NURS 6053 week 2 Assignment: Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue
Upskilling of the Healthcare Workforce: A Pertinent National Healthcare Issue Affecting Healthcare Organizations in the United States
There are many national healthcare stressors or issues affecting and impacting healthcare organizations all over the United States. All of them require addressing, although some are more urgent than others. The healthcare issue chosen in this case and one of the most significant stressors at the moment is the issue of upskilling of healthcare professionals. In this context, these would be the nurses working within the healthcare organization. According to Ross (2019), upskilling is the process of retraining employees so that they can acquire new skills for them to continue practicing in their field with ease NURS 6053 week 2 Assignment: Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue. Recent developments (particularly technological) within and around healthcare have necessitated the requirement that workers such as nurses possess skillsets that are upgraded. As a matter of fact, upskilling was identified as one of the six important healthcare issues in 2019 by PwC Health Research Institute (Ross, 2019). Currently, whole healthcare workforces are threatened with redundancy by technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) if they do not upskill. This includes nurses, who have traditionally not been involved with technology in the course of delivering nursing care (Teague, 2019). NURS 6053 week 2 Assignment: Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue
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The impact to my healthcare organization of upskilling as a healthcare issue is immense. This is because emerging healthcare technologies are becoming more and more mandatory in diagnostics, therapeutics, and nursing care. Nurses are therefore finding themselves short of skills to deliver quality patient care. This makes the organization set aside resources to retrain and upgrade the skills of its nurses so that they can cope with the emerging technological changes. This, however, is an inevitably resource-intensive undertaking fir the organization. In my organization, for instance, the policy makers have already had to set aside funds for training of the nurses and other healthcare staff on the use of the recently introduced EHR. NURS 6053 week 2 Assignment: Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue. Already, upskilling is happening in the healthcare sector with the now standard requirement for electronic health records or EHR. That said, the hallmark of upskilling in healthcare is predicted to be artificial intelligence-assisted telehealth interventions (Teague, 2019).
Some of the Areas of Concern
Healthcare organizations must invest in the abilities of their workforce if they are to have a competitive advantage over their peers. Not doing so will of course render the organization unable to compete effectively in an ever-changing healthcare marketplace. For instance, AI is more and more used in healthcare at the moment. What this means is that rising sophistication of emerging medical technologies is driving the need for upskilled health workers (Ross, 2019). The advent of digital therapeutics is the other area of concern. This is the treatment of disease using healthcare technologies to complement or replace traditional methods in disease management. The reality is that the clinical validation of these digital therapeutics products and connected medical devices is already being done by the Food and Drug Administration or FDA (Siwicki, 2019). This is an indicator of the urgency with which upskilling of healthcare staff like nurses should be treated. NURS 6053 week 2 Assignment: Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue.
Two Articles on the Upskilling of Healthcare Workers as a Healthcare Issue of Concern
Rimmer (2018) has posited that doctors have to undergo additional training in order to be successful at using emerging healthcare technologies. This particular article addresses doctors as the healthcare workers of concern, but it has been chosen because the very same situation is true for the nurses. This article talks of a report that states that training is needed by doctors in areas such as artificial intelligence algorithms, genomics, and digital literacy. As mentioned above, that is the same treatment that nurse practitioners should also receive. The article goes ahead to stress that training is a must for healthcare staff in order to cope with emerging healthcare technologies. NURS 6053 week 2 Assignment: Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue
Fralic (2013) on her part observes that the American healthcare system is undergoing change that is radical and monumental. She states, correctly, that with change there is need to re-strategise and re-organize to deliver quality healthcare. To do this, upskilling is a must to keep up with healthcare technologies. In other organizations in the healthcare sector, the same situation portends. They, too, are adopting the same approach of retraining to upskill nurses, doctors, and other health workers so that they can cope with the recent technological changes and continue to offer quality and safe patient care.
