The Importance of the Health Workforce to Health Care

The current salary for a newly qualified Level 1.1 registered nurse is $63,770, at 1st July, 2015, subject to shift loading allowance and superannuation contributions (Government of Western Australia Department of Health, 2015). In Australia this wage will support one person comfortably. However, a recent Australian Nursing Federation survey suggests that the Australian nursing shortage is compounded by feelings of being undervalued and underpaid, stating “100 per cent of nurses said they believed governments undervalue the role of nurses in Australia” with many nurses considering leaving the nursing profession (Health Times, 2015, para.4). The pay structure in Malawi however, is in stark contrast. The current salary of a newly qualified nurse is K20,000 to K40,000 per month in government hospitals, comparable to AU$75 per month or AU$900 per year (Wage Indicator Foundation, 2015). This wage in Malawi will buy the bare necessities for a single person. In 2005, the Emergency Human Resource Program was initiated as a retention incentive to nurses in the public health care system (Global Fund Observer, 2014). This program, funded by the Global Fund and the U.K’s Department for International Development (DFID) ran over a six year period providing a 52% increase in salary to all nurses. More recent analysis of the program in 2008, has proven that it

However within some of those countries, there still exist health disparities due to income levels and people with lower earning power can have difficulty accessing healthcare services. Those people are yet better off than the ones in poor nations with very limited resources that must rely on international agencies and organizations such as the WHO and UNICEF among others, for some or most of their healthcare (Maurer and Smith, 2013, pp 124-126).

The challenges associated with the HRM i.e. human resource management includes the distribution and composition of health care work force. In addition to this, the issues related to the training of the work force are also a challenge for the human resource management. The relocation of the health workers is also a great concern. Moreover, the degree of economic development is also a great challenge that negatively impacts the level of performance shown by a health care organization. These challenges must be addressed properly in order to have an effective health care delivery anywhere in the world.

During my numerous trips to Nigeria to visit my extended family, I saw firsthand how international health disparities can affect communities. It is often challenging to make the highest standard of care available to all groups and individuals here, and I became increasingly motivated to devote myself to the mission of reducing health disparities in African countries. People in my family, regardless of societal class, suffered from various illnesses including HIV/AIDS, malaria, and polio because of poor access to quality healthcare services. My goal is to return to underserved communities in the United States and Nigeria after being armed with the training from the University of Michigan School of Information that will allow me make

The poor areas have many less doctors than the wealthy spots, even though the rural areas suffer from much harsher diseases on a larger scale. The countries either provide medical training for their own citizens or fund their training from somewhere else, but once the students have the skills to save lives, they move to different places for higher pay. This issue lies not only in South Africa, but in the entire continent. For example, for every Liberian doctor working in Liberia, there are two working abroad. Not only is there a shortage of doctors in general (averaging about 1.15 doctors for every 1,000 people in sub-Saharan Africa) but a shortage of nurses and midwives. Over two-thirds of mothers in Africa have no health professionals to guide them through hardships regarding pregnancy and childbirth, causing Africa alone to be responsible for over one half of the world’s infant and maternal

In recent years, Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone have launched major healthcare initiatives in order to expand and improve access to services. However, the state of health systems for the last 20 years is difficult to overcome. Liberia and Sierra Leone were each embroiled in civil wars until the mid-2000s. Porous borders and a shared diamond belt meant that their conflicts were often shared, as political strife, violence, looting, armed forces, and refugees moved to neighboring countries. , Guinea in particular was on the receiving end of refugees. During that time in all three countries, health systems were uniformly poor, with under-staffed and under-resourced facilities, significant health disparities, and almost no systematic infectious disease surveillance or control.

In addition to practicing medicine, I aspire to dedicate myself to improving access to healthcare. Acquiring the skills to practice clinical medicine is fruitful when patients are able to receive the needed care, as demonstrated by JD’s case. I gained a deeper understanding of the challenges in accessing healthcare internationally through the research I conducted in

“Hey I’m going to need you to stay over a few extra hours” is something that most workers hear more often than not. Working long shifts without a break can drain you mentally and physically. There are many cases of workplace bullying. There are also various amounts of websites dedicated to helping victims of workplace bullying. A personal interview with Amber Mann, a 20-year-old coworker of mine at Sunset Village Retirement Homes, talked about how poor treatment at work affects how she perseveres through the grueling hours of a horrible work week. How you get treated at work can affect how you work, your mood and your all around feelings of being there.

