The Problem of the Loss of Skilled Workers in the Professional Fields as the Population Ages - Research Paper Example

?The loss of skilled workers in the professional fields as the population ages is a critical problem in health care The average life expectancy in countries with low birth rate and better health care facilities has significantly increased over the decades resulting into a corresponding increase in the old population. The population of 500 million people all over the world aged 65 and more in the year 2006 is expected to increase up to 1 billion by the year 2030 so that one in every eight people would place in this age category (National Institute of Aging, 2007, p. 2). As population control measures are increasingly being implemented in the developing countries and the medical care facilities are also improving, the population of old people is also increasing in them. The population of old people in the developing countries is expected to see an increase of 140 per cent till 2030 (National Institute of Aging, 2007, p. 2). people all over the world have started to live longer with the passage of time. Along with the increase in the volume of old population, there has occurred a consistent decrease in the young and skilled population that would be employed in such professions as medicine, engineering and nursing. This has exposed the health care industry to different kinds of challenges. This paper discusses some challenges that the health care industry is currently facing because of the declining young and increasing old population. Skilled workers serving in the professional fields make the bulk of the educated lot in any society. Nobody but people belonging to the very community best cooperate with the health care workers. Educated people know the significance of taking regular medical checkup and are able to understand the advice and instructions of the health care workers. People who are undereducated do not seek regular medical guidance and when the consequences show up, they are the first ones to complain about the inadequacy of the health care facilities. Thus, the lesser the number of skilled workers belonging to professional fields in the society, the larger gets the number of the illiterate people that the health care workers have to deal with. This is only one of the numerous problems. Another big challenge for the health care promoters is lack of sufficient staff that is competent enough to assist them with the promotion of health care in the society. Certainly, medicine is one of the professional fields and lack of skilled workers in the professional fields means a corresponding lack in the number of qualified and competent health care providers. Thus, lack of the skilled workers exposes the health care providers to a dual challenge. They not only have to deal with less cooperative and more fussy mass, but they also have to take extra load because of insufficient staff. As the population of indigenous young and skilled workers has declined, there has been an emphasis upon the need to make the immigration policies increasingly flexible in order to encourage more and more skilled people from the developing countries to serve in the professions in the developed countries. “The size and productivity of the labor force limits the quantity of goods and services that can be produced” (US Department of Labor, 2011). In order to address the needs of the population, productivity has to be increased which is not possible to achieve without expanding the volume of the labor force. Allowing more people from the developing countries to live and work in the countries with insufficient young and talented labor force brings a solution to the shortage. Although the resulting multiculturalism has benefited the advanced economies on the whole in numerous ways, yet it has also exposed them to different kinds of risks. In the past few decades, with an increase in the number of immigrants, various cases of deadly diseases have shown up one of which is the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). In the one year between 2004 and 2005, the number of AIDS cases increased by 10 per cent with a total of 45000 new cases of AIDS diagnosed in the US (Susman, 2007). One reason why the cases of AIDS have increased is the physical relationships of the less educated immigrants both with other immigrants and with the local population. Most of the developing countries are quite conservative in their culture. Men and women socialize within the boundaries defined by the religion and the society. There is limited expression in the developing countries. When young and immature people migrate into the developing countries alone, they have nobody to keep a check upon them. They frequently indulge in sexual relationships with other people in the host country and their lack of sufficient knowledge of preventive measures makes them acquire such sexually transmitted diseases as AIDS. Increase in the skilled immigrant population has also had an indirect negative impact on the local population, who has been limited to lower class works because of the lack of sufficient skill. Consequently, the local jobless people are acquiring depression to deal with which, they become drug addicts. Poverty also provides people with reasons to indulge in such activities as injecting drugs into the blood through syringes that are conducive for the cultivation of AIDS. “In western industrial nations there are indications that HIV infections are moving into poorer segments of the population. There are 1 million HIV-positive people in North America and 600,000 Europe” (Johnson, 2001). Poverty also draws people further away from the healthy lifestyle because health care has become quite expensive. People cannot afford to bear thee expenses of regular checkup. Concluding, decline in the population of indigenous skilled workers with the aging of population has increased the challenges for the health care industry. There is lack of qualified staff and increased population of uneducated and less careful people. Additionally, cases of deadly diseases like AIDS are increasing in number because of the insufficient medical know-how in the migrants as well as the increasing poverty in the country. Many social evils that exist in the society today can be attributed directly or indirectly to the increase in the migrant population and the consequences have to be borne by the society in general and the health care industry in particular. References: Johnson, D. (2001). AIDS on the Rise: 2001 UN/WHO Report shows cases increasing. Retrieved from http://www.infoplease.com/spot/aids1.html. National Institute of Aging. (2007). Why Population Aging Matters: A Global Perspective. Retrieved from http://www.nia.nih.gov/NR/rdonlyres/9E91407E-CFE8-4903-9875-D5AA75BD1D50/0/WPAM.pdf. Susman, E. D. (2007). Increase in AIDS Cases. Retrieved from http://www.natap.org/2007/CROI/croi_38.htm. US Department of Labor. (2011). Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2010-11 Edition. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 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