Now all the roles of health care providers may be subdivided into two broad categories. They are direct care providers and indirect care providers. Apart from certain similarities that are adherent to both categories, there is a difference between the specific core competencies that depend upon the specialization of a medical specialist.
There exist several regulatory documents, approved by different nursing associations, which define the level of competency of medical care providers.
As it has been said, it is possible to distinguish between direct and indirect health care roles. The direct health care providers are nurse educators and advanced practice registered nurses. Nurse administrators and nurse informaticists belong to the second category.
“Nursing Informatics is a specialty that integrates nursing science, computer science, and information science to manage and communicate data, information knowledge and wisdom in nursing practice” (Troseth,2012, p.9). The scope of activity of the health care specialists of this field is very broad. They are involved in a numerous range of various official duties. Nurse informaticists play a significant role in medical education, workflow analysis, and emerging technologies. Apart from this, they lend support to patients and other health care providers. This support is realized with the help of different information technologies and information structures. Regardless of specialization, informatics competency is an essential requirement for all nurses. As Troseth (2012) puts it, “all nurses must be both information and computer literate” (p.15).
There may be distinguished three major components of nursing informatics competency. They are basic computer competencies, information literacy, and information management.
Compared with nurses of other specializations core competencies of nursing informatics imply an increased level of information management. This is particularly significant for those nurse informaticists who are involved in the development of communication and information technologies, in scientific research of any kind, or in software engineering. At the same time, basic information literacy and computer competence are necessary for every nurse regardless of the specialization.
As distinct from nurse informaticists, nurse educators belong to the category of direct care providers. Nurse educators are registered nurses who simultaneously function as teachers. As a rule, before dedicating themselves to teaching future nurses, they are involved in the direct health care activity. Many nurse educators have medical experience and even during their educational activities, they continue the clinical practice. Even if nurse educators terminate their medical practice, they have to be familiar with the latest innovations in the sphere of medicine to be successful teachers. That is why nurse educators competence has much in common with that of nurse practitioners.
These competencies may be identified based on several assumptions of the educative functions of the nurse educators. The nurse educators level should correspond to the current situation. Preparation for nurse educators implies clinical experience and should be realized on the graduate level.
It is possible to conclude that nurse educators in their activity fulfill functions of teachers, scholars, and collaborators (Nurse Educator Competencies, 2002). Based on these three functions of nurse educators it is possible to determine several core competencies that are adherent to them. They are health care proficiency, appropriate teaching skills and learning techniques, effective communication, usage of a previous clinical experience to improve theoretical and practical skills of nursing students, and cooperation with other health care specialists.
In such a way, it is possible to conclude that the core competencies of nurse educators have much in common with that of nurse practitioners. Practiced registered nurses are educated in one of the following disciplines: “family/individual across the lifespan, adult-gerontology, pediatrics, neonatal, women’s health/gender-related or psych/mental health” (Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner Competencies, 2012, p.9). Taking into consideration the fact that a nurse care practitioner is a specialist of a direct health care service, core competencies that are typical for this specialization imply activities that incorporate risk stratification, treatment procedures, and diagnosis.
In general, it is possible to conclude that there are exist core competencies general for health care providers of different specializations. The activity of every nurse is based on several principles that are common for every health worker. They are caring, altruism, human dignity, integrity, which implies standards of conducts and standards of professional practice, and social justice. At the same time, depending upon the specialization there may be distinguished specific core competencies that are adherent for a definite group of health care providers.
The main difference between direct and indirect care providers lies in the level of coordination with a patient. In such a way, the focus of attention on the core competencies for direct care providers is paid to practical skills. Apart from the theoretical foundation, a nurse of the direct health care service has to possess good communication skills, have intimate knowledge of the psychology of parenthood, and “evaluate ethical consequences of decisions.”( Thomas et al.,2014,p.11).
Apart from the universal principles, core competencies for a medical specialist of indirect health care service imply a deep knowledge of medical science. A specialist involved in this sphere has to possess the knowledge of information management and to be able to work in cooperation with other health care providers.
References
Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner Competencies. (2012). Web.
Nurse Educator Competencies. (2002). Web.
Troseth, M. (2012). Roles, Competencies, Skills, Organizations and Legislative Aspects. Web.
Thomas, A., Crabtree, K., Delaney, K., Dumas, A., Kleinpell, R., Marfell, J., Nativio, D., Udlis, K., & Wolf, A. (2014). Nurse Practitioner Core Competencies Content. Web.