HRM in Health Care Essay

One of the most significant challenges in healthcare today is the shortage of health care workers, of all types. This shortage is noticed in wealthier countries, but those nations can import health workers from poorer countries, leaving the world’s least developed countries with the most significant shortages of health care workers (GHWN, 2015).

At the global level, human resources management for health care means attracting more people into the profession, finding ways to train them, and then ensuring that there is sufficient distribution of health care talent around the world. For any given organization, the precise challenges might be different, but there is opportunity to put some of these concepts into practice. An example might be to design jobs in a way that people with fewer formal qualifications can perform more work, and those with qualifications – who tend to be in shorter supply – are focused on the tasks that are very specific to their training.

Another challenge going forward is that the health care industry is changing rapidly. In particular, new technologies are changing both the types of healthcare that are delivered, and the way in which healthcare is delivered (Hayden, 2014). All health care providers need to ensure that their workers are able to handle this rapidly changing environment. For nations, and universities, the challenge is the same. The old ways of developing health care talent are going to change, as technology drives these changes. Being able train a new generation of health care workers who are fluent in modern techniques and technologies, so that they can navigate this transition, is becoming imperative.

One implication is that there are bodies, such as the World Health Organization, or international bodies representing physicians or nurses, that can perhaps develop a set of standards that would allow for things like standard training for health care workers. Accreditation on global level, for example, would create more mobility for health care workers, which in the short run might drain poorer countries more, but with more opportunity, there might be more people encouraged to pursue a career in health care.

References

GHWH (2015). Health #Workforce2030 [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXpp4kmUCLU (3:55)

Hayden, M. (2014). The Future of Healthcare: Where will we be in 2023? Retrieved from https://tune.pk/video/4445260/the-future-of-healthcare-where-will-we-be-in-2023 (6:54)