The Five Core Competencies In The Healthcare System

In the early 1980’s, several boards of nursing began exploring the competency issues for the graduating nurses in their states. The various states developed important competencies for the nursing graduates (Tilley, 2008). The competencies were a guideline for the various educational programs to ensure the students were prepared after graduation. Many of the programs identified various skills, professional values, knowledge, and judgement as standards upon graduation. In the 1990’s the topic became even more frequent in discussions by nurses in various nursing organizations and advocacy groups to ensure the safety of patients with the rapid changes that were happening in health care (Tilley, 2008). Over the years the role of competency has become the standard that fills the gap between education and profession. The Institute of Medicine put forth core competencies for health care professionals that called for working in

Nevertheless, many organizations continue to struggle with what “it” is. This ambiguity ultimately leaves many with vague or muddled expectations for what constitutes patient-centered care. Is it a surprise, then, that many leaders report feeling bewildered at how to go about becoming more patient-centered? Or that others, convinced that their approach is indeed a patient-centered one, are surprised to find data reflecting patient and/or staff discontent? In the broadest terms, patient-centered care is care organized around the patient. It is a model in which providers partner with patients and families to identify and satisfy the full range of patient needs and preferences. Not to be overlooked in defining patient-centered care is its concurrent focus on staff. To succeed, a patient-centered approach must also address the staff experience, as staff’s ability and inclination to effectively care for patients is unquestionably compromised if they do not feel cared for themselves. Although patients may not always be able to accurately assess the clinical quality of their care, or whether safety processes are in place, patient safety and high clinical quality are fundamental to a patient-centered approach. Patient-centered care does not replace excellent medicine―it both complements clinical excellence and contributes to it through effective partnerships and communication. A wealth of resources exists to guide organizations in addressing clinical

In the article “What Do Nurses Really Do?”, Suzanne Gordon explores what nurses truly do. She concludes that nurses “save lives, prevent complications, prevent suffering, and save money” (Gordon 2006). Nurses provide care for their patients in the physical and emotional sense. Emotionally caring for a patient and being sensitive to his or her needs result from interacting with patients while performing the skills and using the knowledge that nurses learned in school. Nurses grow in their skills, knowledge, and attitudes through practice. Quality and safety education for nursing incorporates competencies that all nurses must use in their practice. These nursing competencies include evidence-based nursing practice, quality improvement, safety, teamwork and collaboration, patient-centered care, and informatics.

The overall goal through all phases of The Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) is to address the challenge of preparing future nurses with the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to continuously improve the quality and safety of the healthcare systems in which they work. In order to accomplish this goal, six competencies were defined. These competencies from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) are patient centered care, teamwork and collaboration, evidence-based practice, quality improvement, informatics and safety. Over a decade has passed since the Institute of Medicine’s reports on the need to improve the American healthcare system. The Quality and Safety Education for Nurses

Over time the health care industry has become more complex. Health care is rapidly evolving and continuing to complicate our delivery of care, which in turn has the same effect on quality of care. This steady evolution and change results in nursing shortages and an increase in the prevalence of errors being made. In hopes of preventing these errors and creating safe and high quality patient care, with the focus on new and improved ways of thinking, The Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) initiative was developed. The QSEN focuses on the following competencies: patient-centered care, quality improvement, safety, and teamwork and collaboration. Their initiatives work to prepare and develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that are necessary to make improvements in the quality and safety of health care systems (Qsen.org, 2014).

The Nurse Practitioner Core Competencies (NP Core Competencies) forms and builds upon ongoing Master’s and DNP core competencies and these are the channels and background for all graduating NP students. The NP Core Competencies can input their full scope of practice as an independent licensed practitioner. These essential competencies of an NP is fully developed by graduation, no matter what the NPs preferred speciality is. The core competencies are an essential part to face the multispecialty challenges of the changing health care system. By adding knowledge, skill, and ability to independently handle different

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) has recognized five key core competencies (CCs) that all healthcare professionals should be aware of during practice. The initial competency described concentrates on patient-centered care. Throughout history, the nursing community has continued to evolve, both in the practicing aspect and in level of caring for patients. During this evolution of nursing care, nurses providing hands on care to patients must refer to the Institute of Medicine, peer reviews and/or evidenced-based research to guide them properly as it applies to the core concepts of nursing. The first core competency according to the IOM is patient-centered care.

