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WORKFORCE SHORTAGE 10

Workforce Shortage

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An adequate healthcare workforce is essential to the provision and access of quality care. Rural health care providers must employ adequate healthcare professionals who are in a position to meet the medical needs of the community through a variety of ways. This includes professionals that have been properly licensed, educated and that are culturally competent (McHugh, 2012). Rural hospitals also have to optimize how health professionals are deployed and enhance coordination among them to ensure that patients are receiving the best care possible. Healthcare worker shortages has been highlighted as one of the biggest obstacles facing the health sector. The problem has also been widely documented and is expected to last into the foreseeable future. Projections indicate that the supply of health care workers will not keep pace with demand and that may hospitals will struggle to maintain adequate staffing to ensure the provision of high quality care. In 2009, the United States had an estimated shortage of 120000 nurses. The number is projected to swell to 250 thousand by 2025. As the U.S grapples with health care workforce shortages, rural hospitals are more likely to be affected by the uneven distribution of workers.

The health care workforce shortage presents a critical test to the nation’s capacity to respond to an aging population with increasingly complex health care needs. The predominant demand for healthcare among the growing population of aging adults has presented an underlying force for healthcare workers’ shortage. Moreover, there has been a fundamental change in how such patients are cared for which has further compounded the shortage (Alliance for Health Reform, 2011). This is particularly because they require more acute care in primary home care settings which demand a bigger workforce.

A number of factors have converged to contribute to the growing healthcare workforce shortage. This include the aging of the current workforce. The expansion of the current health care workforce has also been hindered due to the aging faculty in nursing schools as well as insufficient infrastructure and funding. From an economic perspective, the shortage in health care workforce is being driven more by the supply side as opposed to the demand side. This makes the shortage a complex problem which is only likely to worsen as more nurses retire.

Another key factor affecting the sufficiency of the health care workforce is the increase in the insured population as a result of the health reform law. The Affordable Care Act that was enacted in March 2010 is predicted to add more than 32 million people that were previously uninsured by 2019. This will effectively increase the demand for health care services and is a fundamental factor that is expected to worsen the existing shortage of healthcare workers in the foreseeable future.

A number of healthcare workers particularly nurses are also leaving the profession due to disparaging work environments and the need for more satisfying job opportunities. Women, who dominated nursing also have more choices for a career today. With predictions that this workforce shortage will be more severe and last longer, traditional strategies implemented by employers will attain limited success. Technological innovations as well as rising incomes will require specialized workforces even as the needs for basic care increase due to the burgeoning population of the elderly. Without investing in training of workers, the growing gap in healthcare workforces will exert even greater pressure on the existing workforce’s ability to meet healthcare needs of the patients. The health care workforce shortage is also not solely a health sector issue and will thus require solutions to be developed in several areas such as in government, education and the media.

A major short term aspect that requires addressing is the general work environment of the hospital. The general work environment in the country’s health care organizations needs to be taken into consideration when developing solutions to manage the shortage. Organizations are today grappling with a tight labor market and competing aggressively for talent. Employees on the other hand value time over money. They increasingly consider work-life balance as important and do not want to choose between work and family life. For the organization to remain competitive in the market for talent, it must offer services to reduce the burden of professional and personal lives. These include services such as child care, dry cleaning and even pet care.

Another important trend in the general work environment is the millennials who are only now entering the workforce. These generation perceives the workplace differently. For instance, they have a greater preference for autonomy as opposed to bureaucracy. They are also less loyal to organizations and may are increasingly choosing independent work rather than being loyal to employees. How the hospital responds to the needs of this generation will have a great impact on how it navigates through the workforce shortage challenge.

Another important short term aspect is the retention of the hospital’s current workforce. This starts with how the organization values its employees. The hospital’s human resource department should view employees as assets rather than an expense. Such a perception is vital as it is a key driving force for creating a work environment that contributes to staff retention. The focus on retention is important given that the shortage challenge is not merely a shortage in individuals with qualifications but a shortage of workers due to the prevailing working conditions (Lopes, ALmeida, & Almada-Lobo, 2015). Focusing on the motivations of nurses and incentives to retain them can reduce the current shortage as well as in the short term.

Long term aspects include aspects such as the image or public perception about the health care professions such as nursing is important as it shapes the current image of the profession. Health care workers generally rank high as among the trusted professionals in the country. However, the public has also been exposed to the stress that healthcare workers particularly nurses experience due to the shortage of staff in hospitals. This conflicting images about health care professions have presented careers in healthcare as unstable, uncertain and having high risks.

This provides an opportunity for health care provides to recreate the public image of the medical profession. The hospital must become aa voice in acknowledging this challenges and recognizing the rewards that are associated with this careers. This can help the larger community to understand the rewards of the profession and entice young people to consider working for the hospital.

Another long term aspect is strategies that are center on recruiting students into health care professions. In order to keep pace with demand there is need to increase the number of nurse and physician graduations. This can only be achieved through recruitment of students into this schools by attracting them to the profession from a young age. Strategies to recruit students are necessary as the shortage is predicted to worsen in the next decade. Such interventions include committing funds to support scholarship programs to students that agree to work (Buchan & Aiken, 2008 ). The hospital should also partner with other healthcare organizations and particularly educational institutions.

Another significant long term aspect is government policy. Government also has a role to play in reducing the shortage. Schools of nursing are for instance not equipped to produce sufficient graduates because of inadequate nursing faculty, limited financial resources as well as insufficient training centers for practical work. Providing these resources can ensure that no students interested in a medical career are denied the opportunity to pursue it. The hospital can play a role in providing a clinical education site by providing internship opportunities to students. Healthcare workforce shortage is not just a challenge that faces hospitals but has a big impact on healthcare as a whole. The shortage in workforces will lead to the failure of hospitals, states and the country at large to improve health care.

