HealthStream offers performance learning management solutions to help develop your healthcare staff into leaders and reduce turnover.
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View All ProductsHealthStream's proven methods for the improvement and overall engagement of your healthcare staff foster a positive workplace and increase retention rates.
View All ProductsThe leadership development program from HealthStream helps mold your high-potential healthcare employees into proven leaders.
View All ProductsFulfill compliance requirements with a variety of programs and courseware designed to address critical regulatory requirements as well as educate staff to recognize and mitigate risks.
View All ProductsBy increasing your healthcare staff's focus on quality and safety with HealthStream, they can help to reduce medical errors and readmission rates.
View All ProductsLearn about what HealthStream's healthcare policy management software and how it can help aid your organization efforts.
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View All ProductsIn all areas of resuscitation, from neonatal to elderly care, clinical deterioration is a risk that can be avoided with the help of HealthStream's training programs.
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View All ProductsNurture the skills of your nurses and medical staff to help mold them into effective leaders with development training from HealthStream.
View All ProductsMake sure your clinicians have the support they need to provide competent care with clinical competency training and development from HealthStream.
View All ProductsHealthStream’s learning management system and comprehensive suite of competency management tools empower your healthcare workforce to deliver the best patient care.
View All ProductsThe suite of healthcare onboarding solutions available from HealthStream aids in nurse retention and improved patient outcomes.
View All ProductsGive your healthcare staff the decision support and skills training they need with the online products available from HealthStream.
View All ProductsHealthStream leverages medical professional development in healthcare by providing staff training programs
View All ProductsExperience standardized and centralized healthcare credentialing, privileging, and enrollment that is smarter and faster than ever before.
View All ProductsAutomated, web-based provider credentialing and enrollment software for growing medical groups.
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Learn MoreCompetency is a tool for developing staff – and much more
While competency evaluation is obviously a tool for developing clinical and non-clinical staff, secondary – and equally important – goals of competency evaluation are to create business alignment amongst nursing, ancillary, and facility support staff. Doing so will promote strong working relationships between managers and their staff and improve employees’ engagement and satisfaction with their work environment.
Evaluating competency in a routine, organized manner promotes awareness of organizational goals and assures the evaluation of competencies against the goals monitored. When monitoring shows that existing competencies do not support the goals of the organization, a tactical response can be initiated to address these gaps. Evaluating competency across the organization in this way also allows the organization to pinpoint areas that need specific strategies required for the entire organization.
Focus on an Employee's Potential to Improve
The importance of relationship building between managers and their staff is based on an assumption that employees have the potential to improve – or at least be valuable to the organization based on their current competencies (if not in the area where they currently work). The manager’s professional responsibility is to identify and develop the employee’s potential by determining gaps in competency and providing learning opportunities to fill those gaps. For employees whose competencies cannot be improved, the manager’s responsibility then lies in finding the right place in the organization to capitalize on existing competencies or to determine the employee is not suited for the organization at all.
A competency evaluation process can actually improve employee engagement and job satisfaction. Research shows that engaged employees perform more consistently, effectively, and efficiently than equally-qualified, non-engaged employees. If employees are inadequately prepared to achieve required competency expectations, they can easily become disengaged. They may become indifferent, lacking the will, skill, desire, or basic motivation to promote their own professional career ladder objectives. If they do not see themselves as a critical influence on strategic business objectives of the organization, they may lose interest in their specific role. This disengagement will be reflected in not only the nurse’s satisfaction and engagement scores but in physician and patient satisfaction as well.
Competency supports personal and organizational accountability.
Managers who do not hold employees accountable for less-than-acceptable performance lower and “reset” the acceptable benchmark. The competency assessment can be utilized as the mechanism to hold nurses accountable to meet minimal organization expectations. Managers can institutionalize and articulate their expectations from pre-hire assessment through the peak of the career ladder. If an employee knowingly and defiantly fails to meet clearly articulated expectations, the manager should not hesitate to terminate the nurse’s employment.
On the flip side, managers can identify high performers and promote accountability for continued growth and career planning activities.
Competency evolves as employees develop their abilities and progress through their careers.
Competency assessment is not a motionless or stagnant process. Competency assessment is actually a fluid and ongoing process. It is dynamic and responsive to the changing needs and environment within the organization. Competency assessment should reflect the current direction and demands of the organization every changing clinical environment. As the needs of the patients, staff, and organization evolve, the appropriate competencies can and should be modified and adjusted. Organizations can be flexible in using competency evaluation for employees from pre-hire to orientation to annual assessments.
