What constitutes an excellent allied health care professional? A multidisciplinary focus group study

Abstract

Background

Determining what constitutes an excellent allied health care professional (AHCP) is important, since this is what will guide the development of curricula for training future physical therapists, oral hygienists, speech therapists, diagnostic radiographers, and dietitians. This also determines the quality of care.

Aim

To describe perspectives of AHCPs on which characteristics are commonly associated with an excellent AHCP.

Methods

AHCPs’ perspectives were derived from three focus group discussions. Twenty-one health care professionals participated. The final analysis of the focus group discussions produced eight domains, in which content validity was obtained through a Delphi panel survey of 27 contributing experts.

Results

According to the survey, a combination of the following characteristics defines an excellent AHCP: (1) cognizance, to obtain and to apply knowledge in a broad multidisciplinary health care field; (2) cooperativity, to effectively work with others in a multidisciplinary context; (3) communicative, to communicate effectively at different levels in complex situations; (4) initiative, to initiate new ideas, to act proactively, and to follow them through; (5) innovative, to devise new ideas and to implement alternatives beyond current practices; (6) introspective, to self-examine and to reflect; (7) broad perspective, to capture the big picture; and (8) evidence-driven, to find and to use scientific evidence to guide one’s decisions.

Conclusion

The AHCPs perspectives can be used as a reference for personal improvement for supervisors and professionals in clinical practice and for educational purposes. These perspectives may serve as a guide against which talented students can evaluate themselves.

Keywords:

• clinical excellence
• focus group
• health care
• honors programs
• multidisciplinary care

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to all participants involved in the focus groups as well as those involved in the expert panels. The authors thank the Dutch Sirius organization for additional funding of the research project.

Disclosure

The authors declare that ethical approval by an ethical committee was not required for this study. The authors also declare no conflicts of interest.