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Responsibilities and capabilities of health engagement professionals (HEPs): Perspectives from HEPs and health consumers in Australia

BACKGROUND: In Australia, the National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards (2012) stipulates that partnering with health consumers to improve health‐care experiences is one of the criteria health‐care organizations are assessed and accredited against. This standard has given rise to a role:...

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Autores principales: Tam, Lisa, Burns, Kara, Barnes, Katherine
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7879552/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33174668
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/hex.13155
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author Tam, Lisa
Burns, Kara
Barnes, Katherine
author_facet Tam, Lisa
Burns, Kara
Barnes, Katherine
author_sort Tam, Lisa
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: In Australia, the National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards (2012) stipulates that partnering with health consumers to improve health‐care experiences is one of the criteria health‐care organizations are assessed and accredited against. This standard has given rise to a role: health engagement professionals (HEPs). While there are no standard requirements for recruitment into this role, this study contributes to much needed research into understanding their responsibilities and capabilities, and their contributions to engagement outcomes. METHODS: Using a qualitative, interpretive approach, 16 HEPs and 15 health consumer representatives (who have experiences of interacting with HEPs) participated in an in‐depth phone interview in December 2019. We explored (a) the purposes of the role, (b) the responsibilities and work activities and (c) the capabilities required to carry out the responsibilities. RESULTS: Health engagement professionals are specialists in designing engagement mechanisms for health‐care organizations to co‐design health services with health consumers. They facilitate partnerships between health‐care organizations and health consumers. They play significant roles in listening to, facilitating understanding amongst different stakeholder groups (eg hospital management, health‐care workers and health consumers) and navigating the bureaucratic structures to influence outcomes. Four major responsibilities (advocacy, education, facilitation and administration) and four categories of capabilities (relational, communication, professional and personal) were identified. CONCLUSION: A list of job responsibilities and desired capabilities of HEPs is provided to help health‐care organizations better understand the requirements for the role. This would help them decide how applicants to these roles would meet the requirements (eg experience of navigating bureaucratic systems).
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spelling pubmed-78795522021-02-18 Responsibilities and capabilities of health engagement professionals (HEPs): Perspectives from HEPs and health consumers in Australia Tam, Lisa Burns, Kara Barnes, Katherine Health Expect Original Research Papers BACKGROUND: In Australia, the National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards (2012) stipulates that partnering with health consumers to improve health‐care experiences is one of the criteria health‐care organizations are assessed and accredited against. This standard has given rise to a role: health engagement professionals (HEPs). While there are no standard requirements for recruitment into this role, this study contributes to much needed research into understanding their responsibilities and capabilities, and their contributions to engagement outcomes. METHODS: Using a qualitative, interpretive approach, 16 HEPs and 15 health consumer representatives (who have experiences of interacting with HEPs) participated in an in‐depth phone interview in December 2019. We explored (a) the purposes of the role, (b) the responsibilities and work activities and (c) the capabilities required to carry out the responsibilities. RESULTS: Health engagement professionals are specialists in designing engagement mechanisms for health‐care organizations to co‐design health services with health consumers. They facilitate partnerships between health‐care organizations and health consumers. They play significant roles in listening to, facilitating understanding amongst different stakeholder groups (eg hospital management, health‐care workers and health consumers) and navigating the bureaucratic structures to influence outcomes. Four major responsibilities (advocacy, education, facilitation and administration) and four categories of capabilities (relational, communication, professional and personal) were identified. CONCLUSION: A list of job responsibilities and desired capabilities of HEPs is provided to help health‐care organizations better understand the requirements for the role. This would help them decide how applicants to these roles would meet the requirements (eg experience of navigating bureaucratic systems). John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2020-11-11 2021-02 /pmc/articles/PMC7879552/ /pubmed/33174668 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/hex.13155 Text en © 2020 The Authors. Health Expectations published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Original Research Papers
Tam, Lisa
Burns, Kara
Barnes, Katherine
Responsibilities and capabilities of health engagement professionals (HEPs): Perspectives from HEPs and health consumers in Australia
title Responsibilities and capabilities of health engagement professionals (HEPs): Perspectives from HEPs and health consumers in Australia
title_full Responsibilities and capabilities of health engagement professionals (HEPs): Perspectives from HEPs and health consumers in Australia
title_fullStr Responsibilities and capabilities of health engagement professionals (HEPs): Perspectives from HEPs and health consumers in Australia
title_full_unstemmed Responsibilities and capabilities of health engagement professionals (HEPs): Perspectives from HEPs and health consumers in Australia
title_short Responsibilities and capabilities of health engagement professionals (HEPs): Perspectives from HEPs and health consumers in Australia
title_sort responsibilities and capabilities of health engagement professionals (heps): perspectives from heps and health consumers in australia
topic Original Research Papers
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7879552/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33174668
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/hex.13155
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