Staffing Shortages
According to current data for Healthcare Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs), Georgia’s nursing shortage ties with Alaska and South Dakota, who, according to researchers, will each be short several thousand.
Harvard Business Review reports the problem is not having too few doctors. Still, the error lies in the utilization of our current physician population, which is being misled to cover our population efficiently. They suggest abandoning the one-size-fits-all solution and moving to a more adaptive approach where primary care embraces multiple care models for different patients. The Washington Post wrote in March 2020 that America will face a shortage of primary care physicians within the next ten years or less. Include other reliable sources, such as Indeed, estimated information based on the numbers provided by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) that the U.S. could face a shortfall of between 21,000 and 55,000 primary care doctors by 2023.
COVID-19 has taken a heavy toll on healthcare teams who have been on the front lines of the pandemic, with many suffering from stress, trauma, burnout, and increased behavioral health challenges. A 2021 Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation survey found that nearly 30% of healthcare workers are considering leaving their profession altogether. Almost 60% reported impacts on their mental health from their work during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Consequently, as a contributor to these facts, Georgia healthcare shortage impacts include: Georgia’s disability support staffing shortage- Caused by low pay, exhausted and overworked employees; Georgia’s nurse shortage so bad bonuses are being offered to experienced RNs to join all the hospital workforces throughout Georgia (paying dividends of more than $10,000 to attract nurses); larger-than-normal number of openings for nurses, respiratory techs and other health professionals, including lab specialists and certified nursing assistants; nursing shortage is also related to many qualified nurses pursuing contracts as travel RNs, seeking higher pay amounts for short-term work (Miller, 2021, March 27): Other shortages in new device shortage caused by COVID wave (2021, September 10)- the COVID-19 pandemic has led to several significant deficiencies in the care of patients, from personal protective equipment to hospital personnel i.e., in Georgia: oxygen concentrators, current drug shortages (AHA, 2021).
Nevertheless, as with Georgia and many other states within the United States and other countries globally, rich and poor, the nursing shortage is not just an organizational challenge or a topic for economic analysis; it has a significant negative impact on health care (Buchanan and Aiken, 2008). Failure to deal with a local, regional, national, or global nursing shortage will lead to failure to maintain or improve health care.
WHO found a global shortage of health workers, particularly nurses and midwives, representing more than 50% of the current drought in health workers. Globally, 70% of the health and social workforce are women compared to 41% in all employment sectors. Nursing and midwifery occupations represent a significant share of the female workforce (WHO, 2020)
From a country-level policy perspective, a nurse staffing shortage is usually defined and measured concerning that country’s historical staffing levels, resources, and estimates of demand for health services. The gap between the reality of the current availability of nurses and the aspiration for some higher level of provision, however, is the ‘shortage’ (Buchanan and Aiken, 2008). It is not easily quantifiable and is a label applied to different definitions or used differently by various stakeholders, even in the same county context.
A WHO source has noted that ‘There is no absolute norm regarding the ‘right’ ratio of physicians or nurses to population. This depends on:
- Demand factors, e.g., demographic and epidemiological trends, service use patterns, and macroeconomic conditions.
- Supply factors include labor market trends, funds to pay salaries, health professions’ education capacity, licensing, and other entries.
- Factors affecting productivity, g., technology, financial incentives, staff mix, and management flexibility in resource deployment.
- Priority is allocated to prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation in national health policies. Generally, shortages or oversupply are assessed based on comparisons with countries in the same region or at the same level of development (WHO 2020).
Explored and confirmed are the evidence-based procedures that depict how Georgia’s medical care associations might mitigate some staffing deficiencies and diminish the current lack of nurse attendants, midwives, and doctors. I accept the ideas from the readings introduced by WHO. The Global vital bearings for fortifying nursing and birthing assistance 2016–2020 gave a system to WHO and essential partners to create, execute and assess nursing and maternity care achievements to guarantee available, adequate, quality, and safe nursing and birthing assistance intercessions. It sets out four-wide subjects to direct the commitments of the nursing and maternity care labor force to work on worldwide well-being:
- Ensuring an informed, capable, and propelled labor force inside successful and responsive well-being frameworks at all levels and in various settings;
- Optimizing strategy advancement, robust administration, the executives, and administration;
- Maximizing the limits and capability of attendants and maternity specialists through proficient community organizations, instruction, and proceeding with a deft turn of events; and
- Mobilizing political will to put resources into building viable, evidence-based nursing and midwife labor force advancements
These techniques were significant and settled on by the figured dynamic of an aggregate board of connected wellbeing services, government head nursing, maternity care officials, and other applicable partners to empower powerful arranging, coordination, and the executives of nursing and birthing assistance programs internationally. Since the assigned discussion has a personal stake in medical services, they are more than equipped to build sound components for intersectoral and multistakeholder commitment to propel executions that can exhibit powerful means to defeating the current emergency of medical services laborer deficiencies.
References
Albany Herald. Counties with the most significant primary healthcare worker shortage Retrieved on October 25, 2021, from https://www.albanyherald.com/multimedia/slideshows/counties-with-the-biggest-primary-health-care-worker-shortages/collection_3d935699-a020-5314-bd2d-379b8dd465aa.html#14
American Hospital Association. (2021). Fact Sheet: Strengthening the Health Care Workforce. Retrieved on October 25, 2021from https://www.aha.org/fact-sheets/2021-05-26-fact-sheet- strengthening-health-care-workforce
Buchanan, J. PhD. and Aiken, L. Ph.D. (2008, December 17). Solving nursing shortages: a shared priority. Retrieved on October 26, 2021, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2858425/
Miller, A. (2021, May 27). Some hospitals offer unprecedented bonuses to face the ‘worst ever’ demand for nurses. Retrieved on October 25, 2021from http://www.georgiahealthnews.com/2021/05/bigger-demand-nurses-hospitals-offer-large- bonuses/
Miller, A. (2021, September 10). New Device Shortage, High Death Toll Reported As COVID Wave Continues. GPB. Retrieved on October 25, 2021from https://www.gpb.org/news/2021/09/10/new-device-shortage-high-death-toll-reported-covid- wave-continues
World Health Organization (WHO). (2020, January 8). Nursing and midwifery. Retrieved on October 29, 2021, from https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/nursing-and- midwifery
ORDER A PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER HERE
We’ll write everything from scratch
Question
Health care faces critical staffing shortages. Imagine you are part of the executive management team researching healthcare shortages.
Outline some of the staffing shortages in the market where you live. Are they consistent with national trends?
Design a strategy that describes how your organization would alleviate some staffing shortages, including whether you would hire licensed practical nurses instead of registered nurses. Include concepts from readings throughout your program or from peer-reviewed journal articles.