Why Is the Nation Facing Health Care Staffing Shortages?
Across the United States, medical facilities and institutions are facing an ever-increasing shortage of health care professionals. Due to a variety of factors, the worrisome trend of health care staffing shortages is expected to continue for the next several years.[1]
The Problem
One of the primary factors that seems to be creating challenges with medical staffing is the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Implemented in 2010, the ACA has allowed millions of people to receive government-mandated health insurance.[2] These large numbers of previously undertreated people have been seeking medical care, and facilities aren’t as well-equipped as they want to be to handle the influx. In addition, the retired population continues to expand dramatically, as increasing numbers of Baby Boomers leave the workforce each year.[4] This results in gaps in the workforce, which can be hard to replace for a variety of reasons. In addition, as the average life expectancy continues to increase, more and more elderly individuals are requiring medical care. This puts even more strain on the system as time passes.[1]
While medical professions are some of the most attractive jobs in the United States (doctors regularly receive salaries in excess of $180,000 a year), demand appears to have outpaced supply.[3] Many medical professionals also show clear preferences for areas where they are likely to be paid more, leaving some regions with more physician vacancies than others. When there aren’t enough people staffed in a clinic, employees can become overworked, compounding the issues faced by health care providers.[1]
Possible Solutions
To deal with the increased number of people seeking medical care and the shortage of physicians, some facilities are using nurses as replacements for physicians when general care is needed. This can work effectively and provide care for those who need it, but this strategy can cause problems of its own. Nurse practitioners who provide general care in the absence of doctors are then absent from their original field, causing the shortage there to worsen as well.[2]
It is clear that many more medical professionals are needed in the health care workforce, which continues to grow rapidly with each passing year.[4] As the population of retired individuals grows and more people acquire health insurance, clinics will have to figure out a way to close the gaps in employment.[4] Attracting medical professionals with financial incentives is one suggested tactic, but this is not a cure-all for the problem at hand.[2] A long-term solution would be to enlarge current programs at educational institutions across the nation and work to attract more students to the medical field.[1]
There is no immediate solution to the problem of health care staffing shortages, but current problems can be mitigated by the use of management agencies and the implementation of more flexible policies.[2] As the health care industry has added over 327,000 jobs in the past year alone, clinics and medical institutions will have no choice but to continue to grapple with the problems posed by staff vacancies.[5] The field will remain highly competitive for the foreseeable future.
References
[1] http://orbiseducation.com/the-orbis-solution/shortages-in-healthcare/
[2] https://www.amnhealthcare.com/industry-research/2147484673/1033/
[3] http://www.businessinsider.com/highest-paying-medical-jobs-in-america-2017-8
[4] http://www.healthleadersmedia.com/hr/healthcare-staffing-outlook-strong-worker-demand-eyed-2017?nopaging=1
[5] https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf