Third Space fellows Alison Horstmeyer and Jaime Carias gave a keynote address on leveraging soft skills in the healthcare industry to future public health professionals at Keck School of Medicine’s 2019 Public Health Career Fair.

In “ACE-IT Skills: Essential Skills for Any Public Health Professional”, they shared the importance of using soft skills-- or, "power skills"-- such as communication, adaptability and empathy in order to meet meaningful, positive public health outcomes.

"These rising public health professionals will be serving diverse ethnic, racial and cultural populations with varied perspectives, values and behaviors," Alison explained. "The ACE-IT skillset is their essential 'power skills' to work with and unite people across disciplines to influence intended public health outcomes, critical for understanding culturally appropriate engagement and empowerment within diverse communities."

Attendees of the presentation included 53 students and 12 health professionals from organizations including the American Red Cross, APLA Health, 360 Behavioral Health, St. Joseph Center, Doctor Evidence and The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.

The leading health care professionals and researchers have pointed to communication as a key element of the health industry. In a Q&A with Dr. Helen Riess of Harvard Medical School, she urges health care professionals to improve their communication skills, and in particular, build empathy with the patients.  She says effective communication is associated with higher patient satisfaction, better adherence to medications, lower likelihood of mistakes, and fewer malpractice cases.

We enjoyed sharing our expertise with both current and burgeoning public health leaders. Thanks for having us, Keck School of Medicine’s Public Health Program!