Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue

Running head: HEALTHCARE WORKFORCE SHORTAGE 1

HEALTHCARE WORKFORCE SHORTAGE 2

Healthcare Workforce Shortage

Name: Catherine Nwosu

Walden University

NURS 6053

Instructor: Dr. Townsley

Date: 12/27/2020

Healthcare Workforce Shortage

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. Although 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 required by 2020 to meet the rising demand for healthcare services in the United States alone. The United States is facing a vacancy rate of up to 20% in the healthcare industry (World Health Organization, 2017). 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 scarcity of between 7,300 and 43,000 primary care physicians, and a shortage of about 33,500 to 61,000 for non-primary care specialists (Snavely, 2016). This paper aims to discuss the issue of shortage of healthcare workers in the United States, how individual healthcare organizations are addressing the issue, the strategies implemented to address the impacts of the lack of healthcare workers, and the impact of the strategies on healthcare organizations.

Literature Review

The World Health Organization stated that the Sustainable Development Goals of 4.45 doctors, midwives. And nurses per 1000 population was acknowledged as the minimum concentration signifying the need for healthcare workers. As per the World Health Organization, in the year 2013, there were 43 million healthcare workers globally (World Health Organization, 2017). With a significant growth rate of healthcare workers of 55% per annum, it is estimated that by the year 2030, there would be a total of 67.3 million health workers. According to the statistics presented by the World Health Organization, in the year 2013, there was a shortage of 17.4 million healthcare workers, 2.6 million being doctors, 9 million being nurses and midwives, and the remaining number representing all the remaining healthcare workers (World Health Organization, 2017). South East Asia and Africa were the two regions that were largely affected by the scarcity of healthcare workers. It is projected that by 2030, the global shortage of healthcare workers would stand at 14.5 million, which is a decline in the shortage by only 17 percent.

The world would need approximately need 80 million healthcare workers by 2030, a number that is double the number of healthcare professionals in 2013 (Schwartz, 2020). Without the implementation of strategies and policies to address the issue of the lack of healthcare workers, it is estimated that by 2030, there would be a total of 65 million healthcare professionals, which means that there would be a lack of 15 million healthcare workers globally. In the United States, 1 million healthcare workers are above the age of 50, which means that a third of the country's healthcare population is expected to retire in the next decade and a half (Schwartz, 2020). In the year 2012, the United States' higher institutions of learning had to turn away over 79 000 qualified candidates to the medical colleges due to lack of learning and training resources, thereby contributing to the shortage of healthcare workers in the country.

Most healthcare organizations in the United States 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 (Marć et al., 2019). 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 pay their employees handsomely to improve worker retention. These strategies employed by most healthcare organizations have had positive effects since most of them have managed to increase their number of qualified healthcare professionals.

Strategies for Fulfilling the Need

A report by the World Health Organization (WHO), the Third Global Forum on Human Resources for Health, formulated a list of endorsed steps to address the issue of healthcare workforce shortage in the United States. The recommendations included snowballing technical and political leadership to sustain human resource development in the healthcare sector and the implementation of sustainable funding models (Marć et al., 2019). 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 scarcity 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 (Haddad et al., 2020). Implementing telemedicine services would eliminate the need for patients visiting healthcare facilities seeking 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.

References

Haddad, L. M., Annamaraju, P., & Toney-Butler, T. J. (2020). Nursing shortage. In StatPearls [Internet]. StatPearls Publishing.

Marć, M., Bartosiewicz, A., Burzyńska, J., Chmiel, Z., & Januszewicz, P. (2019). A nursing shortage–a prospect of global and local policies. International nursing review, 66(1), 9-16.

Schwartz, E. (2020). The Global Health Care Workers Shortage: 7 Numbers to Note.

Snavely, T. M. (2016). A brief economic analysis of the looming nursing shortage in the United States. Nursing Economics, 34(2), 98-101.

World Health Organization. (2017). Health Workforce Requirements For Universal Health Coverage and The Sustainable Development Goals.