Find out the top 10 core skills you need to master as a clinical data associate and what hard skills you need to know to succeed in this job.

A Clinical Data Associate is responsible for collecting information about the medical history of the patients and other clinical trials. He/she will work with computerized records of the patients to ensure that all of it is sorted and recorded accordingly. In addition, he/she works to ensure that clinical data is always accessible when needed.

He/she can be tasked to perform other functions that can include; transcribe and code information according to patients specifications, retrieving data from the records for other clinic personnel, check for accuracy, integrity and errors in the patients? records and participating in system troubleshooting in case of any malfunctions.

Core Skills Required to be a Clinical Data Associate

Core skills describe a set of non-technical abilities, knowledge, and understanding that form the basis for successful participation in the workplace. Core skills enable employees to efficiently and professionally navigate the world of work and interact with others, as well as adapt and think critically to solve problems.

Core skills are often tagged onto job descriptions to find or attract employees with specific essential core values that enable the company to remain competitive, build relationships, and improve productivity.

A clinical data associate should master the following 10 core skills to fulfill her job properly.

Urgency:

Urgency is the speed that drives businesses fast in order to keep them from disconnecting from what they are aiming to achieve but pursue it with a sense of urgency.

A Clinical Data Associate needs to create a sense of urgency in the business by helping the staff see the need for change by taking advantage of the presented opportunities or by dealing with any issue that is holding them back.

Knowledge of Job:

Knowledge of Job is essential to every employee who needs to have a clear understanding of how their jobs fit into the overall organization to eliminate carelessness and laxity.

A Clinical Data Associate must be able to evaluate this criterion when selecting an employee and know the common descriptions of a person with either right or inadequate knowledge of the job early enough to either keep them or let them go.

Following Directions:

Following Directions is the skill of carefully considering the given instructions and following them closely without fail.

A Clinical Data Associate must ensure that his workers are paying attention and listening to instructions provided as well as taking careful steps in doing what they are supposed to do and understand what it means to the business and bring satisfaction to their superiors.

Personal Commitment:

Personal Commitment is an obligation that you have voluntarily agreed to fulfill without being cajoled or threatened and are willing to be held accountable for the results.

A Clinical Data Associate ought to understand that though adopting new policies and procedures will be met with resistance, the approach by which safety standards are implemented and enforced influences employee's attitudes and commitment towards the organization.

Results Orientation:

Results Orientation is knowing and focusing on outstanding results and working hard to achieve them because they are significant.

A Clinical Data Associate must understand and make it clear to the employees how important results are and the competitive and results driven market that the company is facing while encouraging them to remain focused on the results that every project bears without fail.

Role Awareness:

Role Awareness is the ability to be informed of your role in a given environment as well as understand the expectations placed on a position and to see how they are met apparently.

A Clinical Data Associate must assess, measure and quantify his employee's awareness of their roles to see if they are transparent about what is required of each of them and review what kind of results they are delivering from their understanding.

Deadlines - On time:

Deadlines - On time is the ability to prioritize the important tasks and setting up a plan on how to work on them first to deliver within the set period.

A Clinical Data Associate must have the art of managing deadlines by being able to prioritize the work that is set for scheduling to the workers according to how vital the projects are and how soon they need to be executed and submitted.

Quantity of Work:

The quantity of Work is the amount of work accomplished by an employee against the expectations set by the employer.

A Clinical Data Associate should be keen to monitor an employee's job performance by comparing it to the standard work measurements that are often given at various intervals while evaluating the production to tell when to refresh a worker's skills or address any behavioral factors.

Resource Use:

Resource Use is the ability to utilize the office supplies effectively while avoiding any wastage and ensuring everything is used correctly.

A Clinical Data Associate needs to educate his employees on the rising threat of global warming and the business's risk of high expenses to avoid wastage of any kind from copiers, computers, old filing processes and data backing disks that are sometimes misused by the employees.

Time Management:

Time Management is the capacity for an individual to assign specific time slots to activities as per their importance and urgency to make the best possible use of time.

A Clinical Data Associate must schedule each task within a stipulated period for each employee and ensure all the tasks are completed promptly thus actually teaching the staff the value of time and how to utilize it for the interest of the business and their growth.

Hard Skills Required to be a Clinical Data Associate

Hard skills are job-specific skill sets, or expertise, that are teachable and whose presence can be tested through exams. While core skills are more difficult to quantify and less tangible, hard skills are quantifiable and more defined.

Hard skills are usually listed on an applicant's resume to help recruiters know the applicant's qualifications for the applied position. A recruiter, therefore, needs to review the applicant's resume and education to find out if he/she has the knowledge necessary to get the job done.

A clinical data associate should have a good command of the following hard skills to succeed in her job.

Clinical Data Associate: Hard skills list

Analyzing Data
Accounting
Budgeting
Business Intelligence
Analysis software (i.e. SPSS, SAS)
Communication
Computer applications for data collection
Contract Management
Customer Service
Database
Data Administration
Data Analysis
Data Collection
Database Design and Planning
Data Entry
Data Integrity
Data Management
Database Management
Data Processing
Data Reporting and analytics competencies (content knowledge)
Data Reporting Analysis
Data System Management
Data Security Procedures
Data Storage Technology
Data Utilization
Data Validation
MS Office
MS Word
MS Excel
Managing Accounts and Files
Management & Reporting
Management
Mathematical
Microsoft Access
Microsoft Office Suite
Navigating Database Software
Organization
People Management
Presentations
Principles and practices of data management
Project Management
Report designs
Research
SAS
SPSS
SQL databases
Statistics
Teaching
Technical
Technology
Visual Basic

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