Introduction
My research topic is the problem of the shortage of healthcare workers. According to WHO, there are about 60 million healthcare workers today: doctors, nurses, midwives, pharmacists, and laboratory technicians, as well as administrative and support workers (Al-Mahdi et al., 2020). However, despite this impressive number, there is a shortage of about 7.2 million of them, which will worsen in the future (Marć et al., 2019). The WHO predicts that by 2035, there will be a shortage of 12.9 million healthcare workers worldwide (Al-Mahdi et al., 2020). Moreover, if they are not acted on now, the shortage will have serious consequences for the health of billions of people around the world. To solve this problem, a competent personnel policy must be formed. It is necessary to consider that reasonable health care demonstrates the insufficient use of specialists with higher education to staff the managerial staff of medical institutions effectively. The World Health Organization has proposed several solutions to the global health workforce shortage in its recommendations.
Main body
First, strengthening political and technical leadership in countries to support efforts to develop human resources in the long term is essential. The next solution could be to collect reliable data and strengthen human resources for health databases. A third solution is to maximize the role of mid-level workers and individual communities to improve the availability and acceptability of first-line health services. Retaining health workers in countries with the greatest shortages and a more balanced geographic distribution of health workers is important. A final proposed solution to the problem is to provide mechanisms for the rights and responsibilities of health workers in developing and implementing policies and strategies to achieve universal health coverage.
Two competing needs are the need for highly skilled health workers in regions where the field is underdeveloped and the need to improve pay for the workforce. In economically underdeveloped countries, achieving decent physician wages will take work. This makes it less likely that jobs in medical institutions will be in demand. Highly qualified specialists will seek to move to another country, where they will be provided with more comfortable conditions and opportunities for development.
In my organization, the problem is well covered, and a policy to address it has been introduced. Management is trying to improve the workplace and treat employees with respect. Innovative activities are addressed. Medical innovations touch everyone. They promise new disease prevention, diagnosis, and control methods, as well as new drugs and technology to track and treat ailments. At the same time, medical innovation is about expanding knowledge and transforming currently used technological and business models to meet better-changing needs and expectations. Organizations need to follow current advances to remain competitive. Highly skilled workers need to have quality, new technology at their disposal. That is why my organization’s policy is directed in this direction.
From an ethical standpoint, the organization’s policies are correct and point in the right direction. The strength is that the organization remains competitive because of the introduction of new technology. Employees must not be overworked, taking care of their mental health. The downside may be that there is little coverage of helping and respecting employees in the organization. If management values employees, the likelihood that they will quit is greatly reduced. Research proves that employees lose their desire to work faster not from overwork but from a lack of respect from management (Gilbert et al., 2021). Moreover, if respect is not a significant element of the corporate culture, over time, the talent leaves, and only those who do not value themselves or can adapt to any conditions remain. Recent research in the field of staff motivation and loyalty has shown that high employee turnover is often directly related to the management principles adopted by the organization (Aburumman et al., 2020). Employees liked their work, the team, and the amount of remuneration, but they wanted to be more satisfied with managers’ patronizing and sometimes dismissive attitude to rank-and-file employees.
This principle of dividing staff into castes inevitably leads to conflicts in the company because the “bottom” seeks to change the status quo, and the “top” studiously ignores these attempts or resorts to administrative measures of pressure. It is not about the lack of basic respect for people as individuals but about the fact that the company does not value the contribution to specialists’ work. Fatigue, unwillingness to perform their duties, lack of drive to move on, and dread at returning to work tomorrow – that is what an employee gets. However, it is not only his problem; it is, first of all, the company’s problem. The solution to this problem is the introduction of meetings in which employees can share their experiences and ideas. This way, the organization’s managers would show that their specialists are valued.
Conclusion
The organization’s policy should be directed toward staff development to balance the competing needs of resources, employees, and patients. This will help show patients that the organization can be trusted because it employs highly qualified people. Medical professionals must constantly evolve because healthcare is subject to constant change (Konttila et al., 2019). These changes depend on modern progress and the development of society as a whole. If workers use outdated treatment and patient care methods, they will very soon lose the trust of their clients.
References
Aburumman, O., Salleh, A., Omar, K., & Abadi, M. (2020). The impact of human resource management practices and career satisfaction on employee’s turnover intention. Management Science Letters, 10(3), 641-652. Web.
Al-Mahdi, A., Boundy, K., Gray, C., Hicks, C., Lesley-Spence, S., & Vo, A. (2020). No Nurses, No Healthcare.
Gilbert, S., Mullen, J., Kelloway, E. K., Dimoff, J., Teed, M., & McPhee, T. (2021). The CARE model of employee bereavement support. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 26(5), 405. Web.
Konttila, J., Siira, H., Kyngäs, H., Lahtinen, M., Elo, S., Kääriäinen, M.,… & Mikkonen, K. (2019). Healthcare professionals’ competence in digitalization: A systematic review. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 28(5-6), 745-761. Web.
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. Web.