14. Translational Features of Competencies in Healthcare Innovation

With social issues such as an aging society and sustainability of health services systems becoming of greater concern, decision-makers in healthcare sectors need to identify the human factors that differentiate high performance of health services professionals such as nurses. Due to an aging population and technological innovation, the healthcare industry is growing rapidly, where nurses constitute the single largest professional group. In such a context, the purpose of this chapter is to clarify the translational features of human competencies in healthcare innovation by analyzing some features of nursing managers as a potential agent of innovation through a perspective of complex adaptive systems. To achieve this aim, an empirical quantitative research was performed to find out critical aspects of perceptions related to competencies. We found a disparity between what nursing managers perceived as “my strength” and what they perceived as “critical in adopting innovation” with respect to competencies. This research empirically identified key competencies relevant to nursing managers in adopting innovation through a perspective of encompassing complex adaptive systems.