Introduction
Some professions require the practitioner to have a license usually given by the governing bodies in order to pursue their work known as occupational licensure. This authorization is particularly popular for health professionals mainly due to the risky nature of health business. To be given the license one is expected to have an extensive and suitable training, knowledge, and skill to practice in the field of their expertise. However, this licensing presents numerous challenges that prevent some qualified medical experts from practicing their profession to the full extent of their qualifications. Thus, licensing has both negative and positive impacts to the healthcare systems. Thus, for a balance to be achieved both the pros and cons of different legislations need to be reviewed and a law passed to accommodate the ever-changing nature of healthcare systems. To better understand workforce issues, it would be best for the concepts and trends affecting occupational licensing to be addressed and its alternatives discussed.
The Purpose for Licensing of Health Professionals
Although occupational licensing is common in all fields, the regulations when it comes to health matters are stricter. The high level of adherence is caused by the risky nature of the healthcare profession. Licensing of healthcare workers is crucial to the community and helps serve three main purposes. It first guarantees that members of the public are protected from unqualified, reckless, unethical and ineffectual health workers (Nunn, 2018). This goal is achieved by handing the license to those who meet particular set standards, and second handing the occupational licensure regularly so the practitioner’s performance can be reviewed regularly.
Secondly, it gives the members of public that in whichever medical institution they are going to visit they will be handled with due care. Regulations make the patients feel free to visit medical institutions because through the rules medical people will always offer high quality services then promoting and giving the health care industry good reputation. Today, many people are confident while visiting the healthcare centers because the regulations have made those institutions safer. In the case a member of public is dealing with unknown medical professional, they may ask them to provide an occupational license to prove their authenticity.
Finally, professional licensure gives the health workers well laid out guidelines that guide them on how to conduct their work, and list the possible penalties liable to them if they fail. Some professionals either through greed or negligence continue to offer unrecommendable services to their clients. The rules and regulations have to be complied with, and those who fail can be punished using different methods including their licenses to practice being revoked. Other possible punishments for disobeying professional rules include monetary losses, interruption of business, and damaging of trust.
Impact of Licensing on Health Professional Workforce
Licensing has a large impact on the professional workforce and its influence is both positive and negative to varying degrees. On a positive note, occupational licensing makes the doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers to conduct their work with professional diligence. Without licensing or the fear of having the license revoked many workers would conduct this profession without following the guidelines. While not following guidelines can yield good results, sometimes it mostly leads to disaster. For instance, some surgeries could go better if the surgeon chooses to go with his or her intuition, but it could also go wrong. To solve this dilemma, the professional should sign an agreement with the patient to not follow the procedure. If the professional does disobey the procedure and something goes wrong, they run the risk of losing their license. This licensing, thus, makes practitioners more compliant with the medical code of conduct.
Occupational licensure has indirectly improved the standards of healthcare in different parts of the country. States where the licensing procedure is more lux have poor level of medical standards in comparison with the rest of the others. Licensed professionals also have a larger pool of clients in comparison with those who are not as some patients do require for licensure before agreeing to be treated. However, states that offer strict licensing procedure make healthcare workers not perform their duties to the full extent of their competency. Strict regulations also reduce the overall pool of the healthcare workers by restricting the professionals licensed outside the United States a chance to work. Licensing has also negatively affected the health professional workforce by limiting the practice of tele-health.
Alternatives to Licensing
Licensing serves to lower the instances of professional negligence that could harm individuals especially in high-risk occupations like healthcare industry. In achieving its goal, professional licensure poses numerous challenges with the barrier to entry being a major concern. It also causes the cost of medicine to rise as the number of healthcare workers gets limited. There has been a concern that the current healthcare system cannot support the evolving healthcare system (Dower et al., 2013). It is for these challenges that alternatives for licensing need to be formulated where possible.
One alternative that could be adopted is the application of a federalist approach when it comes to issues concerning occupational licensure. Since the laws that govern health regulations are usually state based the federal government has been trying to influence the state regulations that are strict but not as beneficial to be removed. This reform seeks to ease licensing regulations for healthcare providers, create incentives for the health professionals and regulators upon agreeing to the reforms, and introduce an affordable healthcare act.
Healthcare provides could also be asked to provide a self-service quality disclosure to their prospective clients. This would allow patients to compare the quality of different providers by checking the satisfaction of past clients. Rather than obtaining licensing from the government the providers could obtain voluntary certificates from third parties. This would help demonstrate the quality of the physicians without creating barriers to entry associated with mandatory licensing. Insurance of professionals, which is made mandatory is some states, would also be a better alternative as insured professionals would enjoy special benefits. Allowing the physicians to act on their own but punishing those who injure patients would also be an alternative for occupational licensing.
Conclusion
The concepts and trends of occupational licensing are always evolving and thus policymakers need to be always alerted to ensure that they law governing the practice do not limit healthcare work. Therefore, the main purpose of licensing should be always considered and weighed against all the negative impacts it brings to the professional workforce. The overall success of the healthcare services should always be based on its efficiency and flexibility in an ever-changing environment. For affordable healthcare to be achieved the stakeholders need to formulate feasible alternatives to strict licensing measures. These changes can be achieved through the implementation of an affordable healthcare act and loosening the tough regulations some states put on healthcare providers.
References
Dower, C., Moore, J., & Langelier, M. (2013). It is time to restructure health professions scope-of-practice regulations to remove barriers to care. Health Affairs, 32(11), 1971–1976.
Nunn, R. (2018). Improving health care through occupational licensing reform. Brookings.