Human Resource Management in Medical Care Field - Research Paper Example

? Human Resource in Medical care Field Introduction Human resource department is a sector in every organization secured to manage human capital. It plays a big role in the success or failure of an organization. In the health care field, human resource management determines the quality of services provided to clients (Niles, 2013). Proper managing of human resources is essential in recruitment, selection and maintenance of all staffs and it improves employee’s morale. These services among others enable heath care organizations to provide quality services hence improving patient’s health. Therefore, every organization should manage human resource department appropriately to enhance success. Q. 1 In early days, human resource management was meant for the custody of records. Record keeping is one role of the personnel department in many organizations including health care industry. Many people do not find or are not aware of the roles performed by human resource management in organizations. Today, human resource management is becoming a vital organ with increasing roles and duties. The roles human resource management department plays in medical care field include; Legal, ethical and safety issues in health care It is the role of human resource management to ensure that all employees understand ethical issues and legal principles in health care industry. The main type of relationship in health care is that of healthcare giver and patient (Pynes & Lombardi, 2001). The relationship between healthcare providers and patient should be attended to since health care industry is faced by many dilemmas in this area. Laws and policies have been implemented to protect service providers and patients. Therefore, human resource management should carry out training to address the ethical and unethical issues to be practiced in the field of medical care. It is the role of human resource to ensure that healthcare providers are working in a healthy environment. This is in accordance with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) (Hernandez & O'Connor, 2009). Recruitment, selection and retention It is the role of human resource management to employ qualified and competent employees. Human resource management in health care sector ensures that people called for interview have all the requirements and skills to the job advertised. This ensures that only staffs with the required skills, expertise and qualifications are selected to fill vacant positions. After a candidate is selected, the human resource department should make efforts to retain the staff. The backbone of every health care is nursing and it is faced with shortages (Hernandez & O'Connor, 2009). Additionally, rural areas are experiencing shortages of physicians and therefore, care should be taken in selection, recruitment and retention of health care providers especially nurses and practitioners. Motivation of heath care employees Human resource has a role to motivate staffs who are in direct contact with patients and those who are involved with patients indirectly. This is to ensure that high quality services are provided to patient. Staffs involved in direct contact with clients are nurses and physicians while laboratory technologists, technicians and clinical technicians have indirect contact (Pynes & Lombardi, 2001). Nurses and physicians depend on the results given by laboratory technicians to give prescriptions to patients. Therefore, all staffs play an important role in provision of quality services to the client and fair treatment is essential for all. Empowered employees who receive good compensation for work done and working in good environment perform well. Additionally, rewarding employees with promotions, incentives and appreciation are factors that lead to employees’ motivation to quality work. Another role of HR is provision of benefits to medical staffs. These include mandatory benefits by law like medical leave, unemployment insurance and worker’s compensation (Pynes & Lombardi, 2001). Other non-mandatory benefits are paid leave, retirement benefits and family care. All these benefits are motivating factors to employees and can determine the type of services provided to patients. Innovation Medical sector is one of the changing fields in the world today with the changes and advancement of technology. The human resource department should provide up-to-date information relating to innovation, application and techniques relating to technology (Krishnamurthi, 2006). In times of economic crisis, it should give correct information relating to employees compensation and so on. In case of new technology, the human resource should arrange on way to train and educate all the staffs on how to apply the new technology. Q. 2 Compensation management This function involves payments of salaries and wages to health staffs. Employees’ compensation can be both monetary terms and non-monetary terms. Some of the factors to consider when fixing salaries and wages are legal provisions in relation to minimum wage, ability of the organization to pay and the basic needs of employee (Niles, 2013). Additionally, job requirement and competitor’s pay level can be used in fixing remuneration. Other activities in remuneration function are determination of incentives, bonuses, fringe benefits and welfare activities. Human resource development It involves development of skills, abilities, knowledge and competence, morals and behaviors of employees. Depending with the current and future organizational needs and job requirement, human resource department ensure that employees are well equipped with skills, knowledge and creativity to cope with the changing world (Niles, 2013). Health care field is one sector that is changing at a high rate due to current development and changes in technology. This means that human resource department should introduce a continuous habit of employees’ development. This will enable employees to be ready to adopt any organizational change and culture. Since quality control is a primary duty of human resource, it should works together with clinical and non-clinical executives in the development of professional programs (Pynes & Lombardi, 2001). These programs are meant for educating health care staffs on how to improve on quality. In order for health care organizations to be successful in provision of quality services to patients, there must be continued education and training to employees. Additionally, human resource management in its function of human resource development should undertake appraisal activities to rate employees’ performance. Human relations This is the process of integrating and associating people in an organization. In health care field, there are many groups of people differentiated by their roles and duties. Some of them include; nurses, specialists, counselors, physicians and laboratory attendant. All these people should be collaborative in their duties and functions. This is because every staff requires assistance from the other to enhance proper performance of their duties. Human resource ensures that people in work place are integrated and motivated to work together as a team (Krishnamurthi, 2006). This leads to jobs contentment and higher productivity, therefore, fulfilling psychological and collective needs. In addition, human relation in management handles disciplinary cases in solving disputes in work place. Therefore, team work, job satisfaction and conflict management are the main activities of human relations function. Primary function Human resource development One primary function of human resource is to ensure all staffs in medical industry have the required skills and competencies in health care field. This is by training and educating employees and equipping them with the latest knowledge and skills. This will ensure that the staffs’ level of knowledge is in accordance with the latest technology and practices. Having qualified nurses, technicians, practitioners among others will guarantee provision of high quality services to patients. This function of human resource will take health care industry to a higher level. Q. 3 Strategic plan being an organization vision that will take place for many years, it is advisable to involve human resource management in planning (Hernandez & O'Connor, 2009). This is because it is the employees who will execute the strategic plan and who are under human resource. Therefore, human resource management plays the part of organizing the employees who will execute the strategic plan. It is the role of human resource to bring ideas, people and equipments together for the success of the strategic plan. The human resource provides ready and capable human capital to work through training, educating and development of employees before the plan is operational. It is clear that a strategic plan leads to change in an organization. Human resource management ensures that employees are not resistant to change. This is through proper communication methods on the strategic plan to be implemented and educating staffs the importance of the strategy to them and the organization. Therefore, human resource acts as an agent of change and it is easier to develop strategic plan by incorporating human resource (Hernandez & O'Connor, 2009). Additionally, human resource management has the role of making human resources inventive and competitive by gathering the appropriate initiatives. This is through selection and staffing, training and development and organizational development. Appraisal Human resource department is an essential section in every organization. The quality and success of an organization is determined by how effective human resource is managed. Employees are the most valuable asset in an organization and they should be treated fairly to enhance quality performance. In order to ensure fair treatment of employees, organization should make use of human resource management to understand the employees’ needs and improve their welfare. Human resource should be fair in their dealing when it comes to staffing, selection, employment and remuneration. Fair dealings improve employees’ morale and motivate them to work hard since there is a reward for the same. In the health care field, the functions and duties of human resource determine the quality of services given to patients. Highly motivated staffs attend their patients well and have a good relationship with clients compared to non-motivated staffs. Therefore, it is advisable for all organizations to improve on human resource management and the final results. References Hernandez, S., & O'Connor, J. (2009). Strategic Human Resources Management in Health Services Organizations. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning Krishnamurthi, K. (2006). Human Resource Management: Concept and Planning. New Delhi, DL: Global Vision Publishing Ho Niles, N. (2013). Basic Concepts of Health Care Human Resource Management. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Publishers Pynes, J., & Lombardi, D. (2001). Human Resources Management for Health Care Organizations: A Strategic Approach. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Read More