Understaffing: Is Management Ignorant of the Problem? - Essay Sample

Introduction

Understaffing is a problem in many professional workplace, particularly in healthcare where care may be compromised because of inadequate health care personnel (Aloini, Cannavacciuolo, et al., 2018) In many occasions, people find themselves in a situation where there is no enough staff to carry out the duties of the organization. However when problems occur, it is important to ask whether the management is aware of the situation or are they ignorant about what is happening in their faculty. Nevertheless, the problem of understaffing can be solved by implementing an informatics or technology solution. The paper explores the informatics and technological technics that can be applied to ensure that the problem of understaffing in healthcare is controlled.

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The primary stage is to recognize that you are dangerously understaffed. Nurses, unfortunately, have to accept that some understaffing is inevitable. The situation should not be allowed, but that is the truth. Nurses sometimes take leave, leading to increased patient loadings for the remaining nurses. One of the solutions could be adopting on-call nurses in healthcare; however, many facilities are not willing to spend on nurses to come in on-call to fill the gap when there is understaffing. Then the problem of understaffing will still be there even if every nurse shows up. A situation where there are many patients than nurses in healthcare is an indication that the problem of understaffing exists.

After identifying that the problem exists, it is essential to adopt the new technology and informatics to solve the situation. For instance, Amazon's Echo devices and the Alexa app plays an important role in solving the problem of understaffing in modern hospitals (Ho, Guo & Vogel, 2019). The tools are digital voice assistant that is capable of keeping track of patient's health records as well as upcoming doctors' appointments. The devices are unique in that they are capable of even requesting medication refills from the pharmacy or raise the alarm in case of an emergency.

Telemedicine is another informatics technology that can help to cut down the cost of trips that doctors and nurses spend on daily. Currently, virtual video consultations are widely used in the United States (Ho, Guo & Vogel, 2019). Some health plans such as Aetna, UnitedHealth, and blue cross are now offering online visits through provider networks such as doctor on demand, now clinic or American Well (Ho, Guo & Vogel, 2019). The technology provides a system where patients can meet their doctors online without leaving their homes or nursing home.

Some providers heavily depend on technology such as real-time location system (RTLS) (Farsjo, Kluge & Moen, 2019). It is a platform that enables nurses to find the nearest that can offer types of equipment such as life-saving that patients in distress may need. In nursing homes, RTLS assist doctors in locating places with troubled patients and helpful in determining the nearest location where the equipment need is found for example, wheelchairs and crash car.The use of artificial intelligence also assists in solving the problem of understaffing. In Japan, for example, where the issue of understaffing in health facilities has reached a higher proportion than in the United States, the government was forced to adopt care robots as a solution (Metcalf, Wang & Habermann, 2018). In Japan, robots relieve human beings from the burden on doctor's shoulders to; lift and move patients. Some robots are equipped with sensors that alert the staff when a resident is in danger of falling out of the bed.

Adoption of informatics technology and other healthcare technology can help the nursing society improve and regain its credibility. However, empathy makes it difficult to replace doctors and help patients recover faster. In some ways, technology can relieve doctors of the duties that they would have done so that they can attend to more patients in more critical conditions. Health care facilities should, therefore, adopt these technologies to help solve the problem of understaffing in the heal care centers.

References

Aloini, D., Cannavacciuolo, L., Gitto, S., Lettieri, E., Malighetti, P., & Visintin, F. (2018). Evidence-Based Management for Performance Improvement in HealthCare. Management Decision, 56(10), 2063-2068. Retrieved from: https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/full/10.1108/MD-10-2018-004

Farsjo, C., Kluge, A., & Moen, A. (2019). Using a tablet application about nutrition in home care-Experiences and perspectives of healthcare professionals. Health & social care in the community, 27(3), 683-692. Retrieved from: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/

Ho, S. Y., Guo, X., & Vogel, D. (2019). Opportunities and Challenges in Healthcare Information Systems Research: Caring for Patients with Chronic Conditions. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 44(1), 39. Retrieved from: https://aisel.aisnet.org/cais/vol44/iss1/39/

Metcalf, A. Y., Wang, Y., & Habermann, M. (2018). Hospital unit understaffing and missed treatments: primary evidence. Management Decision, 56(10), 2273-2286. Retrieved from: https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/MD-09-2017-0908