Sunday, September 08, 2013

The importance of being earnest and NICE

UK's National Institute for Health and Care Excellence is widely admired both in the country and abroad for the rigorous manner with which it develops guidance on the use of new and existing medicines, treatments and procedures within the NHS.  (We have no such body in the US.)

It is hard to imagine (not!) that some of its deliberations are controversial.  How wonderful then to see this language used in describing the qualifications desired for an analyst position the Institute is seeking to fill:

“Excellent oral and written communication skills, including the ability to communicate highly complex ideas to a range of audiences where there are significant barriers to acceptance which need to be overcome in a hostile, antagonistic or highly emotive atmosphere.

(Thanks to Marco D. Huesch, MBBS, Ph.D., assistant professor at the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy, for this lead.)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not sure I would read too much into the actual words. They are lifted from the text associated with a certain grading score used within Agenda for Change (NHS standard pay). That the atmosphere the information may be used in fills those words isn't open to doubt!

Neville Sarkari MD, FACP said...

Sounds like the atmosphere or many independent medical staff meetings I've been in over the years...!

Paul Levy said...

Ah then, perhaps you should apply!