There is no universal fix to the complexities of each country and what they face with regards to their health care needs. Health care is a fundamental need among all peoples. Each country will have to work on solving the disparities that exist in access of care, funding of care, and availability of care. Because we now find ourselves facing the dilemma of fighting many infectious diseases once thought to be under control, we must work with all countries around the world. Every country faces the potential of an outbreak of a disease like SARS or a terrorism strike involving biological or chemical agents. Global initiatives to improve the health of nations across the board regardless of resources in these nations will benefit all. We need to continue with consistent and comprehensive measures to ensure health equity to all (Williams & Torrens, 2010).

The Liberian Government, through the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (MoHSW), the caretaker of the nation’s health services and advocate for children’s health and welfare has prioritized improving its health sector. However, the colossal task of bringing the health system back to pre-civil war years has become a formidable challenge. Besides, the limitation of services to both the rural and urban poor, the health system lacks trained medical personnel, including technicians, nurses and doctors (Bertelsmann Stiftung, BTI. 2016).

The residents of Africa are suffering from preventable, treatable, and fatal diseases everyday at a higher rate compared to developed countries. The healthcare crisis in Africa is the primary cause of all these deaths, and includes inefficient healthcare systems. Consequently, African's inefficient healthcare systems results in poor delivery of care and a shortage of health professionals. The healthcare crisis in Africa is a current issue impacting the lives of many African's who don't have the same access to resources as developed countries such as the United States. These resources can save the lives of many African's dying of preventable and curable disease, and understanding why the African continent has little access to them

Recognition of healthcare systems globally in both high and low income areas is a key component to understanding the health of each country overall. Each country can only function and be as strong as the weakest country due to communicable diseases that spread worldwide. As technology advances so do the pathogens that enter each individual's body. In the past pathogens were contained to their country of origin and were not easily spread but in today’s society they can travel within in a matter of hours or minutes. Understanding each healthcare system allows world leaders and healthcare workers to determine changes that need to be made in order to eliminate health disparities and the spread of various communicable diseases. Analyzing and

As many countries currently experience a shortage of qualified health workers , the loss of any health worker-especially doctors and nurses-has serious ramifications for the health of people in that country. Often it's these health workers who work longer hours, whose workplaces have fewer resources than urban health centers, and where they can feel most isolated. Insuring health workers feel safe at their job is also important to motivation, productivity and their decision to remain at work. Health worker retention is critical for health system performance and a key problem is how best to motivate and retain health workers. There are a growing number of studies which explore the links between incentives, motivation and retention of health

Shortage of healthcare workers in US is a well-known phenomenon. With the baby-boomer generation coming to its retirement the acute shortage of talented workforce is a major challenge before the US health care. There are a number of trends in health care that are currently affecting the workforce dynamics. The use of technology in health care has increased over time and increasingly health care organizations are adopting new technologies to make their services better. It is an important trend that has also affected the health care workforce. Increased use of Information Technology in the health care organizations has led to related changes in the composition of the workforce too. But not just this, there are also a number of other

Worldwide, approximately 1.3 billion people do not have access to affordable and efficient healthcare and out of those who have access, almost 170 million are forced to spend around 40 % of their income on medical treatment (Asante et al,2016).In low and middle income countries (LMICs), the major constraint to the access of healthcare is financial burden, where out-of-pocket payments (OPP) contribute to approximately 50 % of total health expenditure (WHO, 2010). As a result, in these countries there is high probability of many households being pushed into poverty due to high medical expenses (McIntyre,2006).The matter of concern in LMICS is that poor and disadvantaged groups of population do not have access to adequate quality of healthcare.For instance, according to WHO (2010) up to 20 % of women in rich population are more likely to have a birth attended by skilled health worker than a poor woman. Therefore, taking an action to address health inequities faced in these countries would save up to 700,000 women.