Manpower Shortage in Healthcare Sector - Essay Example

Implementation of the Affordable Care Act promises an increase in demand for care services but no measure has been established to increase supply, through a number of nurses and physicians. This identifies labor shortage in the nursing profession that this paper discusses, with a perspective that more accurate measures of nursing levels, than nursing ratios, exist. Manpower shortage defines a condition of a limited number of qualified persons to meet demand level in an economy, at a time, and at any cost.

Its measure is however complex, passive, and requires consideration of many macroeconomic factors. The staffing ratio is one of the recommended strategies for staffing in nursing and involves the establishment of the minimum nurse to patient ratio that a facility should ensure at all times. Staffing ratio, however, has the limitation of variability in the work environment that undermines compliance at all times and employee turnover, changes in demographic factors, and surge in care needs due to calamities are examples (Mason, Leavitt, & Chaffee 410- 412).

The trend model is an alternative to the staffing ratio. It involves analysis of macroeconomic factors such as trends in the economy, the trend in population size, workforce output among care personnel, and care services that non-physician clinicians offer (Cooper, Getzen, McKee, & Laud 142). Consequently, alternative methods to the determination of staffing levels such as the trend model are more accurate.