Essential Skills for Healthcare Management - Importance of Soft Skills and Stress Management

This article discusses the importance of soft skills and stress management in healthcare management. It covers the impact of work-related stress on healthcare staff and service users, and strategies to reduce stress. It also highlights the most important transferable skills for healthcare management, including communication, problem-solving, and leadership skills. A personal development plan is also included.

ESSENTIAL SKILLS FOR
HEALTHCARE
MANAGEMENT

Table of Content.
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Component part 1.........................................................................................................................1
Component 2................................................................................................................................4
Personal development plan .........................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Healthcare management refers to the overall management and leadership of public as
well as private healthcare management. Healthcare management is in place to ensure that
operations in the entire healthcare sector are maintained smoothly. There are some technical as
well as some soft skills which are necessary for the development of healthcare management.
Healthcare management professionals focused on their daily work on a smaller subset of a
healthcare facility's operations. This project includes a case study of there is Mr. Thompson who
was admitted as a semi-independent service user. He was refusing care and his family are
concerned and faced trouble in communicating with his healthcare provider. It also includes a
personal development plan for the personal skills which are associated with reducing the gap.
This also includes the Gibbs reflective models for the skills which explain the challenging skills
(Kasthuri, 2018).
MAIN BODY
Part 1
Healthcare working staff can suffer from work-related and occupational stresses which
are associated with organizational factors and an imbalance of the demand, skills, and social
supports at work and a combination of these. These conditions can lead to severe distress,
psychological disease and physical illness and these can result in the deterioration in the quality
of life. The work-related growing problem around the world affects the health and well-being of
staff and this also decreases the productivity of the organizations. There are some work-related
stresses which include heavy workloads insecurity, conflicts with co-workers and managers and
long hours. These are highly impacting on mental health and it mainly includes the stress from
doing the job. Some issues are associated with the workplace. It includes organizational cultures,
change in management, bad management practices, physical work environment, relationships at
work, a lack of support as well as role conflict. Organizational culture represents the shared ways
of thinking, feeling and behaving in healthcare organizations. Healthcare organizations are best
viewed as comprising various subcultures which may be driving forces for change of many
undermine quality improvement initiatives (Moradi and et. al., 2019). These organizational and
workplace cultures are associated with a wide range of patient outcomes. It includes reduced
mortality rates, and hospital-acquired infections and affects patient satisfaction. These also
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contribute to the unequal treatment of people based on their races, ethnicity, gender, age,
disability and other various characteristics. Bad management may lead to low engagement and
this decreases productivity and higher turnover. The bad management f the staff occurs when an
organization experiences ongoing mistreatment of workers that is negative, and systemic
affecting the all over the culture of the organization. It also serves as a distraction and creates a
poor work environment and decreases the encouragement of their loyalty to employers. Work-
related stress is the response people may have when presented with work demands and pressure
that are not matched to their knowledge and abilities which challenge their ability to cope. This
includes the long hour working, heavy workloads, job insecurity and conflicts with co-workers
as well as supervisors. Lack of support enhances the trauma related to psychopathology and also
reduces medical morbidity and mortality. The physical environment often assumed that staff who
are more satisfied with the physical environment are more likely to produce better work
outcomes. Some physical factors cause stress in the healthcare environment. It considers
temperature, air quality, lighting and noise conditions in the organization affect the work
concentration. Psychological stressors are arguable, the most predominant stress factors. This
stress affects the staff as well as affects the organization's performance. It may lead the high
blood pressure and anxiety which increase the risk of coronary heart disease, substance abuse
and anxiety disorders. Psychological stressors are the most predominant stress factors. This
includes high job demand, inflexible working hours, poor job control, poor work design and
structure, bullying, harassment and job insecurity (Zamparas et. al., 2019).
There are so many stresses which impact the performance and well-being of the service
user. These cause defensiveness, lack of motivation, difficulty in concentrating, and accidents as
well as reduced productivity. Long term impact of stress can cause physical health illnesses. It
may cause fatigue and headache which are the most common symptoms of being under stress.
