces such as personal habits, friendliness and optimism, characteristics related to feelings, emotions, job performance, and career prospects.

Soft skills are central to patient-centered care regardless of an employee’s position within healthcare. The significance of soft skills is found to be among the most frequent root causes of sentinel events. This is grounds for concern because the soft skills competency levels of many healthcare employees do not meet industry expectations.

The lack of soft skills competency is further compounded by the transitions faced in the wake of the Affordable Care Act and the increased use of information and communication systems in the delivery of health care. Therefore, it is imperative that all healthcare employees receive the necessary soft skills training to meet industry expectations.