Developing Organizational Policies and Practices

Running head: HEALTHCARE WORKFORCE SHORTAGE 1

HEALTHCARE WORKFORCE SHORTAGE 6

Healthcare Workforce Shortage

Student’s Name

Institutional Affiliation

Healthcare Workforce Shortage

Introduction

The United States, among other countries, is facing an impending shortage of healthcare workers. The shortage of healthcare workforce is an issue that has been present for a long time in the healthcare industry. Though leaders and other critical stakeholders in the healthcare industry are aware of the impending shortage of healthcare professionals, a long-lasting solution has not yet been realized. It is estimated that more than 250,000 healthcare workers were needed by 2020 to meet the growing demand of healthcare services in the United States alone. The United States is facing a vacancy rate of up to 20% in the healthcare industry (Edge, 2020). Epidemiologists, health nurses, and environmental health professionals are particularly in high demand. It has been estimated by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) that by 2030, the number of physicians in the healthcare sector would be less by about 105,000, with a shortage of between 7,300 and 43,000 primary care physicians, and a shortage of about 33,500 to 61,000 for non-primary care specialties.

Factors Contributing to the Shortage of Healthcare Workers

The shortage of healthcare workers is contributed to the increase in the aging population who generate a greater need for care, an aging healthcare workforce who end up retiring, and increase in chronic diseases, and the limited capacity of education programs in healthcare careers. According to a 2017 press release by AAMCNEWS, the population of Americans over 65 years has increased by 55% and it is still expected to increase by the year 2030. Older patients approximately need about three or more services especially in specialty care, and area where the shortages of healthcare professionals is severe (Mbemba et al., 2016). Healthcare providers are also aging and it estimated that nearly one million of registered nurses are over 50 years. Since the majority of the healthcare workforce, especially nurses, commenced practice in the 1970s, it is expected that about a third of the nursing profession would retire in the next 10 to 15 years. The main issue behind the shortage of the healthcare workforce is that the United States doe s not have the resources to train a huge number qualified applicants in higher institutions of learning.

Strategies for Fulfilling the Need

A reported by the World Health Organization (WHO), the Third Global Forum on Human Resources for Health put together a list of recommended steps to address the issue of healthcare workforce shortage in the United States. The recommendations included increasing technical and political leadership to support human resource development in the healthcare sector and the implementation of sustainable funding models (Mbemba et al., 2016). The various stakeholders in the healthcare sector decided on strengthening governance frameworks. Strong governance frameworks are needed to guide medical education, health employment, migration of healthcare workers, international exchange of medical workers and encouragement of innovative partnership models.

Harnessing technology is also another solution to the shortage of healthcare workers in the United States. The use of e-health, e-learning, AI, VR simulation and the internet of things to train, educate and empower healthcare workers would go a long way in helping to ease the issue of the shortage of healthcare workers (Edge, 2020). Implementing telemedicine services would eliminate the need of patients visiting healthcare facilities seeking for patient care services. The emerging technologies also generate the demand for new skills, thereby increasing the potential to employ more in the digital delivery of healthcare services.

Effects of Shortage of Healthcare Workers

The shortage of healthcare workers leads to staff burnouts because the current workers are forced to work for extra hours to meet patient needs. Healthcare workers also experience dissatisfaction due to the pressure and long hours they have to work for since some do not even get holidays or day offs to spend with their families. The shortage of healthcare workers also leads to high mortality and morbidity rates being experienced within the country. It is estimated that within the United States, more than 80,000 people die annually from treatable and preventable diseases. This is attributed to the shortage of healthcare workers which affects the accessibility to healthcare services and leads to the provision of low quality healthcare services. If the issue of the shortage of healthcare workers is addressed, the level of patient care services would improve and the mortality and morbidity rates would also decline drastically.

How Healthcare Organizations are Addressing the Issue

Most healthcare organization have implemented short term strategies to help deal with the issue of the shortage of healthcare professionals within their respective organizations. These strategies include encouraging students studying medicine and nursing to take internships with them. Although interns are efficiently qualified, they help in improving the workflow of a hospital. Interns are mostly encouraged to work with hospitals by offering them monthly stipends and opportunities for career growth. Organizations also employ healthcare professionals to help fill in their vacancies. Since there is a high demand for healthcare workers, most healthcare organizations strive to provide the best working environment and also pay their employees handsomely to improve on workers retention (Darzi & Evans, 2016). These strategies employed by most healthcare organizations have had a positive effect since most of them have managed to increase their number of qualified healthcare professionals.

Conclusion

The shortage of healthcare workers in the United States has been prevalent for decades despite of measures being taken by the healthcare sector stakeholders. This shortage is mainly attributed to the growing population of aging people, the increase in the number of retiring health workers and the lack of resources to support the number of qualified individuals who want to study medicine. The best solution to this problem in this current age is to harness the power of technology to ease the functions of healthcare workers in hospital and outpatient settings.

References

Darzi, A., & Evans, T. (2016). The global shortage of health workers-an opportunity to transform care.

Edge, A. (2020). Nurse Residency Programs and Their Impact on the Nursing Shortage.

Mbemba, G. I. C., Gagnon, M. P., & Hamelin-Brabant, L. (2016). Factors influencing recruitment and retention of healthcare workers in rural and remote areas in developed and developing countries: an overview. Journal of Public Health in Africa, 7(2).