The staff who are dealing with a high level of stress have a higher incidence of sick leave,
absenteeism, disengagement and attrition. Service users are dealing with angry staff members. It
may decrease the productivity of the healthcare organization. Organizational culture stress is
impacting job satisfaction, increasing turnover and decreasing the productivity of the
organization. If stress is not managed properly that may increase the risk of anxiety, burnout,
depression and substance use disorder. The effect of the job-related strain is evident in workers'
physical health, mental health and behavior. These effects occur in a continuum, beginning as
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distress in response to stressors. Distress may lead the heart disease, substance abuse and
psychological disorder. A stressful environment makes it difficult to concentrate and pay
attention to the details of the service user. Workplace stressors are explained as physical as well
as psychological. Physical stressors include poor lighting, unpleasant noise and poor working
layout. This may cause difficulty for the service user and may also cause headaches in the
clients. These also affect the relationship between the workers and service users. It also causes
defensiveness, lack of motivation, reduced productivity, difficulty concentrating accidents and
interpersonal conflict. This stress developed headaches, depression and angry nature in the staff
members. This results in the staff do not attend the service user properly and cannot understand
their problems. Thus, the staff members face difficulties in solving their problems (Harden and
Laidlaw, 2020). In the workplace, some external factors affect the degree of control much more
than may like customers, managers and workers all influence stress levels. Job stress impact
harmful physical and emotional response that occurs when the requirements of the job do not
match the capabilities, resources and needs of the workers. Chronic stress can lead to anxiety,
insomnia, high blood pressure as well as weakened immune systems. Compounding the problem,
a person who experiences excessive stress often deals with it in unhealthy ways such as
overeating, eating unhealthy food, smoking cigarettes, or abusing drugs and alcohol. These
decrease the staff's overall performance as well as decrease organizational performance, increase
error rate, poor quality of work and also increase staff turnover (Huang, Rust and Maksimovic,
2019).
There are some strategies to reduce stress in healthcare management. There need to firstly
identify the stressors which situation creates the most stress and how to respond to them. There
are need to record all of the thoughts, feelings and information about the environment. It also
includes the people as well as circumstances and physical setting. This is helpful to identify the
stress before it happens through a cognitive process called proactive coping. There are need to
develop some boundaries for healthcare management. This may include the rules and regulations
and some clear boundaries between these realms can reduce the potential for work-life conflict
and the stress that goes with it. There are need to avoid the negative effect of chronic stress and
burnout. There is a need for time to replenish and return to the pre-stress level of functioning. It
is possible to take time off to relax as well as unwind. There is staff not able to take time off to
get a quick boost by turning off their smartphones and centering on attention on activities for a
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while. There are need to exercise and healthy living is two of the best weapons against
workplace stress. It is also modified moods by increasing the production of endorphins and
developing good neurotransmitters (Stouten, Rousseau and De Cremer, 2018). There are need to
encourage the staff to walk during the breaks. Organizations should provide gym memberships
and also bring yoga instructors. There is also a need to provide good and healthy food as well as
fresh fruits in the yogurts in the fridge. There is a lot of stress comes from environmental
stressors. There are need to manage proper hazard management for controls this stress. Update
the office with an upbeat color scheme, additional plant and new silverware. There is need to the
changes in the work premises. Staff members spend a lot of time together and are more
comfortable and less stressed. There are also provide staff training for stress management.
Different healthcare businesses faced many challenges in running these. Developed training
programs which are based on the workers' fields. Workers who feel confident in their working,
as well as abilities, are not intimidated by problems faced on their job which can assist them to
manage their stress (Van Deursen, Verlage and van Laar, 2018).
Component 2
Some soft skills are necessary for healthcare management. Employers want to see well-
rounded candidates with a strong foundation of transferable skills and abilities. There are some
most important and transferable skills for healthcare management. It includes communication,
teamwork, research, relationship building and problem-solving skills. There are so many sot
skills present in a wide range and these are also known as transferable skills. These consider
interpersonal skills sometimes it is also called people skills as well as social skills. These are
explained as relationships with other people and how approach life and work and help them to be
constructive and helpful employees (Cottrell and Cottrell, 2020).
Communication skills are the most important and always high the essential skills in any
job in 2020. People who have good communication skills can build good relationships with other
people in any organization. This skill is indispensable in every aspect of healthcare management.
This skill is necessary for assessing a budget and creating schedules as well as in understanding
or decision making. These skills are needed to speak appropriately with a wide variety of people
maintain good eye contact and demonstrate a varied vocabulary. It is the ability for delivering
and receiving various kinds of information. It enables individuals to understand others and to be
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understood themselves. There is a variety of aspects that are important about these skills such as
listening, speaking, observing and empathy.
Technical skills are essential in every job is technological competence. It also plays a
crucial role when are not working in a technology field, strong technical skills will assist to
enhance stability and professional growth. It constantly changes the nature of the job and it is the
specialized knowledge and expertise required to perform specific tasks and use specific tools and
programs in real-world situations. They are practical and often related to mechanical,
information technology and science tasks (Fakhretdinova, Osipov and Dulalaeva, 2020).
Leadership skills are the ability to manage and motivate others as well as delegate work.
This is the strength as well as the ability of individuals to assist in processes, shear as well as
guide their co-workers towards the achievements of the goals. It is essential to motivate others to
complete the tasks and schedule. A good leader can bring out the best abilities in team members
and help them to achieve the organization's goals. This will ultimately be recognized and
rewarded with a promotion up the ranks of management. Leadership skills are the most complex
and transferable skills that help to develop success in professional life. Communication skill is
modifying leadership skills to come up with solutions that others might not have seen.
Leadership is a combination and growth of all the transferable skills with the clear presence of all
professional values (Vlasenko et. al., 2021).
