Day 1 : Poster Presentations (Theme: Education for Service)

Does community health care requires different competencies from physicians and nurses?

Presenter Information

Zahra Ladhani, Maastricht University

Location

Auditorium Pond Side

Start Date

26-1-2013 3:30 PM

Abstract

Background: In Health Professionals Education, recently competency based approach has gained a lot of popularity. For community settings it has specific relevance as often fully functional health teams are not available to provide comprehensive care to the populations, and the health providers who work in such isolated settings need not only be competent in their own professions but also must be able to perform the roles of health team members who are not available. Utilizing an earlier published systematic review on Competencies for Community based education (CBE) as framework, this study examined the specific tasks of health providers and variations in their competencies in a context where not many health providers are available to work.

Methods: In-depth Interviews of 11 Physicians’ and 6 Registered Nurses (RNs) working in community settings managed either by Government, NGO or Universities of Pakistan were conducted along with review of their job descriptions.

Results: The most frequently required competency for physicians is “direct patient care” and for nurses it is either “public health” or “administration”. Location of health facility or level of care does not demand different competencies, however depending on the employer the required competencies do vary. The critical factors in determining the tasks performed by health providers were availability of a functional health team and the preparation of health providers for CBE competencies.

Conclusions: The specific tasks of physicians and RNs working in community settings provide a useful framework to analyze competencies, and can help educators revisit the curricula and instructional designs. The results provide important insight into the practice of community health provision which should be utilized by educators and policy makers alike for production and deployment of appropriately competent healthcare providers.

Key words: - Community Based Education - Health Professionals - Competencies - Job description

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Jan 26th, 3:30 PM Jan 26th, 5:00 PM

Does community health care requires different competencies from physicians and nurses?

Auditorium Pond Side

Background: In Health Professionals Education, recently competency based approach has gained a lot of popularity. For community settings it has specific relevance as often fully functional health teams are not available to provide comprehensive care to the populations, and the health providers who work in such isolated settings need not only be competent in their own professions but also must be able to perform the roles of health team members who are not available. Utilizing an earlier published systematic review on Competencies for Community based education (CBE) as framework, this study examined the specific tasks of health providers and variations in their competencies in a context where not many health providers are available to work.

Methods: In-depth Interviews of 11 Physicians’ and 6 Registered Nurses (RNs) working in community settings managed either by Government, NGO or Universities of Pakistan were conducted along with review of their job descriptions.

Results: The most frequently required competency for physicians is “direct patient care” and for nurses it is either “public health” or “administration”. Location of health facility or level of care does not demand different competencies, however depending on the employer the required competencies do vary. The critical factors in determining the tasks performed by health providers were availability of a functional health team and the preparation of health providers for CBE competencies.

Conclusions: The specific tasks of physicians and RNs working in community settings provide a useful framework to analyze competencies, and can help educators revisit the curricula and instructional designs. The results provide important insight into the practice of community health provision which should be utilized by educators and policy makers alike for production and deployment of appropriately competent healthcare providers.

Key words: - Community Based Education - Health Professionals - Competencies - Job description