A successful competency assessment process evolves throughout the professional life cycle of the employee. In developing a competency assessment program, it is important to understand the initial assessment of job competencies at the time of hire differ from ongoing competency assessment. Ongoing competency assessment evaluates the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors that reflect the new, high-risk, problematic, and time-sensitive nursing functions of nursing practice. Considering these requirements and the inextricable relationship between competencies and quality of care, developing and implementing an effective competency program is crucially important.
Consulted Sources
Cohen, Michael, What You Accept is What You Teach: Setting Standards of Employee Accountability. Creative Health Care Management: Minneapolis, MN 2006
Delbueno, Dorothy; Buyer Beware The Cost of Competence. Nursing Economic: November 2001
Wright, Donna, The Ultimate Guide to Competency Assessments in Health Care. 3rd edition. Creative Health Care Management: Minneapolis MN 2005
HealthStream’s learning management system and comprehensive suite of competency management tools empower your healthcare workforce to deliver the best patient care.
View All Learning & PerformanceHealthStream offers performance learning management solutions to help develop your healthcare staff into leaders and reduce turnover.
View All ProductsHealthStream works with healthcare organizations to create engaging and high-quality training videos for your staff and management.
View All ProductsImprove care quality and save money by making informed decisions about your healthcare facility and staff with HealthStream's reporting analytics solution.
View All ProductsHealthStream's proven methods for the improvement and overall engagement of your healthcare staff foster a positive workplace and increase retention rates.
View All ProductsThe leadership development program from HealthStream helps mold your high-potential healthcare employees into proven leaders.
View All ProductsWhen you enact HealthStream's quality compliance solutions, you can do so with the confidence your healthcare organization will meet all standards of care.
View All Quality & ComplianceFulfill compliance requirements with a variety of programs and courseware designed to address critical regulatory requirements as well as educate staff to recognize and mitigate risks.
View All ProductsBy increasing your healthcare staff's focus on quality and safety with HealthStream, they can help to reduce medical errors and readmission rates.
View All ProductsLearn about what HealthStream's healthcare policy management software and how it can help aid your organization efforts.
View All ProductsHealthStream's education helps address diversity, equity, and inclusion within your organization, as well as promoting health equity in the communities you serve.
View All ProductsHealthStream offers professional training and education on how to best optimize your reimbursement process within your healthcare organization.
View All ReimbursementTeach your healthcare staff about the revenue cycle and claim management through targeted training and video tools from HealthStream.
View All ProductsLearn about our advanced resuscitation training solutions. Our solutions are designed to help improve patient outcomes.
View All ResuscitationIn all areas of resuscitation, from neonatal to elderly care, clinical deterioration is a risk that can be avoided with the help of HealthStream's training programs.
View All ProductsHealthStream's EMS Program offers a comprehensive, CAPCE accredited EMS course library that meets National Registry annual recertification.
View All ProductsNurture the skills of your nurses and medical staff to help mold them into effective leaders with development training from HealthStream.
View All ProductsExpand the decision-making skills and effectiveness of your healthcare workforce with HealthStream's clinical development programs and services.
View All Clinical DevelopmentMake sure your clinicians have the support they need to provide competent care with clinical competency training and development from HealthStream.
View All ProductsHealthStream’s learning management system and comprehensive suite of competency management tools empower your healthcare workforce to deliver the best patient care.
View All ProductsThe suite of healthcare onboarding solutions available from HealthStream aids in nurse retention and improved patient outcomes.
View All ProductsGive your healthcare staff the decision support and skills training they need with the online products available from HealthStream.
View All ProductsHealthStream leverages medical professional development in healthcare by providing staff training programs
View All ProductsLearn more about HealthStream's Provider Credentialing, privileging, & enrollment solutions.
View All CredentialingExperience standardized and centralized healthcare credentialing, privileging, and enrollment that is smarter and faster than ever before.
View All ProductsAutomated, web-based provider credentialing and enrollment software for growing medical groups.
View All ProductsNCQA-certified CVO verification services for initial and re-credentialing files in an overflow or full-service capacity for healthcare organizations.
View All ProductsSearch, review, and add providers into the Epic provider master file with our Epic app integration, Provider Validate.
View All ProductsMake sure your healthcare staff can schedule out appointments and work schedules with ease using HealthStream's line of software solutions.
View All SchedulingHealthcare scheduling software designed to optimize staffing requirements & elevate patient care
View All ProductsPrecisely align staffing and needed resources to enable efficient patient flow and high-quality, cost-effective patient care.
View All ProductsHealthStream’s free nurse schedule app, NurseGrid™, is built to help you care for your staff and engage with their specific needs.
View All Products