The Healthcare industry cannot but change in response to the evolution of the marketplace and the accelerated development of science. Lately, several trends have been established. Some of them are the promotion of the so-called soft skills as the primary hiring requirement and having knowledge and experience of working with information technologies innovations. The necessity of developing soft skills derives from the fact that patients have higher quality expectations due to higher levels of perceived knowledge. It means that they are becoming more informed (Santilli & Vogerberg, 2015).
The trend is explained by easily accessible information about symptoms and diagnoses on the Internet. Except for overstated quality expectations, it leads to openness between patients and healthcare staff and highlights the significance of soft skills. Soft skills refer to those unrelated to knowledge and working experience.
They include communication, the ability to handle conflict situations, work in a team, etc. Communication is the most significant one when speaking of healthcare staff because it is of critical importance for providing patients with high-quality care and transitioning towards the patient-centered model of care (Bramhall, 2014; Kourkouta & Papathanasiou, 2014).
As for the trend towards the intensive implementation of the newest technologies in the healthcare industry, it is caused by the embodiment of electronic health records in hospitals. It requires nurses and doctors to have experience of working with computers and tablets in order to operate the chosen software and improve their performance. Moreover, the transition towards innovative healthcare models requires typing skills, concentration, and familiarity with the application’s interface and specificities of its operation (Ajami & Bagheri-Tadi, 2013).
The aforementioned trends will have a significant impact on staff forcing them to develop the required soft and hard skills and study techniques of effective communication and using electronic health records. Moreover, they will affect human resource management making the process of hiring new staff more complicated because candidates will be required to demonstrate high levels of competence and possession of these skills. Furthermore, these trends will necessitate the design of motivation tricks used for stirring currently employed staff to self-development.
These issues can be addressed by different human resource management strategies. The first strategy, which can be deployed, is employee engagement. Its primary aspects, which might handle the challenges caused by the aforementioned trends, are training and performance management. It means that the human resource manager might be interested in providing the staff with materials necessary for developing the required skills and designing the methods for assessing their performance.
These tools might become effective means of motivation (Albrecht, Bakker, Gruman, Macey, & Saks, 2015). This strategy is closely connected to the reward strategy. The way to implement it is to declare objectives together with rewards for achieving them (San, Theen, & Heng, 2012). In case of addressing the influence of the trends, it will imply informing nurses about financial or other rewards, which will be granted to them if they succeed in self-development.
However, the most effective strategy would be learning and development of human resource management strategy. The idea behind it is simple: if an organization demands its staff to develop particular skills and knowledge, it should provide them with the resources to comply with the requirements (Niazi, 2011). The same can be said about a healthcare unit: if currently working employees are requested to develop soft skills and operate electronic health records, they should be trained.
References
Ajami, S., & Bagheri-Tadi, T. (2013). Barriers for adopting electronic health records (EHR) by physicians. Acta Informatica Medica, 21(2), 129-134. doi: 10.5455/aim.2013.21.129-134
Albrecht, S. L., Bakker, A. B., Gruman, J. A., Macey, W. H., & Saks, A. M. (2015). Employee engagement, human resource management practices and competitive advantage: An integrated approach. Journal of Organizational Effectiveness: People and Performance, 2(1), 7-35.
Bramhall, E. (2014). Effective communication skills in nursing practice. Nursing Standard, 29(14), 53-59.
Kourkouta, L., & Papathanasiou, I. V. (2014). Communication in nursing practice. Materia Sociomedica, 26(1), 65-67. doi: 10.5455/msm.2014.26.65-67
Niazi, A. S. (2011). Training and Development strategy and its role in organization performance. Journal of Public Administration and Governance, 1(2), 42-57.
San, O. T., Theen, Y. M., & Heng, T. B. (2012). The Reward Strategy and Performance Measurement. International Journal of Business, Humanities, and Technology, 2(1), 211-223.
Santilli, J., & Vogerberg, F. R. (2015). Key strategic trends that impact healthcare decision-making and stakeholder roles in the new marketplace. American Health and Drug Benefits, 8(1), 15-20.