One primary factor is the population growth patterns. Currently the American population is growing older, which means there is both a growing need for nurses as well as the implication that the workforce of nurses is also growing in age, roughly half of the nurses being 50 years or older. In most professions the reason for shortage is more directly related a lack of qualified applicants to the profession, in the case of nursing it is more directly related to the colleges and universities cannot meet demands of an increased enrollment. The inability to increase the enrollment is secondary to a lack of resources to both teach courses as well as issues related to student saturation at clinical sites (Fox & Abrahamson, 2009). A third contributing factor is very interrelated to nursing education is that nursing education has shifted from hospital-based diploma programs to university and college programs.
With life-expectancy increasing, this problem is only going to get worse. I was interested in the parallel problems in the field of nursing and the field of education – many of the problems and proposed solutions in nursing and teaching are quite similar – not enough incoming workers to replace retiring ones, a need to reduce case loads/class sizes and increase salaries, and a need to improve working conditions. One point Underwood brings up remains a problem, though. She explains that there is a problem of shrinking resources at nursing schools and indicated that in 2004, “understaffed nursing schools had to turn away more than 32,000 qualified applicants.” These numbers show that there IS a population of people who DO want to become nurses. However, changing the working environment, increasing salaries and reducing workloads for nurses in the field is not going to change whatever problem is causing the shortage of qualified faculty at nursing schools, so that is a serious problem that will need attention as
Spaeth career path has given him different views on issues in healthcare and therefore giving him a broad understanding of healthcare business. One of the biggest challenges today, he states is the changing structure of health care and a declining work. The declining workforce is seeing stress on the worker as the skilled and educated employee doesn’t want to work more than eight hours or on the week-ends in a 7- days- a- week, 24- hours- a- day hospital setting. Another major issue is that hospitals are becoming more specialized where top dollar reimbursement can be achieved which leaves a gap in the traditional services. Lastly, the issues of senior leaders not spend enough time mentoring younger leaders (Grazier, 2005).
This survey discusses the average salary and hourly pay for both CMAs and non-CMAs. It breaks down wages per geographic region, work setting, practice specialty, and practice location Quallich, S.A. (2005) Medical Assistants: The Future Nurses? Urologic Nursing. 25(5), 389-391 The Author of this article mainly focuses on the difficulties in distinguishing the role between Medical Assistants and Nurses. Tasks that were once assigned to nurses are now the responsibility of Medical Assistants due to the shortage in nursing.
Case Study- Module 2 Lois Hammond June 8, 2013 One of the most important things that have affected employers’ costs for benefits is our declining economy. Employers are now facing the challenge of providing competitive benefits while also trying to contain costs (Wish 2012). Some organizations are making employers to seek less expensive forms of healthcare (Wish 2012). Employers are requesting that associates get 2nd opinions, shorter hospital stays, and more utilization of outpatient surgeries to cut benefit costs (Wish 2012). Employers are now requiring employees to spend more out of pocket for benefits due to the rising cost of medical costs.
Other researchers have also found that having larger numbers of nursing staff with BSN degreed RN’s resulted in a significant lower readmission rate and decrease in hospital stays. The outcome of the research spell out the money saved that would make up for the expenses of expanding the amount of nurses with BSN-degreed nurses in the
This can reduce the readmission process and rate at the organization along with financial gain and improving the satisfaction of patients. Emergency room wait times also can be improved to reduce the financial stability of the healthcare organization. Often times, there are so many patients waiting in the emergency room to be seen, making time is hard to attend to every patient at an adequate time frame. By improving those areas mentioned at the facility, the organization can focus on the mission and the commitment of good service and performance at the
Another issue is cost. Some people balk at having to pay emergency department prices after receiving nonemergency care. Obviously, if people are poor and have either no job or a low-paying job, then they may have trouble paying their ED bills. Plus, Medicaid and other forms of public coverage pay only portions of these bills. That reality coupled with the increasing volume of patients involved has caused some facilities to devise strategies for managing serial ED visitors.
E., & Moore, J. (2007), a large number of studies in many markets over many years have consistently shown that medical care managed and financed through an HMO costs 10 to 20 percent less than under indemnity insurance. Most of the savings are due to two factors; the ability to obtain lower prices by contracting for large volumes of hospital, physician, laboratory, and pharmacy services, and a substantial reduction in the number of hospital days per 1,000 enrollees. The reduction in hospital days is somewhat offset by a greater use of ambulatory physician services and outpatient surgery among HMOs, but because these substitutes are less expensive than inpatient services, overall dollar savings are realized even when the quantity of services used stays the same or increases. Although managed care has been shown to reduce costs, it is probably not the answer to all of America’s health care problems.
The increased expense caused by the number of nurses trained causes a strain on the available limited resources (Fullbrook, 2008). Marginal benefits indicate that added benefits will be achieved for society after additional nurses have been educated and trained. The extra benefits typically shrink as the delivery of services increase if the needs and numbers of individuals seeking services also increase (Conova,