Workforce Shortages in Healthcare

workforce shortages in Health Care

Grand Canyon University: HLT 418V

workforce shortages in Health Care

The world is experiencing a serious human resource shortage in the health sector; health care shortages have been an ongoing battle for a while now. Whether it is a nursing shortage or a physician shortage there seems to be a struggle and the battle is not only here in the United States of America; it is a global battle as well. For a functioning health system to work properly you need to be having the appropriate mix of skilled health care workers which is fundamental. However, what we are experiencing now is a health worker shortage of staggering proportions. Without adequate numbers of properly trained and employed health care workers, people cannot access the care they need, particularly the lower income patients. The causes of the shortage are complex, with some being “homegrown” due to poor planning, financing, and policy changes. The World Health Organization estimates the world will be short of 12.9 million health care workers by 2035 (WHO, 2014).

There are three reasons why there is a struggle with health care shortages. One being that the baby boomers are aging and causing an influx of needed patient care. Secondly, current generations are not picking high level of education; such as a medical doctor, nursing, etc. They are choosing to go down the career path of “influencers” – social media trends. Thirdly, would be a mixture of health care reform and salaries when it comes to gender equality.

Short Term Solutions for Health Care Shortages for Nursing, Providers, and staff

Healthcare experts have been predicting the impending primary care physician shortage for years because it is the result of long term trends in healthcare. Therefore, truly solving the shortage will take long term solutions. “Systematically solving the shortage will take some time,” says Jordan Battani, the managing director of CSC’s Global Institute for Emerging Healthcare Practices. However, she also says that to solve the shortage, it is important to work on it from both long and short term angles. That said; it is clear that the growth and aging of the U.S. population combined with an aging physician workforce translates into a need for more providers (Flier, 2018). Staffing challenges create stress and burnout, inconsistent care, and mistakes that can often be long-lasting or even fatal (Person, 2017). A nursing shortage is not just an organizational challenge or a topic for economic analysis; it has a major negative impact on health care (Buchan, 2018). Failure to deal with a nursing shortage be it local, regional, national or global will lead to failure to maintain or improve health care.

Flexible Scheduling

Normally the scheduling process requires clinicians to sign up for shifts eight weeks in advance, and there is very little flexibility to adjust the schedule once it is complete. The process for scheduling is cumbersome and relies heavily on a manual process. By changing the way a schedule is created it will allow for an increase of flexibility with the staff; which will help with improving some of the staff turnover. The term “Time over Money”; Employees today seek more personal time versus financial compensation.

Adding Increased Job Perks

Employees want to be active both at work and at home, not choosing between the two. As more employees opt for less stressful work/more personal time, a subgroup of employees, often characterized as more driven, are carrying the load of travel, relocation, and long hours. Employers are increasingly offering services to reduce the stress of managing professional and personal lives. These services include child and elder care, dry cleaning, housecleaning, on-site full service banking, and yard care. Employees in their twenties and thirties view the workplace differently, preferring greater autonomy and less bureaucracy. They are “loyal” to the work versus the employer. Thus, many are choosing independent work/freelancing, such as the temporary agencies in health care.

Changing Management Flow

Traditional models of administrative structures are also in flux with flattening of hierarchies and increased team structures. People who can create environments of teamwork and creativity are the definition of strong managers. No longer is top down control seen as desirable (ASC, 2012).

Long Term Solutions for Health Care Shortages for Nursing, Providers, and staff

With retirements, we do not have enough nurses coming up through the career pipeline to fill the faculty shortages that are going to happen (Thew, 2018). Without nursing faculty, we are going to struggle to get new nurses to the bedside that can fill that pipeline. But the struggle to fill nursing positions is different from the effort to add to the physician workforce. One main reason: There is not enough faculty to teach incoming nursing students. It is either faculty who are leaving due to retirement like their counterparts in health care settings, they too are aging or they’re gaining higher salaries elsewhere in practice settings other than teaching. According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, two-thirds of nursing schools admit faculty shortages were a main reason for turning away qualified applicants (Moore, 2019).

