Healthcare Workforce Shortages: Analyzing Causes, Solutions, and Ethical Implications

The healthcare workforce shortage has emerged as a very pressing issue in the healthcare sector across the world. This paper aims to review and explain the phenomena, effects, and remedies for nursing shortages in healthcare organizations. In this paper, this issue is analyzed based on the information gathered from scholarly sources, and the analysis is based on the Socratic Problem-Solving Approach: Healthcare Workforce Shortages: Analyzing Causes, Solutions, and Ethical Implications.

It also offers a solution, which is the expansion of telehealth, and considers the ethical concerns in line with beneficence, nonmaleficence, autonomy, and justice. Last of all, the connection presented in the analysis is made to the sphere of chronic disease management, which is one of the Four Spheres of Care.

Identification of the Problem, Issue, or Question

Healthcare workforce shortages refer to the insufficient number of qualified professionals—especially nurses—to meet the growing healthcare demands. Key factors explaining this reality include population aging, rising incidence of non-communicable diseases, employee fatigue, workplace stress, and insufficient staffing planning (Haddad et al., 2023).

The issue impacts patients, healthcare providers, and healthcare systems. Patients experience delayed care, increased medical errors, and reduced quality of care. Healthcare providers are overworked, which leads to burnout and moral distress in the workplace.

The health care facilities experience one of the highest turnover rates, increased costs, and an unfavorable patient status. COVID-19 further unfolds the challenges of the workforce and its strain on hospitals, leading to the exit of many healthcare professionals (Izdebski et al., 2023).

This is a major problem because it blasphemously affects the safety of the patients, the quality of healthcare, and the sustainability of these systems. Flaubert et al. (2021) concluded that the shortage of healthcare workers negatively impacts rural and disadvantaged communities, contributing to healthcare inequalities. It is, however, important to address this issue to provide fair, safe, and effective care in the delivery of health services.

Analysis, Definition, and Framing of the Problem, Issue, or Question

Healthcare workforce shortages stem from systemic issues such as limited nursing school capacity, an aging workforce, and increasing burnout rates. The study by Buckley et al. (2020) reveals that pediatric nurses experience high levels of burnout because of emotional demands, lack of support, and massive staff deficits, which is proof that burnout is not confined to a given specialty. The deficit is not just in terms of staffing but also the quality of care given to those who have been employed.

This is attributable to new and relatively less qualified junior staff taking the place of more knowledgeable resources that would otherwise have offered better results for patients. Further, productivity pressures lead to moral distress, as staff cannot give the quality of care that patients require regarding the virtue of nonmaleficence and justice.

From my experience as a nurse in a busy hospital unit, I have witnessed firsthand how staffing shortages contribute to burnout and unsafe patient-to-nurse ratios, increasing medical errors. Patients with chronic diseases and those in rural or underserved areas are disproportionately affected, facing delayed treatments and inconsistent care. Healthcare workers themselves endure unsafe conditions, worsening their mental and physical health. Addressing these shortages is critical to ensuring equitable and ethical patient care.

Exploring Viable Solutions to the Crisis

Various strategies have been proposed to address healthcare workforce shortages. These are increasing admission to nursing schools, offering incentives for nurses to stay, enhancing the physical setting of the workplace, and increasing the usage of telemedicine.

Solution 1: Increasing Recruitment and Retention

Increasing the capacity of nursing schools and offering scholarships is done in order to increase the number of nurses in the workforce. Retention measures such as incentives, access to counseling, and improved patient-to-nurse staffing ratio aim at tackling the turnover problem. Although these strategies are effective, they are capital and time-intensive and generally do not have a quick effect on the workforce.

Solution 2: Telehealth Expansion

Bulto (2024) proposed telehealth as a solution to alleviate staff shortages. Telehealth enables the nurse and the providers to address chronic illnesses, perform periodic follow-ups, and scale down the number of face-to-face contacts. This model can decrease the workload, particularly in physical environments that are hard to staff, especially in rural or remote regions with minimal access to clinicians.

Solution Comparison

Recruitment strategies relate to the issue by increasing the numbers of the workforce without necessarily addressing the cause because of challenges like limited nursing school capacity and faculty shortages. Conversely, the use of telehealth presents an immediate, efficient approach but requires technology and education.

Telehealth can fill the gaps in care and complement solutions while seeking longer-term solutions. However, this dependency on telehealth may potentially leave out patients who cannot access the internet or electronic devices. It is, therefore, advisable to employ a combination of both solutions to achieve the best outcomes in the case of a high frequency of cheating.

Telehealth as a Practical Solution

After evaluating the options, expanding telehealth emerges as the most practical immediate solution to mitigate workforce shortages while supporting chronic disease management. Telehealth allows fewer nurses to care for more patients efficiently without compromising quality. Telemedicine is advantageous for chronic disease patients since they can receive surveillance and follow-up without physically attending overfilled clinics or healthcare facilities (Sharma et al., 2022). Also, it decreases nurses’ physical workload, which can lead to burnout and decreased turnover.

Pros of Telehealth

Telehealth has reduced wait times for patients, increased access for consumers in rural areas, and decreased hours expected from nurses, which in turn also transformed the speed and effectiveness, reduced burnout for nurses, and quality timely delivery of health care in various sectors.

Cons of Telehealth

Telehealth has a high technological foundation and demands advanced staff education. It can potentially bar patients from using computers, further prolong social distancing, and potentially harm interpersonal interactions, affecting the physician-patient contact and overall patient care. Despite these challenges, the benefits of telehealth in easing workforce shortages outweigh the limitations, especially when combined with policies ensuring digital equity.

