Inadequate Healthcare Workforce in the Rural parts of the United States

Inadequate Healthcare Workforce in the Rural parts of the United States

Problem

The issue of the insufficient healthcare workforce in the rural parts of the United States is of significant importance to the country. It has the capacity for advocacy through legislation. People in rural areas have the right to access quality health care. However, maintaining the right mix of health personnel in those areas is one of the significant challenges facing the healthcare system (Douthit et al., 2015). Healthcare organizations experience substantial difficulties in their bid to keep the required number of health professionals to meet the significantly high demand for healthcare services in those areas. The many health problems in the rural areas can best be solved through legislative actions to deal with the issues that discourage the retention of healthcare personnel in various healthcare organizations (Douthit et al., 2015). Patients can get the best care if they are served by people with the right education and training and who have the proper licensure. Also, the best personnel for rural areas should be culturally competent in addition to the previously stated requirements.

The idea for Addressing Solution

The government can deal with the inadequacy of nurses in rural areas through many approaches, among them increasing educational and training opportunities for the minority groups. According to Caldwell et al. (2016), the lack of access to quality services among rural communities could be caused by the lack of educational opportunities for students from those places (Caldwell e al, 2016). When people lack access to quality health care, they become more susceptible to diseases due to a lack of adequate information about disease prevention measures. Increasing opportunities for nursing education among rural communities is likely to solve the matter because healthcare providers from the local communities are more likely to go back and work in the same areas.

The past experiences have shown that solving the problems facing rural communities is never easy. For that reason, the bid to provide quality health care to the local communities is also expected to be significantly difficult for many reasons. Even though creating lasting solutions to the health problems facing rural communities is difficult, the government, through the ministry of health, can employ various strategies for improvement purposes. MacQueen et al. (2018) propose several strategies for that problem; among them, recruiting members of the black and minority communities into the nursing profession (MacQueen et al., 2018). Such people are more likely to work in rural areas based on the fact that they comprise a more significant percentage of rural dwellers.

Available Literature

Most nurses prefer working in the places they come from. A similar thing is very likely to happen for the nurses from the rural parts of the country. Black nurses are more likely to work in rural parts of the country compared to whites (Douthit et al., 2015). The researchers observed that more than 30 percent of the black nurses work in the rural parts of the country for at least half of their nursing profession. Less than 9 percent of white nurses work in rural areas for more than half of their nursing profession. According to a survey conducted by Matthews et al. (2017), the labor force participation rates vary significantly among the major races of the United States, with the minority groups showing higher rates (Matthews et al., 2017). Black nurses had a participation rate of 90 percent. Whites had 76, Asians had 91, and Hispanics 86 percent. Generally, the number of nurses from the minority groups constituted a more significant percentage of the labor force in rural health care organizations.

Stakeholder Support

The rural communities are the most significant shareholders that would support the idea. Increasing opportunities for nursing education among the minority groups would help to meet the goal of having healthcare providers with the highest degree of cultural competence, possible. Having nurses from the rural areas serving patients from the same places could improve the quality of services offered because the two groups could easily communicate using the local languages (Colla et al., 2015). Having a nurse from the same community also means having a healthcare provider with a better understanding of the community’s cultures and practices. According to Colla et al. (2015), the issue of the language barrier significantly discourages the provision of quality healthcare in rural areas, especially in places where the local communities do not speak English (Colla et al., 2015). In the United States, for example, the number of registered nurses is relatively low compared to other races. In some parts of the United States, such as California, Hispanic nurses constitute only 1 percent of the nurses in the various healthcare organizations in that state (Colla et al., 2015). The number is significantly small compared to the size of the Hispanic community, which made up more than 15 percent of the population. Most Hispanics do not speak English, something that causes a significant language barrier between some healthcare providers and the community. Increasing the number of Hispanic nurses is the best way to deal with that issue because Hispanic nurses can easily communicate with their fellow Hispanics and understand them better.

