NHS-FPX6008 Assessment 1 Identifying a Local Health Care Economic Issue

Health outcomes, at the organizational and national levels, depend on the practicality and productivity of health interventions. Central in health care economics is the efficiency of health interventions since it affects the overall nation’s health spending. In the past decade, health care spending has surged to $4.3 trillion in 2021 (CMS.gov, 2022). As a result, governments and stakeholders in the health industry should be aware of the issues hampering cost-effectiveness locally and nationally. The purpose of this paper is to identify a local health care economic issue, rationale, influence, and the gap contributing to the need to address it.

The Issue and Impacts on a Specific Population

Patients require adequate attention to receive comprehensive care. Unfortunately, inadequate staffing characterized by a nursing shortage is an issue of massive concern at all levels. Inadequate staffing implies a higher patient volume than the available workforce (Gaines, 2022). Impacts vary across populations. According to Waldrop and Gee (2022), the rural population is significantly affected by inadequate staffing, considering that rural settings account for two-thirds of the professional workforce shortage in primary care. Such a shortage expands the health gap between rural and urban populations and increases the health burden in rural areas.

Rationale for Choosing the Health Care Economics Issue

Inadequate staffing is a significant health economic issue that predicts health care management challenges if not adequately addressed. As Waldrop and Gee (2022) observed, the current U.S. health care system requires an additional 14,858 health care professionals to address the shortage across the country. The massive shortage implies a similar gap between the achieved and desirable health outcomes. Considering that rural people are significantly affected by this shortage, the problem of health disparities will persist as the shortage intensifies.

Impact on Work, Organization, Colleagues, and Community

Employee shortage significantly affects the nursing staff, workplaces, and communities. At a personal level, inadequate staffing increases the daily workload and is a leading cause of job dissatisfaction. Over time, it limits overall productivity. In the organization, inadequate staffing increases spending due to temporary staff hiring and implementing programs to help nurses overcome the detrimental effects of a workforce shortage. For instance, self-care programs to help nurses cope with burnout increase organizational expenses. To my colleagues, inadequate staffing causes nurse burnout, characterized by fatigue and emotional exhaustion (Shah et al., 2021). Its persistence reduces the work efficacy of nurses. At the community level, inadequate staffing hampers health care providers’ ability to address health inequities. The illness burden increases since patients do not get timely and sufficient care.

Gap Contributing to the Need to Address the Issue

Nurse turnover is the main gap that necessitates a prompt and practical response to inadequate staffing. It is a significant gap since nurse turnover, and staffing shortage have a bi-directional relationship. In this case, each influences the other. Marć et al. (2019) found that increasing rates of chronic illnesses due to aging are a leading cause of the nursing shortage. Failure to address this shortage will increase the overall illness burdens among individuals, health care organizations, and communities. Health care organizations will be overwhelmed, and their ability to provide competent care will dwindle over time.

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Conclusion

Health care organizations should design cost-effective interventions to save costs and enhance efficiency. However, this critical goal can only be achieved if issues that increase health care spending are adequately addressed. Inadequate staffing is a significant health care economics issue that affects outcomes at all levels. Nurse turnover and an increase in chronic health conditions are the leading causes. Rural populations are unfairly affected by inadequate staffing due to the shortage of primary care providers in rural areas.

References

CMS.gov. (2022). Historical. https://www.cms.gov/research-statistics-data-and-systems/statistics-trends-and-reports/nationalhealthexpenddata/nationalhealthaccountshistorical#:~:text=U.S.%20health%20care%20spending%20grew,For%20additional%20information%2C%20see%20below.

Gaines, K. (2022). What’s really behind the nursing shortage? 1,500 nurses share their stories. nurse.org. https://nurse.org/articles/nursing-shortage-study/

Marć, M., Bartosiewicz, A., Burzyńska, J., Chmiel, Z., & Januszewicz, P. (2019). A nursing shortage–a prospect of global and local policies. International Nursing Review, 66(1), 9-16. https://doi.org/10.1111/inr.12473

Shah, M. K., Gandrakota, N., Cimiotti, J. P., Ghose, N., Moore, M., & Ali, M. K. (2021). Prevalence of and factors associated with nurse burnout in the US. JAMA Network Open, 4(2), e2036469-e2036469. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.36469

Waldrop, T., & Gee, E. (2022). How states can expand health care access in rural communities. CAP. https://www.americanprogress.org/article/how-states-can-expand-health-care-access-in-rural-communities/