Strategies to Address the Organizational Impact of Upskilling
Since the reality of upskilling in healthcare organizations is inevitable, it is essential to develop strategies that aim at addressing the organizational impact of this issue. Three strategies are especially helpful. First, the organization needs to introduce new technologies gradually to allow for adaptation and training. Second, upskilling should be made a policy initiative that features in the organization’s goals. Third and last, upskilling should be properly budgeted for like any other expense if it is to succeed (Fralic, 2013; Rimmer, 2018; Teague, 2019). Under no circumstances should upskilling be considered as an afterthought. These strategies impact my organization positively in that they are geared towards giving the organization a competitive advantage. On the negative side, however, budgeting means that this strategy will consume resources that the organization must set aside.
References
Fralic, M.F. (2013). Upskilling for new-era healthcare: Lessons from high impact readings. Nurse Leader, 11(4). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mnl.2013.05.008
Rimmer, A. (2018). Upskill doctors to make the most of new medical technologies, report says. BMJ, 361(k2861). Doi: 10.1136/bmj.k2861
Ross, J.R. (2019). Upskilling could be an ideal treatment for healthcare’s employment woes. Retrieved 4 March 2020 from https://www.cardiovascularbusiness.com/topics/healthcare-economics/upskilling-could-be-ideal-rx-healthcares-employment-woes
Siwicki, B. (2019). Here are 6 major issues facing healthcare in 2019, according to PwC. Healthcare ITNews. Retrieved 4 March 2020 from https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/here-are-6-major-issues-facing-healthcare-2019-according-pwc
Teague, T. (2019). Will healthcare employees need to be upskilled or reskilled as technology advances? Retrieved 4 March 2020 from https://www.whatisbluesky.com/blog/will-healthcare-employees-need-to-be-upskilled-or-reskilled-as-technology-advances
Assignment: Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue
The Quadruple Aim provides broad categories of goals to pursue to maintain and improve healthcare. Within each goal are many issues that, if addressed successfully, may have a positive impact on outcomes. For example, healthcare leaders are being tasked to shift from an emphasis on disease management often provided in an acute care setting to health promotion and disease prevention delivered in primary care settings. Efforts in this area can have significant positive impacts by reducing the need for primary healthcare and by reducing the stress on the healthcare system. NURS 6053 week 2 Assignment: Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue
Changes in the industry only serve to stress what has always been true; namely, that the healthcare field has always faced significant challenges, and that goals to improve healthcare will always involve multiple stakeholders. This should not seem surprising given the circumstances. Indeed, when a growing population needs care, there are factors involved such as the demands of providing that care and the rising costs associated with healthcare. Generally, it is not surprising that the field of healthcare is an industry facing multifaceted issues that evolve over time.
In this module’s Discussion, you reviewed some healthcare issues/stressors and selected one for further review. For this Assignment, you will consider in more detail the healthcare issue/stressor you selected. You will also review research that addresses the issue/stressor and write a white paper to your organization’s leadership that addresses the issue/stressor you selected. NURS 6053 week 2 Assignment: Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue
To Prepare:
Review the national healthcare issues/stressors presented in the Resources and reflect on the national healthcare issue/stressor you selected for study.
Reflect on the feedback you received from your colleagues on your Discussion post for the national healthcare issue/stressor you selected.
Identify and review two additional scholarly resources (not included in the Resources for this module) that focus on change strategies implemented by healthcare organizations to address your selected national healthcare issue/stressor.
The Assignment (3-4 Pages):
Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue
Develop a 3- to 4-page paper, written to your organization’s leadership team, addressing your selected national healthcare issue/stressor and how it is impacting your work setting. Be sure to address the following:
Describe the national healthcare issue/stressor you selected and its impact on your organization. Use organizational data to quantify the impact (if necessary, seek assistance from leadership or appropriate stakeholders in your organization).
Provide a brief summary of the two articles you reviewed from outside resources on the national healthcare issue/stressor. Explain how the healthcare issue/stressor is being addressed in other organizations.
Summarize the strategies used to address the organizational impact of national healthcare issues/stressors presented in the scholarly resources you selected. Explain how they may impact your organization both positively and negatively. Be specific and provide examples. NURS 6053 week 2 Assignment: Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue