The shortage of nursing personnel is an urgent problem in world healthcare. There are several reasons for this issue, such as the aging and retirement of medical workers, or their transition to higher-paid jobs, after which their positions remain vacant for a long time. At the same time, not enough young people want to devote their lives to medicine (Marć et al., 2019). The increase in labor demand in the health sector is also due to the increase in the number of people in the world, which increases the risk of developing diseases. Internal and international migration of health workers also exacerbates imbalances between regions.
To fill the gap in health care providers, countries must develop human resources policies over the long term. Collecting data, creating, and maintaining databases in the area of human resources in the healthcare sector is also important. It is necessary to maximize the role of both professionals and individual health communities in ensuring the availability of primary health care. For countries with the most severe shortages, measures must be taken to retain health workers and distribute them more evenly geographically (Park & Yu, 2019). Another solution to this problem is to provide mechanisms for health professionals to influence the design and implementation of policies and strategies for achieving universal health coverage.
The current pace of training for healthcare professionals lags far behind current and projected demand. It may be even more difficult for patients to receive the basic medical services they need in the future. Therefore, the organization of disease prevention may suffer as well. To prevent this problem, it is necessary to rethink and improve the training, distribution, and remuneration of health workers to make their work more efficient. The positive results from addressing this problem should increase the number of countries where the health workforce is nearing baseline.
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) was the first attempt to reform the US medical system since the mid-1960s. The Obama administration’s proposed reform was based on one fundamental principle: health insurance is mandatory for all citizens and businesses with more than fifty employees (Buehler et al., 2018). At the same time, citizens with a high level of income had to pay an additional insurance tax. In this way, there was a balance: at the expense of wealthy people, access to quality medicine for poor patients or patients with chronic diseases was provided.
The primary goal of Obamacare was compulsory health insurance for uninsured Americans. Also, it initiated reforms that helped move towards a system based on health promotion. It has laid the foundation for laws and reforms to ensure disease prevention and healthy living. Immunoprophylaxis of infectious diseases was actively carried out, as well as the prevention of the spread of the disease caused by the human immunodeficiency virus, tuberculosis, and other infectious and non-infectious diseases (Luquis & Kensinger, 2019). Moreover, the promotion of a healthy lifestyle, physical culture, and anti-drug campaigns were carried out.
Reforms of the healthcare system have helped to protect the rights of the poor. It provided medical care to large families and disabled people, including medical consultations, hospital stays, vaccinations, prescription medications, and preventive care for children. Obamacare was designed to make healthcare more accessible to more American citizens. These reforms have made a focus on disease prevention, health promotion, and improvement of the quality of life.
References
Buehler, J. W., Snyder, R. L., Freeman, S. L., Carson, S. R., & Ortega, A. N. (2018). It’s not just insurance: the Affordable Care Act and population health. Public Health Reports, 133(1), 34-38.
Luquis, R. R., & Kensinger, W. S. (2019). Applying the health belief model to assess prevention services among young adults. International Journal of Health Promotion and Education, 57(1), 37-47.
Marć, M., Bartosiewicz, A., Burzyńska, J., Chmiel, Z., & Januszewicz, P. (2019). A nursing shortage – A prospect of global and local policies. International Nursing Review, 66(1), 9-16.
Park, H., & Yu, S. (2019). Effective policies for eliminating nursing workforce shortages: A systematic review. Health Policy and Technology, 8(3), 296-303.