Introduction
The cost of healthcare has been on the increase globally in recent years. In a bid to cut costs, most health care organizations have deemed it appropriate to understaff their facilities. In addition, training of health care staff has also become an expensive affair and health care organizations have to make do with fewer employees. This has resulted in understaffed health care organizations (Ozcan, 2009). This has not only led to overcrowded healthcare facilities but it has also affected the quality of health care provided to patients. The research paper endeavors to examine the extent to which health care organizations are understaffed. In addition, the frequency of understaffed and undertrained health care personnel shall also be examined, along with the implication this has on the health care organizations.
Reasons for inadequate training of health care staff
Lack of enough training facilities and insufficient educators are some of the factors that have contributed to inadequate staffing of health care organizations. Besides, only a handful of training programs are dedicated to the training of nurses, for example. Some of these programs also lack enough qualified educators. Moreover, more students prefer to pursue other careers besides those in the field of healthcare further contributing to the low number of staff (Byers & White, 2004). According to the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics (2010), the United States government needs to hire some 2.4 million health care workers by 2014. New medical technologies, coupled with an increasingly higher number of an aging population could perhaps result in more young people enrolling for health care programs.
Negative implications
Lack of proper training of health care workers, coupled with understaffing of health care organizations has negative implications on these facilities. To start with, there is the issue of workload volume fluctuations. In this case, we end up with fewer and incompetent health care workers who have to attend to a high number of patients. This also affects the staffing pattern since some employees are forced to undertake roles that they are ill-equipped to perform, thereby resulting in inefficiencies (Sultz & Young, 2010). Workload scheduling is also another negative implication of understaffed health care facility. There is also the issue of skill mix among the health care employees. This result in compromised safety of the patients because incompetent staffs are required to attend to tasks that they are least prepared for.
Addressing the issue of Lack of Staffing and Training among health care employees
Although the cost of health care is on the increase, there is the need for the government to find a lasting solution to the issues of understaffed health care organizations and to ensure that they are adequately trained. One way to accomplish this goal is to increase funding to health care training programs. This way, the training facilities can afford to purchase the latest equipments for use by the trainees. In addition, they can also hire competent training staff.
Implications for the mission and vision of the healthcare organization where the problem occurs
The mission and vision of most healthcare organizations are to provide quality service to their patient. This cannot be achieved if these facilities are understaffed and with inadequately trained employees. The government and health care organizations should work hand-in-hand to increase the enrollment of health care workers. In addition, the training institutions should be supported financially so that they can provide the health care staff under training with the necessary skills and expertise to attend to patients (Sultz & Young, 2010). Moreover, health care employees should be offered attractive packages and good working conditions to increase enrolments.
Conclusion
As the cost of health care increases, health care providers are finding ways of cutting down the cost of health care provision. One way to do this is by reducing the number of their staff. This affects the quality of health care. Lack of enough prams for training health care workers has also contributed to a decrease in the number of health care workers. Some of the negative implications of lack of staffing and training of health care workers include skill mix, workload volumes fluctuations, and workload scheduling. If at all these deficiencies are to be addressed, there is the need for governments and healthcare providers that their staffs are adequately trained. They should also be provided with the necessary expertise and skills to attend to their patients. Health care workers should also be provided with good working conditions and attractive salary packages.
Reference List
Byers, J. B., & White, S. V. (2004). Patient safety: principles and practice. London: Springer.
Ozcan, Y. A. Quantitative Methods in Health Care Management: Techniques and Applications. (2009). London: Wiley.
Sultz, H. A., & Young, K. M. (2010). Health Care USA. Sudbury, Mass: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics. America’s Growing Demand for Health Care Workers. 2011. Web.