Dealing with the Staff Shortage in Nursing - Essay Example

In many nations, medical organizations such as hospitals have to deal with considerable challenges such as staffing shortages, improving the quality of patient care, and the need to be cost-effective. One way to deal with the problem of staff shortages is by using suggestions from research-based approaches.

Benefits of Research-Based Solutions
Research-based solutions are beneficial because they take into account the most recent advancements in the medical field in question while also coming up with practical solutions on how to confront the existing problem. A good example of this is the use of virtual doctor’s assistants in order to leave more registered nurses free to perform the existing duties. Virtual assistants will not just be helpful in ensuring that a lot of medical personnel are liberated to fulfill other duties, but will also contribute towards the streamlining of the use of information technology in various respects by medical organizations. Many hospitals still struggle to implement electronic records that function well. Virtual assistants will help in ensuring that there is better tracking of the records of patients’ health every day. This will in turn reduce the number of doctor visits on a daily basis, empower the patients in terms of their healthcare, and reduce the incidence of serious medical problems.

The use of virtual assistants is not a reality in many parts of the world and its practicality is still doubted by many healthcare experts (LittleJohn, Campbell, Collins-McNeil, & Khayile, 2012). In addition, there is not much research that has been conducted to substantiate the claims that this is one subject that can help in dealing with staff shortages among other problems. However, it is evident that the use of virtual assistants has more potential benefits than any other solution to date. A virtual assistant will even be able to monitor doctor prescriptions, reducing the incidence of visits to the doctor and thus saving costs.

Conclusion
In recent times, health-related developments such as health monitoring and data tracking have begun to be accepted in the mainstream as viable health care solutions. Virtual assistants also need to begin being seriously considered as a serious answer to the majority of challenges being experienced in the healthcare sector. Medical practitioners need to be free to cater to patients without having to rush through treatments in order to perform other duties such as writing or checking prescriptions. The technology that is required to create virtual assistants is already existent; it is only the national and health-care related organizational leaders who have to be compelled to seriously consider this option for it to become a reality. Read More