Healthcare Professionals: What Skills Should Be Developed to Face the Change?

The User/Patient At The Center Of The Health Care Process

The first axis analyzed focuses on the importance of placing the user/patient at the center of the health care process in training terms and obviously in operational terms in work processes. This conceptual approach leads us to educational and training methodologies for all health professionals (diagnostic technicians, physicians, psychologists, nurses, social workers, physical engineers, virologists, geneticists, etc.) in which the user/patient is central and surpasses the traditional provision of care. This change necessarily requires training based on the pillars that enshrine this concept: effective access to health care; health in all policies (from education to the economy, social security, or the environment, with public and private involvement and constant attention not only to the individual but also to the community in which the individual operates). For the user/patient centrality in the care process to be fully guaranteed, health literacy skills, recognition of citizen participation and the quality of care/services are equally central to professionals in any area/specialty in health and for this reason, user/patient centrality must assume a constant presence in its educational/training programs.

This change in training must invest in the acquisition of skills that allow health professionals to reflect on the different but complementary roles they play in the health system.