QI staff must be good communicators
QI staff must be good communicators
Test QI candidates before hiring
Good communication skills are a must for everyone in home care, but quality improvement (QI) professionals must be able to make themselves understood more than anyone else, say home health care company managers. QI staff members cannot be successful in their jobs if they cannot make their colleagues comprehend the need to improve the quality of care they deliver, managers say.
Communication skills can include everything from speaking ability, spelling, penmanship, grammar, writing skills, teaching skills and interpersonal skills. Home health care company managers interviewed by Hospital Home Health said unanimously that they test QI department candidates in all these areas. Here is how they do so:
* Observe candidates' body language and word choice.
Candidates have to be able to give criticism in a manner that develops a positive culture within the company, explains Laura Waltrip, RN, the administrator and chief operating officer (COO) of the home care division at SantaFe HomeCare in Gainesville, FL. They need to have sense of humor too, so they don't make the rest of your staff feel they're being talked down to, she says.
To determine whether candidates can do these things, Waltrip observes the way they respond to her questions, both physically and verbally.
"I give them a scenario and ask them how they would handle it," Waltrip says. "Then I watch their word choice and body language to see whether they use positive or negative terms. This gives me an idea of whether they develop positive or negative cultures among other employees."
* Ask candidates to describe the ideal manager.
Also, candidates should have a personality that meshes with the personality of your organization, says Patty Ham, RN, the director of the Saint Francis Medical Center Home Health Department in Peoria, IL. If your company has a laid-back atmosphere, you should be wary of hiring a go-getter who might find your company frustrating, she says.
One way Ham does this is to ask candidates to describe a manager they think is a model worth emulating, to help her see whether they will work well with their potential colleagues.
* Give writing tests.
Ask your quality improvement (QI) department candidates to explain in writing how they would handle a scenario they might encounter as a QI manager or department employee, home health professionals interviewed say.
Check written communication skills
This allows directors to check candidates' handwriting, grammar, spelling, and general writing ability. Waltrip also uses a writing sample to evaluate candidates' choice of words, again to see if they use positive terms.
"You want them to have good business writing skills. You don't want to have to rewrite their reports before you give them to your governing body," Waltrip says.
Also, as the QI department will respond to all Medicare requests for further information, you especially want good writers who express themselves clearly and concisely on paper, Ham says.
* Ask about their skills as educators.
"Education is a big part of QI," says Robin Will, RN, the director of support services in home care at SantaFe HomeCare. Communication skills include teaching abilities, home health professionals say.
QI department members must be able to educate other people, Waltrip says. QI candidates need to be able to teach and to recognize other people's learning needs, she says. Candidates should have practical experience in giving workshops and seminars, she says. Waltrip hired her QI manager from her own education department.
One way Waltrip learns about candidates' teaching abilities is to ask them to describe their experience in teaching adult learners, especially home care professionals, she says. She also asks them to give an example of a time when they had to teach something to a person in a one-on-one setting. Then she asks candidates to explain how well this worked, and how the candidate felt about the teaching session afterward.
Candidates also need to be able to write well, so they can produce quality monitoring and education tools that others understand, and that won't be an embarrassment when surveyors look at them, Waltrip says. *
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