When transitioning from the healthcare industry to data consulting, there are many opportunities to identify similarities between clinical work and consulting. Healthcare professionals spend a considerable amount of time developing specialized skills. Like many careers, attaining certifications and gaining experience leads to career advancement, which can present itself as a management role, higher pay or a new healthcare setting. But what happens when our goals for advancement fall outside of the traditional path? Though healthcare professionals find satisfaction in helping patients and feel grateful for job security, many feel limited to the industry, and do not realize they have a directly transferrable skill set.
What Does a Consultant Actually Do?
Though healthcare professionals are well prepared for a consulting career, many are unsure about what consultants do. Consultants use their own knowledge basis (i.e., healthcare, data analytics, etc.) to provide expert opinions, analysis and recommendations to organizations or to individuals. Similarly, healthcare workers also play this role when assessing a patient's health problems and providing guidance to achieve their goals.
What Skills Are Needed for Data Consulting?
Communication is comprised of two parts: comprehension (listening) and expression (talking).
Listening
As a consultant, listening to a client is vital in establishing trust, understanding needs, and finding additional areas to drill into. Healthcare professionals use the same skills when conducting a patient interview. For example, if a patient has a sore throat, a doctor would note additional symptoms (i.e., runny nose, fever, etc.), identify the patient's goal (feel better), and consider further testing (i.e., COVID test, throat culture, etc.).
Speaking
When a data consultant presents their findings, they answer questions and make recommendations based on the analysis. It is important to consider the audience when explaining insights. Data professionals will be comfortable with technical terminology, while those in other industries will need concepts explained using common vocabulary. Healthcare professionals do the same. For instance, when discussing a patient's sore throat, a doctor provides instructions using words familiar to their patient to ensure the patient can manage their health at home.
Final Thoughts
Healthcare professionals may feel they are unable to transition into consulting, but actually possess many core skills including communication, which was discussed in this blog as well as managing expectations, which will be explored in Part II.