Problem-solving skills assist in the solve the issues which are happening at the
organization will solve effectively and quickly. This is one of the important skills for workers
and job seekers nowadays. This skill starts with identifying the issue than coming up with the
solutions, implementing those solutions and evaluating their effectiveness. Those people who
have good problem-solving skills are valuable and trusted assets to the team. It helps to develop
new ideas. Better ways to do things make it easier for people to understand the thing and help
save customers time and money (Cottrell, 2020).
Public speaking is a strong oral communication skill and this is help in conference talks,
poster presentations and teaching. This is helpful to maintain eye contact with other people and
engage with them. This also helps to think positively and allows to communicate with others and
express thoughts and feelings.
Teamwork skills consist of interrelated abilities that increase work efficacy in
organizational groups. This skill is a common skill for workers as the team is a basic
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organizational unit within many companies. These skills can be developed through regular
practices and it refers to the ability to work well with achieving a common goal (Rudnick, 2018).
Time management means the ability for organizing time intelligently. Good time
management is help to increase productivity, decrease stress and give more opportunities to the
employees. This is helpful to prioritize tasks to ensure that have enough time available to
complete every project. The quality of work increases when not rushing to complete it ahead of a
fast-approaching deadline. Good time management assist leaders, entrepreneurs and small
business owner to achieve their targets or goals. It gives a powerful effect on the quality of your
decisions and also improves overall efficiency.
Self-motivation is the force that keeps pushing us to go on. It is an internal feeling to
achieve, produce, develop and keep moving forward. T is required to stimulate the desire in the
persons for performing and giving their best in the work. A person who is self-motivated always
be willing to take on various responsibilities (Guin, 2019).
Personal development plan
SKILLS PRESENT
RANKING (out
of 10)
EXPECTED
RANKING (out
of 10)
TIME
FRAMING
HOW TO
ACHIEVE
THEM
Problem-solving
skills
2 8 Three months There is a need to
actively
participate in
potential future
problems and act
to prevent them.
Communication
skills
4 9 Two months There are need to
listen carefully to
avoid interrupting
and practice
paraphrasing.
Teamwork 5 8 One month There is a need to
clarify the goals
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and establish
team rules as well
as purpose.
Time
management
3 9 Two months Firstly learn about
the patterns of
productivity and
schedule the tasks
and their
deadlines.
Gibbs's reflective cycle is a self-reflection and management tool that assists people to
think clearly and systematically about different experiences. It is easy to use the Gibbs reflective
model by Graham Gibbs as a guide to teaching in a coaching session to analyze the situations. It
includes six stages where each stage helps to engage and reflect on a specific learning
experience. These steps include description, feelings, evaluation, analysis, conclusion and action
plan. There is a problem-solving skill in which I am weak (Fenton, Fletcher and Griffiths, 2019).
Description: I am a care provider in a health care organization. I have faced a few
problems during my services in the health care organization. There was a patient who was
admitted to a unit of self-independent care venter. He was completely dependable on the care
team, but he was also able to do his day-to-day work by himself. He was facing some problems
with the care staff. I was not able to understand his problems as well as I was facing trouble
communicating with him. He was now refusing care and his family is concerned and
complaining about the care team. I was present there when they were sharing their problem about
the care center.
Feeling: Before this situation, I felt that there were only patients who feel those problems.
After listening to the problems I felt that there was required to communicate properly because I
was also not able to analyze those problems. I was feeling that I am not communicating properly.
Evaluations: I evaluated that there was a good thing patient was trying to communicate
with the care provider and I was trying to solve these problems. I felt that there is also a bad
thing that people are fully dependable on the care team. I was talk with people and try to
communicate with them. I listen to their problems and try to solve them.
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Analysis: I am analyzed that I have to identify and understand the right problem to
communicate with them. I have visualized the problem and chosen the best strategy that is useful
for everyone. Then I built the simple and best suitable solutions to the problem that are looking
to solve.
Conclusion: I have concludes that there is a need for proper communication with the staff
and other persons. I should have improved my proper problem-solving skills and needed to
generate alternative solutions for their problems.
Action plan: In the future, if I have to face this type of situation again I am firstly
communicating with the patient and being able to analyze their problems. I try to solve their
problems and fully explained the situation (Sherwood et. al., 2022).
CONCLUSION
From the above essay, it has been concluded that there are some essential skills for
healthcare management. This essay includes the workplace stressors present in the healthcare
organization which is faced by the working staff. This includes bad management practices, job
content and demands, workplace relationship, lack of support, management change and physical
work environment. It is also considered a personal development plan which is an action plan for
individuals' goals and what want to achieve. It also includes the areas which are needed to
improve and develop to meet the goals or targets. There is also an explanation about the
transferable or personal skills which are most valued by an employer in 2020. it includes
communication skills, teamwork, self-motivation, leadership skills and time management.
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REFERENCES
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as an important tool in developing soft skills. In International Conference on Interactive
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driven approach. Routledge.
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