Key Aspects Leading to Nurse Shortage and the Healthcare Paradigm

Pharmaceuticals and Ancillary Health Professionals
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Analyze key factors in the current health care professional workforce shortage. Select at least three of the factors and discuss. What are some effective strategies to address these specific shortages? What do you feel are some solutions? 
In the recent past, health care sector has been experiencing shortages in the number of nurses that they have on their payroll, let alone those available to work. The heath care sector is one of the most essential sectors in the country, and lack of adequate work force with reference to the nurses only means that the country is courting disaster (Patricia & John, 2013). Some of the key factors that are responsible for the shortage include the fact that most of the people have other career options as the economy grows. It has also emerged that there is a high demand rate as majority of the people in the population age, compared to the number of nurses that are supposed to take care of them. With the introduction of the managed health care, the pressure on the health care systems has increased, where the field of nursing no longer offers growth and career development. At the same time, wages have grown smaller, and the workload has increased tremendously.
As mentioned above, one of the key aspects that have led to the shortage of the nurses in the health care sector is the workload environment (Patricia & John, 2013). With the introduction of the managed care, nurses have been forced to work extra hours on the weekends and on the night shifts. This resulted in increased pressure on the nurses as compared to a decade ago.
The aspect of the shortage is wages that are paid to the nurses. As the economy continues to battle the inflations that happen every few years with devastating effects, the wages have also taken the beating. The nurses are paid less compared to the amount of pressure at the workplace. This also ties to the fact that most of the health care facilities have also adopted the managed care system, which constrains the amount payable to the staff.
Compared to a decade ago, there are more opportunities on the other field that have developed over the years. This means that most of the people are opting to work in a growing career markets other than the nursing field (Patricia & John, 2013). When compounded, the aspect of better paying jobs in other fields, the low wages in the nursing field and the workload involved for the nurses, it is understandable why the health care sector is losing out on the nurses.
To make sure that the nurses shortages are dealt with, there are a number of strategic approaches that have to be implemented. Through the local and the national government, more money needs to be injected into the nursing education system. This will subsidize the nursing education and attract more nurses to the field. At the same time, the nursing training has to be redefined to make sure that the nurses are trained on better ways of coping with the changes in the nursing profession and in the health care industry and the economy (Patricia & John, 2013). The wages of the nurses need to be reviewed, and more resources devoted towards increasing the same. This is a strategy that is going to have positive impacts on both the recruitment and the retention of the workforce, as other professional fields stage a competitive bid.
Health Care Paradigm In fee-for-service, providers’ price services to cost. In managed care, providers cost to price. Explain this paradigm. Analyze how managed care and this paradigm have impacted relationships among providers, payers, and patients in the U.S.
The fee for service paradigm is the oldest in the health care provision system. In this case, the doctors determined the amount payable for the services that they have rendered. This means that, the doctors did not have a limit to the amount they would charge per patient every time, it also meant that the doctors could attend to as many patients as possible stretching their earning as they wish and feel capable. To the patients, this system was rather punitive, considering that they did not have much control of the system (Faqs.org, 2014). The patient paid dearly for their health, while the insurance companies made payments according to their profit margins. This means the insurance companies could pay less than the doctors were asking for and the patient would have to top up the rest from the savings. With the managed care systems, the hospitals form an organized system where they by the services in bulk.
The bottom line is that the system is supposed to be cost efficient, where both the hospitals and the patients are saving on the health care delivery (Faqs.org, 2014). This also comes with its own set of restrictions. This means that the hospitals in the managed care have their set of doctors, nurses and other staff in a combination of plans. Patients have the doctors to attend to them from the list provided; they also have to choose the places where they want to get medical care and medicine they will take from the list. This way the costs for parties including, patients, hospitals and insurance companies are well controlled and easily managed.
Access to Care; what is health care access? Why is it so important to measure access to health care? How may access statistics be used to improve health care services and processes?
While the health care access may be taken to mean simply the availability of the health services to the population, it is much more complex than that. Ideally, health care services have to be available, and the supply has to be adequate. However for the services to be accessible and the population to gainfully benefit, they have to include the financial aspects, socio-cultural and organizational facets (Gulliford et al., 2002). This means that the services have to be affordable, physically accessible, and they also have to be socially acceptable. Health care delivery not only has financial costs but also hefty social costs. It is important that health care services are measured to ensure that they are adequate and that every other member of the society has the ability to gain and improve their health status. By getting the statistics on the health care access, the...