The financial implications of these issues include increased financial costs that are spent on employee compensation so that they can remain motivated. Efforts to retain staff are likely to lead to increased competition from rival hospitals that would also like to remain competitive in the market for talent. The repercussions of this will be an increase in the costs of delivering care. Hospitals that operate in more competitive markets are also likely to reconsider reducing nursing staff. This is because cost cutting measures have found to be inefficient and to have a negative impact on financial performance (Everhart, Neff, Al-Amin, Nogle, & Maldonado, 2013).

Alternatives include the redesign of patient care delivery models to support the use of older workforces. The hospital can for instance implement a health care delivery model that supports the practice of an older workforce (McHugh, 2012). Healthcare being a physically demanding profession needs to redesign its delivery models in order to support aging workers. This can be achieved through the incorporation of technology in the delivery of care. Technology can facilitate the hospital in offering flexible schedules, sabbaticals and increased time off to the aging workers. This include the use of technology in keeping information about patients which can enable different workers to attend to the patient effectively.

The hospital also has the burden of establishing conditions that support the recruitment and retention of the necessary workforce. Attenuating the gap resulting from inefficient hospital staffing practices will require a radical shift in the approach that the hospital employees in managing its human resource asset (Lopes, ALmeida, & Almada-Lobo, 2015). This include evidence drive staffing that provides adequate staff by incorporating organizational improvements.

Potential alternatives include the use of ancillary personnel. However, past experience shows that such an alternative can fail as it results in increasing patient acuities. Concerns over medical errors and quality of care also present potential barriers to use of ancillary personnel

Another alternative lies in policy agenda of the country. Evidence suggests that there are core common set of issues that policy makers should concentrate on in order to maximize the effect of interventions aimed at dealing with the shortages. This include the realization that there is no silver bullet that will solve this problem. Instead a multifaceted and comprehensive approach. Evidence on the effectiveness of human resource policy highlights the need for policies that are contingent with the context of the hospital or healthcare organization. Secondly, there is need for integrated or linked and coordinated human resource policy interventions. These are likely to achieve continuous improvements than uncoordinated interventions.

There are a number of recommendations that the hospital can apply to help meet its workforce needs. In order to ease health care workforce shortages and improve care, the hospital can leverage on technology. Technologies such as telehealth can close the gaps caused by the shortages. The hospital can also redesign its practice and processes to adapt them to the realities of an environment characterized by workforce shortages. This includes the use of inter-professional care teams to facilitate the delivery of more efficient and quality services. Allowing staff to perform duties at the top of the license can also mitigate against the effects of worker shortages. Another recommendation is for the hospital to plan for its future workforce needs. This will encompass anticipating retirements, staff turnovers and developing solutions to deal with such risks. These include recruiting replacements in a time so as to avoid protracted vacancies and shortage at the hospital. The other recommendation is centered on strategies to retain the current workforce.

Methods to measure the success of the plan will encompass the use of metrics that will be to certain milestones. One such metric will be the staff turnover. Workforce turnover refers to the percentage of workers that leave an organization. Given that one of the major objectives is to ensure staff retention in the hospital through various strategies such as compensation, this measure will be crucial in measuring the success of the plan. The measure can help the hospital determine if its plan of staff retention is working and whether it’s getting value from its investment in staff retention.

Another measure will be the number of applications coming from new applicants. This is expected to rise given the efforts of the hospital to make itself competitive in the market place. Another measure will be the number of students that are enrolling healthcare related courses. The success of the plan can also be measured through a survey that gauges the perception of the community on healthcare careers. Given that one of the objectives of the plan is improving the image of healthcare careers, there should be a positive change in the community’s perception (McHugh, 2012).

Were the plan to fail, the hospital should accept that failure is part of the process and possible eventuality. Such a setback will therefore be treated as a learning lesson that will be incorporated into subsequent plans. By learning from the setbacks, the hospital will make the necessary adjustments that will put it on a path to succeed. Also, incorporating the lessons learned will make the subsequent plan more efficient which will be to the success of the organization.

Overall, given the overall influence of healthcare on the general welfare of society, plans to address the healthcare workforce shortages are crucial. It is also clear that the challenge of workforce shortages cannot be solved by adopting a single approach but a multiplicity of approaches. Consequently, planning for the shortage should reflect this reality. This is through the incorporation of short term and long term strategies, and a collaborative approach that involves the various stakeholders such as educational institutions, government and society at large.

References

Alliance for Health Reform. (2011). Health Care Workforce: Future Supply vs, Demand. Washington: Alliance for Health Reform.

Buchan, J., & Aiken, L. (2008 ). Solving Nursing Shortages: a common priority. J Clin Nurs 17(24), 3262-68.

Everhart, D., Neff, D., Al-Amin, M., Nogle, J., & Maldonado, R. (2013). The Effects of urse Staffing on Hospital Financial Performance: Competitive Versus Less Competitive Markets. Health Care Manage Rev. 38(2), 146-155.

Lopes, M., ALmeida, A., & Almada-Lobo, B. (2015). Handling healthcare workforce planning with care: where do we stand. Human Resources for Health.

McHugh, M. (2012). Hospital Nurse Staffing and Public Health Emergency Preparedness: Imp[lications for policy. Public Health Nurs 27(5), 442-49.