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 MoreAll industries have different required skill sets. The broad categories are hard and soft skills. In healthcare, the difference between hard and soft skills is quite pronounced and historically, the emphasis has been on developing the hard or clinical skills, but the soft skills are the skills most observable by patients and families. Most patients and family members are unable to truly assess a provider's hard or clinical skills so it will be their perceptions of the strength of these soft skills that will drive how they rate their healthcare experiences. Soft skills can also be an essential element of a great workplace.
First off, both skills sets are important. In healthcare, there is an appropriate level of focus on hard skills. Competency in these skills is regularly assessed and most providers would have little difficulty defining those skills and describing what competency looks like.
One difference between the two skill sets is the means by which they are acquired. Hard skills in healthcare, as in many industries, are acquired through education. These skills are fairly easy to define and measure and competency in these skills is regularly assessed. The list of hard skills in healthcare is lengthy and can vary by care setting. Skills such as understanding anatomy and physiology, taking vital signs, administering medications, providing wound care, starting IVs and performing high-quality CPR would be considered essential hard skills for nurses. For medical assistants and certified nursing assistants (CNAs), the list might include taking accurate vital signs, following proper infection control procedures and recording patient vitals.
Soft skills can be a bit more slippery to define and measure but no less essential in healthcare. They are the skills providers need to communicate, lead and get along effectively in the workplace. Soft skills might include:
Soft skills can impact virtually every aspect of how a patient or family member might evaluate their healthcare encounter – something that matters in the age of value-based purchasing and the ever-increasing number of Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) surveys. Patient perceptions of communication, compassion and respect are routinely addressed in these surveys.
Those same soft skills make a difference in the workplace as well. Failures in communication, critical thinking and time management can make a unit or department a difficult place in which to provide healthcare. These are also the kinds of skills that can impact outcomes and productivity and will certainly have an impact on patients perceptions of their experience as well as employees' perceptions of their workplace.
Establishing the appropriate level of focus on soft skills can be difficult, but as HealthStream Product Manager, Susan Gurzynski-Wells puts it, "Sometimes during especially hectic times, we can forget the importance of soft skills, when in reality this is the time when soft skills are most beneficial. Soft skills enhance communication and strengthen collaboration within and across teams, as well as provide a welcoming, efficient staff for our most important audience, our patients."
Building and improving the soft skills needed in healthcare is easier when you have the right tools. Online tools help you assess where employees are right now and provide the data to help you prioritize training and offer the kinds of resources that build efficiency and productivity, change patient perceptions of their experience and prepares the next generation of healthcare leaders. Choose a solution that will address these soft skills as well as reduce IT costs.
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.
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