The Importance of Soft Skills in Medical Professionals

From collaboration to critical thinking, doctors and other medical professionals wouldn’t be as adept as they are without certain soft skills

Written by Amirali Banani | January 10, 2024

As people who serve society by prolonging and saving lives, medical professionals must possess and master certain soft skills to be successful in diagnosing and treating their patients. These soft skills often come with experience and are essential to improving a doctor’s ability to work with others as well as to perform their operations more efficiently. There are four soft skills in particular that shape a professional doctor and contribute significantly to their success.

A key soft skill that all medics must possess is collaboration. All doctors must be able to collaborate with each other to perform certain tasks as many operations and the handling of certain materials can not be done independently. In fact, one study conducted in 2012 which involved the NHS showed that collaboration significantly improves the quality of medical care by doctors [1]. Whether it is to enhance the care provided by medics or their productivity, being able to collaborate is a soft skill of paramount significance for all medics. Due to their demanding and stressful jobs, medical professionals must be able to handle the stress that they face at work to be able to focus when performing operations and effectively treat their patients, which is why stress-management is another very important soft skill for medics. Another study published in 2016 on the “burnout of doctors” found that while stress could be a motivating factor, if it goes beyond the optimal level, it could significantly impede on the performance of a medic [2] — ultimately speaking to how incredibly important stress-management is in the healthcare sector.

An experienced, accomplished doctor must be able to critically assess the health of patients when diagnosing and treating their disorders, which brings us to our third crucial soft skill: critical thinking. According to a 2017 report published in The BMJ, physicians who are proficient in thinking critically are better at making the right clinical decisions and providing the best treatment in the patient care process [3]. Whether it is prescribing the optimal dosage of a medication or mapping out the process to surgically remove a tumour safely, the importance of critical thinking skills in the healthcare setting can not be understated. Being a doctor is all about solving problems — which ultimately comes through treating and curing patients of their diseases — and this brings us to arguably the most significant soft skill for all medical professionals: problem-solving. A book titled “Problem Solving in Clinical Medicine (3rd edition)” explains, based on the results of several studies, that doctors who followed clinical techniques with a “problem-solving approach” to treat their patients often observed better outcomes in their treatments [4]. Medical professionals must view problems not as obstacles, but as valuable opportunities to improve the health of people.

The soft skills mentioned above are personal attributes that influence how well medical professionals can work and interact with others. These skills allow them to establish healthy relationships with patients and colleagues, create trust and reliability, work effectively both independently and in teams, and make the correct decisions when diagnosing and treating patients. The most successful and talented doctors have mastered these skills through clinical practice and experience, blending in their capabilities and knowledge to treat patients at the highest level of care.

Bibliography

[1] Green, B., “Collaboration can bring improvements in the quality and productivity of care”, 31–5–2012, https://www.hsj.co.uk/collaboration-can-bring-improvements-in-the-quality-and-productivity-of-care/5044853.article, (Accessed 14–12–2021)

[2] Kumar, S., “Burnout of Doctors: Prevalence, Prevention, and Intervention”, PubMed Central 4(3):37 (2016), https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5041038/, (Accessed 17–12–2021)

[3] Sharples, Jonathan M, et al. “Critical Thinking in Healthcare and Education.” The British Medical Journal Publishing Group, 16–5–2017, https://www.bmj.com/content/357/bmj.j2234.full, (Accessed 18–12–2021)

[4] Cutler, Paul. Problem Solving in Clinical Medicine: From Data to Diagnosis, 3rd edition, Williams & Wilkins, 1988, p. 38