Working with State and Federal Government

By allowing for health care organizations to work with local, state and even federal government; this will hopefully help solve workforce shortages. The policies that can make a difference are well known, if inadequately tested in their implementation. If some benefits such as one who would apply for National Service Corps instead of being taxed on receiving the scholarship they would get a tax benefit for when they are actually employed in a rural community or a location that needs health care coverage.

Cross Training

Nurses and other clinicians tend to specialize, but with additional training and development, nurses could fill shifts in other departments and settings. Often tenure in a department is a factor in scheduling, but that model leads to nurses specializing in one area and limits cross training. Tenure might not be the best determination for scheduling. By cross training this can help build excitement about the experiences they get to have while cross training.

Accelerated Programs

Currently it takes at least 12 weeks to orient a new nurse before he or she can work independently, but this isn’t always necessary. Education and onboarding doesn’t need to be a “one size fits all” approach. Also having colleges offering accelerated programs like getting your Bachelors in Science of Nursing in 11 months with having a prior Bachelor’s degree; this will allow for students to continue their education without completing 4 more years to get a second Bachelor’s degree. Also for the provider shortages, having accelerated medical schools could be an option.

Agency to Help with Workforce Shortages

An effective public health system that can assure the nation’s health requires the collaborative efforts of a complex network of people and organizations in the public and private sectors, as well as an alignment of policy and practice of governmental public health agencies at the national, state, and local levels (Institute, 2017). Some National agencies that could help with the workforce shortages would be the American Public Health Association, American Nurses Association and the American Hospital Association. These associations could even possibly work together with the American Medical Association PAC; their mission is to find and support candidates for Congressional offices.” “The American Medical Association helps doctors help patients by uniting physicians nationwide to work on the most important professional and public health issues. By connecting together they could lay out a plan to help end workforce shortages.

Organizations that maintain a market advantage will be those who not only remain competitive from a cost structure, but who also attract and retain talent. Organizations that give attention to the employee market and understand what people are seeking from the work environment have a better chance to recruit and retain top talent, particularly given the current low unemployment. Administrators and educators must learn what the satisfiers are for staff. When roles are redefined, they must help staff identify new satisfiers. Human resource administrators must be responsive to the individuality of what is important to staff and create flexible and supportive policies and benefits (Nevidjon, 2017).

References

ASC (2012, November 9). 3 Short-Term Ways Hospitals Can Fight the Physician Shortage: Jordan Battani from CSC discusses three ways that hospitals and health systems can protect themselves from the physician shortage in the short-term, before long-term solutions take root nationally. Retrieved from https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/hospital-physician-relationships/3-short-term-ways-hospitals-can-fight-the-physician-shortage.html.

Buchan, J., & Aiken, L. (2018, December). Solving nursing shortages: a common priority. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2858425/.

Flier, J. S., Flier, J. S., Flier, J. S., Nkambule, Bowman, R. C., OliveTree, … Nicole. (2018, February 21). How can we remedy the shortage of health providers? Retrieved from https://www.statnews.com/2018/02/21/health-providers-shortage/.

Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Assuring the Health of the Public in the 21st Century. (2017, January 1). The Governmental Public Health Infrastructure. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK221231/.

Moore, M. (2019, May 3). The nursing shortage and the doctor shortage are two very different things. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2015/06/05/the-nursing-shortage-and-the-doctor-shortage-are-two-very-different-things/.

Nevidjon, B., & Erickson, J. I. (2017, January 4). Nursing Shortages. Retrieved from http://ojin.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/ThePracticeofProfessionalNursing/workforce/NursingShortage/Resources/NursingShortageSolutions.html.

Person, Healthcare, I., 500, & ImageObject. (2017, December 21). Finding a Cure for Healthcares Staffing Shortage. Retrieved from https://intermountainhealthcare.org/blogs/topics/transforming-healthcare/2017/12/finding-a-cure-for-healthcares-staffing-shortage/.

Thew, J. (2018, September 28). 5 Things You Should Know About the Nursing Shortage. Retrieved from https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/nursing/5-things-you-should-know-about-nursing-shortage.

WHO. (2014, May 20). Global health workforce shortage to reach 12.9 million in coming decades. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2013/health-workforce-shortage/en/.

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