Strategizing Telehealth Implementation

Implementing telehealth as a solution to healthcare workforce shortages requires a multi-faceted approach focused on technology, training, funding, and policy support. To ensure that telehealth and other forms of remote care are effective in caring for patients, healthcare organizations need to develop secure telehealth platforms, reliable connectivity, and digital devices that pay attention to low-populated and geographically isolated areas. Nurturing these areas helps to avoid an increase in health inequalities due to digital divides.

Education and training of nurses, providers, and all other support staff should be essential in developing effective ‘telehealth literacy’ in order to provide quality faceless care. Any financial schemes need to include the development of technology frameworks and human resources alike. Furthermore, future reimbursement plans should also be created so that health services are fiscally sustainable for telehealth providers.

Inadequate reimbursement may also negatively affect adoption rates, limiting the solution’s effectiveness. Preparation of the policies also must include defining data privacy, the tasks related to licensure, and the telehealth standards that must protect both patients and healthcare professionals.

Equally important is the active involvement of key stakeholders in the implementation process. Stakeholders such as the nursing profession, physicians, Information Technology professionals, administrational levels, policymakers, and patients collectively should come together to improve the availability of the telehealth system, meaningful information, and culturally appropriate content for required healthcare purposes. Policy adaptations should be made to allow nurses and nurse practitioners to maximize technological capacity for telehealth applications in the healthcare field.

Preliminary trials can be run on the efficiency of telehealth in addressing the burdens on the workforce, improving the patient’s overall experience, and managing chronic conditions. Ongoing performance evaluations are crucial if there is to be any determination of effects on care quality, workforce, and patients. Patient and staff feedback should inform shared changes for an ethical, sustainable, and responsive program in the community.

Ethical Considerations

Implementing telehealth involves multiple ethical principles:

Beneficence
Telehealth increases the accessibility of care, strengthens the management of chronic diseases, and addresses the workforce’s health, which embodies the concept of doing good.

Nonmaleficence
Telehealth has the added advantage of reducing harm to both the patients and the healthcare workers by lowering staff burnout and errors resulting from overworking.

Autonomy
Telehealth enhances patient choice and self-management by providing alternative care options and helping patients to manage their condition on their own. However, it is crucial to ensure that all patients should be granted an equal chance to access these services. Informed consent is vital to guarantee that patients comprehend the nature and extent of the telehealth service and willingly agree to participate.

Justice
Justice for the patient means equal opportunity to receive the needed care. It is important that telehealth does not further exacerbate the issue of the digital divide. Thus, implementation must endeavor to extend connection libraries to the general public, especially to deliver internet-as-a-service devices to the underprivileged. It is for this reason that other measures, including having multiple language resources and culturally competent health services, can enhance equity.

Improvement Within the Sphere of Care: Chronic Disease Management

Telehealth makes a significant contribution to one of the four Spheres of Care- The Sphere of Chronic Disease Management. Diabetes, heart failure, and COPD patients are some examples of candidates that need constant observation. A shortage of employees means that home visits are not possible; hence, diseases cannot be controlled, and hospitalizations are on the rise.

Telehealth facilitates constant daily follow-up, vital sign assessment, and early follow-up where necessary. It also decreases the frequency of disease complications, cuts down on emergent cases, and increases patient interaction. Likewise, it minimizes the stress of a provider because care responsibilities are well shared among many parties. Thus, by enhancing chronic disease management, the application of telehealth improves the effectiveness of health care, health literacy, and patient satisfaction while simultaneously promoting ethically motivated health care and positively impacting a pressing workforce challenge.

Conclusion

The lack of healthcare workers compromises the quality of care and staff satisfaction. Opening up telehealth is an immediate and effective ethical response that enhances chronic disease management, relieves burnout, and opens up possibilities for reaching patients. The principles it espouses thus include beneficence, nonmaleficence, autonomy, and justice, especially when they are fairly practiced. Ensuring that digital barriers are addressed aids in ensuring that telehealth enhances the delivery of healthcare during staff shortages. 

References

Buckley, L., Berta, W., Cleverley, K., Medeiros, C., & Widger, K. (2020). What is known about pediatric nurse burnout: a scoping review. Human Resources for Health, 18(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12960-020-0451-8

Bulto, L. N. (2024). The role of nurse‐led telehealth interventions in bridging healthcare gaps and expanding access. Nursing Open, 11(1). https://doi.org/10.1002/nop2.2092

Flaubert, J. L., Menestrel, S. L., Williams, D. R., & Wakefield, M. K. (2021). The future of nursing 2020-2030: Charting a path to achieve health equity. In www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. National Academies Press (US). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK573922/

Haddad, L. M., Butler, T. J. T., & Annamaraju, P. (2023, February 13). Nursing Shortage. National Library of Medicine; StatPearls Publishing. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK493175/

Izdebski, Z., Kozakiewicz, A., Białorudzki, M., Dec-Pietrowska, J., & Mazur, J. (2023). Occupational Burnout in Healthcare Workers, Stress and Other Symptoms of Work Overload during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Poland. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(3), 2428. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20032428

Sharma, A., Pruthi, M., & Sageena, G. (2022). Adoption of telehealth technologies: an approach to improving the healthcare system. Translational Medicine Communications, 7(1), 20. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41231-022-00125-5

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Assessment 5 Analyzing a Current Healthcare Problem or Issue