Healthcare Workforce Shortage in Hospice - Essay Example

HOSPICE Workforce Shortage and location One of the important factors that affected in employing the workforce is the rising labor cost. The medical equipment system that need day-to-day maintenance has become much more expensive and if any part of it has to be replaced that adds more burden.In urban localities like London it is much more difficult to meet the requirements as everything is expensive. Every Hospice in England requires 2.6 million per year, which may look a lot in paper but in practical terms it doesn't meet the requirements.

Further more the costs of medicines make all the difference. For the pharmaceutical companies everyday is a field day, the medicines are sold like hotcakes. The requirement is such that even the Governments have to bow down to the corporate world.Five years ago average cost of pint of blood used to be around $160 and the current average cost has rise to around $200. And there is an estimation that in the coming years it will increase at a rate of 31% per annum.In terms of patients the number is increasing daily, but the one who has take care of them like Doctors and the Hospital staff is decreasing day by day.

More and more people are opting subjects that are not related to medical stream. Thus increasing the gap and resulting in the shortage of skilled medical staff.External/Internal factorsOne of the important reasons for people not choosing a career in medical stream is it requires more work and less pay.One feels that the job is very stressful and needs to put his/her concentration on the job completely. A slight negligence could be result a very serious situation. So some people think its better to lose a job in other sector than in Hospice because in latter you may lose job and endanger a patient's life for negligence.

So you are accountable for every patient you are assigned to.The scholarships awarded by the Universities are not enough and the recruitment is very limited. No one is going to recruit a medical student until and unless he/she has some experience. So students end up as interns or junior doctors while pursuing their Masters that is a very essential degree, without it no one is going to consider them for a job. So it's again work and work nothing but work, then how come an average person want to join in a medical stream.

This is one of the reasons that affecting the organizations like Hospice.According to Center for Health Workforce Studies School of Public Health - University at Albany in 1999, the Health Care employs 1 in 10 citizens i.e. only 10% of medical staff is their to look after the patients. There are many jobs for grabs for example look at the vacancies in the state of Kansa: OR Technician (16%), Nuclear Medicine Technologist (14%), Nursing Assistants (11%), Ultrasound Technologist (10%), Respiratory Technologist (10%), EMT (9%), Radiology Technician (8%), Clinical Nurse (RN) (6%), Licensed Practical Nurse (5%) and Pharmacist (5%).

ReferencesAHA. (2002). Help Wanted: The HospitalWorkforce ShortageCrisis. Retrieved February 22, 2009, from http://alliedhealth.kumc.edu/documents/presentations/sah_faculty_AHA_Sept26_2001.pdfLarry Beresford & Elisabeth Kubler-Ross. (1993). The Hospice Handbook: A Complete Guide. New York: Little, Brown and Company.Marcia Lattanzi-Licht , Galen W. Miller & John J. Mahoney. (1998). The Hospice Choice: In Pursuit of a Peaceful Death. Boston: Fireside.Shi, L. &Singh, D. (2004). Delivering health care in America: A systems approach.

Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett.