Modern healthcare teams have changed; with added strain on the care system, more reliance is placed on support workers than ever before. There is a wide range of jobs that fall into the care support work category, from social care support workers and clinical support workers. In all cases, however, they have the ability to completely transform the care given to patients, taking on essential responsibilities that may otherwise suffer. In this case and throughout, ‘patient’ refers to any person under the care of an organisation or individual including children, young people, residents, and service users.
Healthcare support workers may be required to assist with:
- Blood Glucose Monitoring
- Bowel Care
- Clinical Observations
- Enteral Feeding
- Gastrostomy Care
- Insulin Administration
- Jejunostomy
- Medication Administration
- Noninvasive Ventilation
- Rescue Medication Administration
- Stoma Care
- Tracheostomy Care
- Urinary Catheterisation and Catheter Care
- Wound Care
Due to this, it is therefore essential that all support workers are up to date with training and are able to work in line with the necessary guidelines and regulations. One way to ensure that the training of your healthcare team is sufficient is to carry out regular competency assessments.
Competency assessments aid in identifying areas that are perhaps not up to scratch and where further training may benefit both employees and the patients under their care.
Healthcare Competencies
There are five main competencies related to healthcare. These include:
- Patient-centered care – provide exceptional care to patients regardless of background, culture, values, or otherwise and promote a healthy lifestyle ideal.
- Interdisciplinary teams – the ability to work in modern interdisciplinary healthcare teams to provide integrated and consistent patient care.
- Evidence-based practice – provide optimum patient care by keeping up to date with the latest best practices and research in improving care practices.
- Quality improvement – seek to improve patient care and processes where possible, identifying potential risks or shortfalls in current practices in order to address them.
- Informatic support – backup decisions and diagnoses with data where possible in order to reduce the risk of error.
These competencies are designed to cover the whole healthcare system therefore, capability in these areas helps to ensure employees, including care support workers, provide the best care possible. By carrying out competency assessments to test the healthcare skills and the clinical skills of your staff, you are able to identify any opportunities for further improvement and training.
Carrying out competency assessments
In order to carry out competency assessments of your healthcare team, you must first identify the necessary skills required by your team and the regulations/guidelines they must follow within their respective roles. Once this has been established you can then test the team through methods such as observation, questioning, and practical simulations.
Here at TOK’s Care Solutions, we are also able to carry out competency assessments of your team in order to create a bespoke training plan to address any shortfalls in their healthcare or clinical skills.
Healthcare competency training
Once competency assessments have been completed, it is important to address any concerns raised in order to ensure patient care is delivered to the best of your employee’s ability, and in line with legal regulations.
We offer a wide range of bespoke training courses to aid the development of your employee’s clinical and healthcare skills. Training courses span a wide range of topics from health and social care training in areas such as the Care Act 2014 and Autism Awareness, as well as clinical skills training in areas such as Rescue Medication Administration and Tracheostomy Care.
For more information on how you can improve patient care through competency assessments and training, contact a member of the TOK’s Care Solutions team today. We can offer advice, support, and bespoke training solutions based on the specific needs of your organisation and the patients under your care.