TY - JOUR
T1 - An educator's hard answers to the question of soft skills
AU - Lazarsfeld Jensen, Ann
N1 - Imported on 12 Apr 2017 - DigiTool details were: Journal title (773t) = Canadian Paramedicine. ISSNs: 1927-6710;
PY - 2015
Y1 - 2015
N2 - The need to enhance the teaching of the “soft skills” in paramedic
teaching programs was made clear at the end of a year-long international
research project involving 11 universities in 2009 (Howie-Willis, 2008;
Willis, O’Meara, Lazarsfeld Jensen, & McCarthy, 2009; Willis, Williams,
Brightwell, O’Meara, & Pointon, 2010). Qualitative data from interviews
and focus group discussions described graduates who could not express
empathy with vulnerable people. They did not know how to reach out
to old, mentally ill and non-English speaking patients. Preceptors and
senior officers told stories of graduates whose responses were so inappropriate
and immature that it made academics cringe. Graduates admitted
they lacked confidence when patients needed emotional support. There
is a popular tendency to conflate university education with a lack of
social niceties, but educators believe that the social isolation of today’s
young people, the intense exclusivity of peer relationships and the use of
social media, are more subtle reasons for the communications problems
reported among new graduates across many professions. Interpersonal
skills in the past were probably learned in extended families and communities
that shared clear values over multiple generations. Social scientists
believe these are teachable skills, shaped by social expectations and not
intrinsic attributes or dispositions (Berger & Luckman, 2002). In this
reflection on teaching non-clinical skills to paramedics I explore some
issues around the hard core social sciences, skills that are ubiquitously
known to clinicians as soft skills.
AB - The need to enhance the teaching of the “soft skills” in paramedic
teaching programs was made clear at the end of a year-long international
research project involving 11 universities in 2009 (Howie-Willis, 2008;
Willis, O’Meara, Lazarsfeld Jensen, & McCarthy, 2009; Willis, Williams,
Brightwell, O’Meara, & Pointon, 2010). Qualitative data from interviews
and focus group discussions described graduates who could not express
empathy with vulnerable people. They did not know how to reach out
to old, mentally ill and non-English speaking patients. Preceptors and
senior officers told stories of graduates whose responses were so inappropriate
and immature that it made academics cringe. Graduates admitted
they lacked confidence when patients needed emotional support. There
is a popular tendency to conflate university education with a lack of
social niceties, but educators believe that the social isolation of today’s
young people, the intense exclusivity of peer relationships and the use of
social media, are more subtle reasons for the communications problems
reported among new graduates across many professions. Interpersonal
skills in the past were probably learned in extended families and communities
that shared clear values over multiple generations. Social scientists
believe these are teachable skills, shaped by social expectations and not
intrinsic attributes or dispositions (Berger & Luckman, 2002). In this
reflection on teaching non-clinical skills to paramedics I explore some
issues around the hard core social sciences, skills that are ubiquitously
known to clinicians as soft skills.
M3 - Article
VL - 38
SP - 10
EP - 12
JO - Canadian Paramedicine
JF - Canadian Paramedicine
SN - 1927-6710
IS - 1
ER -