Challenges Facing Health Care Leadership

Challenges Facing Health Care Leadership

Introduction

Quality service provision is always the goal of every organization. The health care sector, in particular, is a field that receives a lot of interest due to its place in society. Staff shortage has however been a stumbling block in the attempt to ensure the smooth provision of services. The leadership is facing several challenges due to the issue of staff shortage. The issues brought about by staff shortage include uneven allocation of physicians and acceleration in the retirement of registered nurses. The cost of training and employing physicians has made the allocation to health facilities, a great challenge. The retirement of registered nurses, on the other hand, is a challenge if the recruitment of new nurses is not at par with the retirement rate. The issues brought about by staff shortage can be solved by ensuring proper communication, collaboration, and teamwork between the staff and leadership of the health facilities.

The shortage of physicians can be attributed to the cost of training and employment. The issue of specialization also comes in to further inflate the cost of accessing the physicians’ services. In a clinic with more than five hundred beds, for example, the need for several physicians’ services is required. Getting the required physicians to offer the services is an excellent challenge to the leadership and most of the times the services provided do not achieve the required standards. The unavailability of an adequate physician workforce comes with a risk of over-exploitation of the available physicians which in return leads to low-quality service provision. According to (Schön, 2017), professionals need ample time when working to allow space for improvisation of techniques since formulas learned in school do not always solve every problem. When physicians are exposed to excessive duties, the outcome is that the services provided lack the improvisation bit and thus the facility suffers from low-quality service provision.

The rate of recruitment does not match the rate of retirement of registered nurses. The outcome of the deviation has been continued reduction of the workforce. It is, however, an issue of concern when the workforce reduces without a reduction in the responsibilities. The few remaining employees are compelled into performing additional duties which do not meet the requirement of employment act standards. Nursing is a profession where experience is significant. (Kagan, & Melendez‐Torres, 2015) Claim that nursing is an aging profession and understanding aging populations is essential. Lack of an organized replacement procedure for retiring nurses leaves the health facility at crossroads in finding experienced nurses to fill the gaps left. The issue of shortage of nurses does not only revolve around retirement. Most nurses leave formal employment and opt for self-employment when the conditions are not conducive. Gaps left by resigning nurses are hard to fill since most are not preceded by enough notice time. The result of resignations is worsening the shortage issue as well as lowering the quality of service provision. The problems around physicians and nurses shortage can, however, be handled by proper coordination between leaders and employers.

The challenges facing the leadership concerning staff shortage is made worse by lack of proper communication and collaboration between the available staff and the leaders. The leaders will, for example, depend on information received from the subordinate staff for purposes of planning. A physician working at the ward is at a better position of recommending the addition of other physicians depending on the work available. The collaboration between physicians and nurses will allow efficient assignment of roles and at the end of the day, unallocated duties will receive the attention of the leaders who will know the best action to take. Professional and organizational collaboration are critical components of a well-functioning healthcare system despite the resources available (Karam, Brault, Van Durme & Macq, 2018). Communication and collaboration are not the only remedies, however. Teamwork is critical for the healthy functioning of the health facility.

Teamwork between staff and leadership is critical in overcoming the challenges posed by staff shortage. It is recommended that the facility works as a unit with a clear goal rather than an institution of employers and employees. A case in hand is the issue of retirement of registered nurses. If nurses in the facility work as a team, it will always be clear when a member of the team is about to retire, and measures will be put in place to ensure the replacement is done in time. Teamwork between physicians also will act to ensure that areas not covered professionally are made clear and the leadership is well advised on the right action to take. The leadership and staff could also work as a team to ensure that points raised by any unit in the facility are efficiently attended to.

Conclusion

The challenges facing leaders in health care organizations include staff shortage. Physicians and nurses’ shortage pose a significant challenge for the leadership. The cost of training and employing physicians is the main issue that makes the challenge a hard one to solve. The lack of a well set out retirement process poses another difficulty in finding replacements where the rate of retirement is higher than that of recruitment. Proper communication, collaboration, and teamwork between staff and also between staff and leadership, however, are remedies for the challenges presented by staff shortage since there is efficient information flow to ensure the right actions for every case.