HealthStream 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 ProductsBe confident in your staff’s ability to reduce risk by providing compliance training that changes behavior.
View All ProductsDevelop next-level people for next-level care by prioritizing quality and safety improvements.
View All ProductsEstablish a culture of belonging with education supporting DEI, wellness, engagement, and leadership development.
View All ProductsDeliver custom or industry designed product training directly to patient and resident care environments to reinforce proper use.
View All ProductsStop wasting money on RCM issues. Learn how to Provide your team with expert-led revenue cycle training to help them reduce denied claims, reimbursement mistakes, and more.
View All ProductsLearn about our advanced resuscitation training solutions. Our solutions are designed to help improve patient outcomes.
View All ProductsOur competency development solutions personalize learning for clinicians to bridge the gap between theory and practice for your nurse residents.
View All ProductsEnhance maternal & child nursing care with solutions focused on improving the quality of care for mothers, infants, and children.
View All ProductsAddress staffing orientation challenges to easily achieve and maintain certification with our emergency and acute care training solutions.
View All ProductsAs a premier provider of healthcare education, we are committed to promoting safer, more successful surgical and sedation outcomes for each and every patient.
View All ProductsOur solutions are designed to cater to the needs of patients, healthcare professionals, and organizations dealing with illnesses or chronic conditions.
View All ProductsHealthcare workforce management is essential. We provide advanced scheduling solutions for organizations to solve issues such as nurse retention
View All ProductsTackle all the challenges of provider directory management within a health plan with a single solution tailored to your specific needs.
View All ProductsOur affordable CVO credentialing services establish patient safety by enabling primary source verification for your healthcare organization.
View All ProductsFinally, a comprehensive resource to support collecting, storing, and sharing credentialing data with ease.
View All ProductsIntegrate with Epic to validate and add new providers directly to your provider master file.
View All ProductsMitigate risk and elevate your quality of care. Improving both clinical and business outcomes starts with a smarter, more integrated approach to regulatory training, continuing education and quality management.
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 healthcare training solutions support medical training initiatives and allow for 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 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 & ComplianceBe confident in your staff’s ability to reduce risk by providing compliance training that changes behavior.
View All ProductsDevelop next-level people for next-level care by prioritizing quality and safety improvements.
View All ProductsEstablish a culture of belonging with education supporting DEI, wellness, engagement, and leadership development.
View All ProductsUtilize patient access solutions and advanced reimbursement solutions to manage clinical denials and improve your organization’s reimbursement strategy.
View All ReimbursementExpand the decision-making skills and effectiveness of your healthcare workforce with HealthStream's clinical development programs and services.
View All Clinical DevelopmentLearn about our advanced resuscitation training solutions. Our solutions are designed to help improve patient outcomes.
View All ProductsOur competency development solutions personalize learning for clinicians to bridge the gap between theory and practice for your nurse residents.
View All ProductsEnhance maternal & child nursing care with solutions focused on improving the quality of care for mothers, infants, and children.
View All ProductsAddress staffing orientation challenges to easily achieve and maintain certification with our emergency and acute care training solutions.
View All ProductsAs a premier provider of healthcare education, we are committed to promoting safer, more successful surgical and sedation outcomes for each and every patient.
View All ProductsOur solutions are designed to cater to the needs of patients, healthcare professionals, and organizations dealing with illnesses or chronic conditions.
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 workforce management is essential. We provide advanced scheduling solutions for organizations to solve issues such as nurse retention
View All ProductsComprehensive, industry-leading provider onboarding and credentialing software that validate health outcomes and support provider assessment.
View All CredentialingOur affordable CVO credentialing services establish patient safety by enabling primary source verification for your healthcare organization.
View All ProductsIntegrate with Epic to validate and add new providers directly to your provider master file.
View All Products