Stakeholder Opposition

Some nurses could cause significant opposition to the idea. Many factors discourage nurses from working in the rural parts of the country, among them the lack of adequate security (Singh et al., 2017). Some nurses say that serving the local communities is relatively more stressful compared to working in the manor towns and cities. According to a study conducted by Singh et al. (2017), more than 50 percent of the registered nurses in the United States would not want to work in rural areas even at higher salaries (Singh et al., 2017). The number of nurses who did not want to work in those areas varied among the major races in the country. More white nurses would not like to work in the stated places compared to the black nurses.

Financial Incentives/Costs

The provision of financial support to the rural communities could significantly promote the idea. The attainment of nursing education among the minority groups is further complicated by the significant poverty and poor health status of the community (Colla et al., 2015). For that reason, the government can help increase access to nursing education by employing various strategies to solve the challenges presented by poverty and poor health. The government can do so by providing loans and scholarships to nursing students from minority groups.

Legislature: Information Needed and Process for Proposal

I would send this proposal to Mr. Brad Wenstrup, the current legislator for Cincinnati. I would post it in the form of an official letter. The proposal would be sent through his official contact, 2419 Rayburn House Office Building (202) 225-3164. The process would also go through the right individuals and organizations who would help take the letter to the legislator. If the lawmaker decides to take the bill to Congress, he will present it to the right individuals and groups of lawmakers who would table it for discussion.

Christian Principles and Nursing Advocacy

The rural communities are also humans who deserve similar treatment with other people in the country. The nurse should always try to act as advocates for people who do not have access to healthcare (MacQueen et al., 2018). The nurse should portray high levels of love and compassion by doing anything that enables the patients to achieve the highest degree of comfort possible.

Conclusion

Lack of access to quality health care in rural areas is a problem of significant importance to the country and humanity. The problem can be solved through many strategies. This paper proposes increasing educational opportunities to nursing students from minority groups as a significant approach to solving the problem. The idea is appropriate for that matter because nurses from rural areas have a better understanding of the community’s cultures and languages. That factor improves the quality of health care by having healthcare providers who create solutions that are more appropriate for specific cultures. Having a common language is an essential factor for communication between a healthcare provider and the patient. The former better understands the patient’s needs and uses the information to make the most appropriate decision possible.

References

Caldwell, J. T., Ford, C. L., Wallace, S. P., Wang, M. C., & Takahashi, L. M. (2016). The intersection of living in a rural versus urban area and race/ethnicity in explaining access to health care in the United States. American journal of public health, 106(8), 1463-1469. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4940644/

Colla, C. H., Morden, N. E., Sequist, T. D., Schpero, W. L., & Rosenthal, M. B. (2015). Choosing wisely: prevalence and correlates of low-value health care services in the United States. Journal of general internal medicine, 30(2), 221-228. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11606-014-3070-z

Douthit, N., Kiv, S., Dwolatzky, T., & Biswas, S. (2015). Exposing some important barriers to health care access in the rural USA. Public health, 129(6), 611-620. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0033350615001584

MacQueen, I. T., Maggard-Gibbons, M., Capra, G., Raaen, L., Ulloa, J. G., Shekelle, P. G., … & Hempel, S. (2018). Recruiting rural healthcare providers today: a systematic review of training program success and determinants of geographic choices. Journal of general internal medicine, 33(2), 191-199. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11606-017-4210-z

Matthews, K. A., Croft, J. B., Liu, Y., Lu, H., Kanny, D., Wheaton, A. G., … & Eke, P. I. (2017). Health-related behaviors by urban-rural county classification—United States, 2013. MMWR Surveillance Summaries, 66(5), 1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5829834/

Singh, G. K., Daus, G. P., Allender, M., Ramey, C. T., Martin, E. K., Perry, C., … & Vedamuthu, I. P. (2017). Social determinants of health in the United States: addressing major health inequality trends for the nation, 1935-2016. International Journal of MCH and AIDS, 6(2), 139. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5777389/