• Patient-centered—providing care that is respectful of and responsive to individual patient preferences, needs, and values and ensuring that patient values guide all clinical decisions.

Person centred care (PCC) is a terminology that is associated with the health care professions. PCC is basically a type of care that the healthcare staff are expected to be given to the patients. PCC is built on the fact that patients should be treated with respect, should be allowed to exercise their power of choice and treated as an equal, regardless of their skin, colour or religion. PCC also identifies that healthcare staff should try to empathise how the patient would be feeling and also to be more compassionate with these individuals (Royal College of Nursing- Person centred care 2015). PCC is also described as a holistic attitude and care to the patients. In PCC there is more effort for the patient to be individualised and have more say in their care rather than being institutionalized also it is a care that encourages the patient’s self-confidence and autonomy

There are five core competencies needed for health care professionals and they are provide patient centered care, work in interdisciplinary teams, employ evidence based practice, apply quality improvement, and utilizing informatics. In this paper, I will go into further detail how providing patient centered care is challenging, how to overcome the challenges, how it relates to my chosen profession, and how this competency can impact delivery of care to patients.

In the physical realm of patient-centered care pain, comfort, sleep, and rest are important aspects of the fourth dimension of patient-centered care. Patient-centered care is the complete focus of the medical team on providing respectful care to meet patient needs, preferences and values guide decisions on each individual patient care. To understand the subjective view of the patient, these four aspects are at the forefront of their needs within the hospital setting to provide the best patient outcome. Nurses provide good patient-centered care by actively partnering with patients to determine care priorities and plans to tailor their level of involvement, according to their preferences, and being flexible by changing the care plan as the situation changes including providing smooth transitions between care goals. By doing this, nurses can assist patients with all pain by providing comfort and assuring the patient that there will be no deficiency of their quality of sleep.

In an effort to incorporate quality and safety competency into nursing education, the Quality and Safety Education for Nurses Institute has developed target goals for knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSA) in safety, along with the core competencies previously identified by the Institute of Medicine; patient-centered care, interdisciplinary teamwork, evidence based practice, informatics, and quality improvement (ANA, 2012 , QSEN, n.d.).

The World Health Organization (2005) describes five core competencies to assist all health professionals to more effectively provide care to patients suffering from chronic conditions. These competencies include: patient-centred care, partnering, quality improvement, information and communication technology, and public health perspective (WHO, 2005). Patient-centred care and emphasis on this competency alone has the potential to

Making healthcare delivery more patient-centered is not an easy process. Patient centeredness is one of the six interrelated factors constituting high quality-care identified by 2000 Institute of Medicine report. Patient-centered care can be defined as a healthcare setting in which patients are encouraged to be actively involved in their care, with a physical environment that promotes patient comfort and staff who are dedicated to meeting the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of patients (Charmel & Frampton, 2008). In addition, the Institute of Medicine defined patient centeredness as providing care that is respectful of and responsive to individual patient needs, preferences, and values ensuring that patient values guide all clinical conditions (Institute of Medicine, 2001). Healthcare organizations developed different models and strategies on how to provide patient centered care. But the Institute of Medicine recommended that what is really needed is a planned-care system in which patient’s needs are anticipated in the context of a collaborative relationship between professionals and the patients they serve.

Improve patient health outcomes: The best reason behind implementing the patient-centered care model in healthcare settings is that it is the suitable and the right thing to do. This approach was supported by experience and knowledge because it has demonstrated improved patient health outcomes. Moreover, individuals receiving this kind of care are happier and more satisfied (Kimball,