What constitutes an excellent allied health care professional? A multidisciplinary focus group study

Abstract

BackgroundDetermining what constitutes an excellent allied health care professional (AHCP) is important, since this is what will guide the development of curricula for training future physical therapists, oral hygienists, speech therapists, diagnostic radiographers, and dietitians. This also determines the quality of care.AimTo describe perspectives of AHCPs on which characteristics are commonly associated with an excellent AHCP.MethodsAHCPs’ perspectives were derived from three focus group discussions. Twenty-one health care professionals participated. The final analysis of the focus group discussions produced eight domains, in which content validity was obtained through a Delphi panel survey of 27 contributing experts.ResultsAccording to the survey, a combination of the following characteristics defines an excellent AHCP: (1) cognizance, to obtain and to apply knowledge in a broad multidisciplinary health care field; (2) cooperativity, to effectively work with others in a multidisciplinary context; (3) communicative, to communicate effectively at different levels in complex situations; (4) initiative, to initiate new ideas, to act proactively, and to follow them through; (5) innovative, to devise new ideas and to implement alternatives beyond current practices; (6) introspective, to self-examine and to reflect; (7) broad perspective, to capture the big picture; and (8) evidence-driven, to find and to use scientific evidence to guide one’s decisions.ConclusionThe AHCPs perspectives can be used as a reference for personal improvement for supervisors and professionals in clinical practice and for educational purposes. These perspectives may serve as a guide against which talented students can evaluate themselves.

Uitdagingen voor onderzoek naar honoursonderwijs

“…Hoe kunnen docenten en studenten elkaar binnen het honoursonderwijs versterken, en is er sprake van een specifieke honoursdidactiek (Wolfensberger, 2012). Hoe kan de relatie versterkt worden tussen succes in de beroepspraktijk en het gevolgde (honours)onderwijs (Paans, Wijkamp, Wiltens, & Wolfensberger, 2013;Scager et al, 2012;Van Dijk, 2012) en hoe denken honoursalumni daarover (Wolfensberger, Sweijen, Van Eijl, Hartog, & Van der Vaart, 2010)?…”

<p>Describing a Clinical Group Coding Method for Identifying Competencies in an Allied Health Single Session</p>

“…Extant research on clinician competence has found that best practices include being cognizant, communicative, innovative, introspective, holistic in incorporating information from multiple sources (eg, clinicians, patients, families), and evidence-driven. [1][2][3] In this context, being evidence-driven ideally integrates knowledge from both rigorous empirical research and real-world, practice-based research (PBR), resulting in comprehensive evidence-based practice (EBP). 4 EBP is an evolving concept in the health professions.…”

“…14 As such, a framework for single-session practice competencies would be useful for social workers to further develop their skills and contributions to multidisciplinary teams. Experienced allied health clinicians are expected to further their professional competencies, 2 many of which are shared across disciplines. 15 , 16 Allied clinician activities in single sessions often include: conducting psychosocial assessments and interventions; providing supportive counseling for adjustment to illness; promoting health; and providing resources and referrals.…”

“… 17 , 18 , 20 However, competencies for single session allied healthcare have not yet been empirically examined, and research on allied healthcare has primarily focused on team dynamics instead of direct practice with patients and their families. 2 , 15 …”

Psychophysiological readiness of students to work in the field of clinical speech therapy

“…-a sociogram reflecting the socially significant personality traits of a speech therapist. Nevertheless, studies that would consider not only psychological characteristics, but the psychophysiological aspect of professional readiness for speech therapist activity are not presented in the literature [5,6,7,8].…”