Identification of the competences and skills of the good professional who works with older people via Deplhi technique

Several handbooks and best practice guides, also scientific reference documents focus on the good treatment of the health services for older people take into account professionals as a key factor. However, there are few studies have been dedicated exclusively to them. This article is the result of a debate of a sample of health professionals who works with older people and of older people users of this health services using Deplhi methodology. Through different questionnaires we focus our attention in skills and competences that must have the good professional who attend to older people. The combination of the different point of views (professionals and users) enable us not only to get a proposal of these competences and skills that the “good” health professional must have and use, also these results could improve the selection of these professionals, improve the relationships between health professional and user and, ultimately improve the quality of the health service or program offered. The aim of this paper is to analyze the competences and basic skills of a good professional who works in health area with older people.