As a business leader, you expect your employees to have certain foundational skills. Some of these competencies vary by industry. For example, if you're running a contracting company you might expect all employees to have the math skills to be able to accurately calculate space and distance. If you're the HR manager at a hospital, you might expect that all employees know how to use your medical records management system. Other skills, like communication, ethics, and problem solving, are so universal that they go without saying. Or do they?

Make no mistake, healthcare is a service industry. In most cases, patients and their families are facing difficult and emotional challenges. They’re away from home, ill, and feeling vulnerable. What might seem like a small irritation under normal circumstances can escalate to a catastrophic event under these conditions. Which is why training employees to interact with patients, families, and visitors is critically important.