Introduction
The healthcare sector is evolving at a very rapidly. Such evolution, while having added advantages is also generating new challenges for healthcare managers to contend with. One such challenge involves human resource management in the healthcare industry, specifically keeping the healthcare sector adequately staffed and the workforce adequately trained. While staffing and training healthcare sector are crucial, there are potential dangers for lack of it, especially since the health care sector deals with people’s lives. Suffice to state that the nature and content of training of healthcare professionals determine their success as a team.
Training and staffing needs in healthcare
A number of indicators, such as the general increase in enrolment rates in healthcare courses and the creation of new 428,000 jobs within the healthcare sector portray concerted efforts to staff and train professionals to serve in healthcare. Despite all these efforts, the American healthcare sector is not adequately staffed (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2011). This assertion should be taken Vis a Vis the notion that the sector is rapidly growing and with that growth there are emerging new healthcare dynamics which needs adequate staffing as well as training of existing healthcare personnel. These new challenges mostly involve occurrences in the recent past that pose health risks, and as such current healthcare professionals need new skills to enable them handle new threats. Such occurrences include the threat of terrorism, evolution of Health IT, natural disasters such earthquakes, outbreak of new diseases such as SARs and manmade calamities such as effects of harmful chemicals which leak into the atmosphere (Rubin, 2004).
Staffing and training: the consequences
In view of the new health threats, lack of training and staffing of the health care sector has severe consequences not only to the consumers of healthcare services but also to other sectors of the economy such as security. According to Senate Report 107-84, one of the key functions of training healthcare workers is to enlighten them on the latest healthcare trends and needs, with the aim of enhancing efficiency. As such the report concluded that if healthcare workforce is not continuously trained on new procedures, safety issues and use of new technologies then the rate of medical errors will shoot up, with disastrous results (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, n.d.). Similarly, Rubin (2004) asserts that healthcare institutions are vital in disaster preparedness and response, especially in healthcare issues emanating from one off disastrous occurrences such as terrorist attacks, natural disasters like typhoons, floods, as well as manmade catastrophes such as effects of nuclear leaks. In view of Rubin’s (2004) assertions, lack of training healthcare professionals to handle such disasters is a disaster in itself. Additionally, healthcare workers need to be trained on minimizing the risks within their professional practice. For instance newly qualified professionals need to be trained on handling emergencies as well as working odd hours. Furthermore, the healthcare sector needs to be adequately equipped with experienced workers to collaborate with inexperienced ones to impart tacit knowledge on healthcare matters otherwise the sector will be ill equipped to minimize risks (Scott, 2003).
Conclusion
Adequate staffing and training of healthcare workforce are vital if the sector is to achieve address emerging threats to people health. This implies that to impart tacit knowledge training has to go on beyond college into an everyday occurrence. Furthermore, to meet these new threats the sector needs adequate staffing in terms of number and skills. This will help the sector avoid potential dangers and manage healthcare risks efficiently.
Reference List
American Association of Colleges of Nursing. (2011). Nursing shortage resource. Web.
Rubin, J. (2004). Recurring pitfalls in hospital preparedness and response. Homeland Security Journal. Web.
Scott, C. (2003). Setting safe nurse staffing levels: An exploration of the issues. Web.