According to Fried and Fottler (2015), the healthcare workforce planning has a vital role in empowering workers with appropriate skills, qualifications, and knowledge to solve the various challenges experienced in the healthcare industry. It, therefore, implies that an imbalance in the supply of workforce supply and demand will have an adverse impact on the quality of health services provided. As such, this will subsequently impose exorbitant expenditures on the overall healthcare system. In forecasting the dynamics between the supply and demand; the workforce model has two primary strengths. First, it draws its strength from the medical workforce (doctors) vs. the population ratio. It, therefore, becomes increasingly possible to estimate and gauge prospectively how the medical workforce can cater to the needs of the ever-rising population (VanVactor, 2015). Secondly, many have regarded the workforce model as a straight unidirectional entity. However, through integration with vital parameters such as geographical location and age as required, more meaning can be made out of it.
Although it has been proven to have advantages, it also has weaknesses. One of the primary flaws of the model is that other than the available data, it also depends on the presumption that the old data will serve an excellent job in forecasting or predicting future trends. In a bid to address the workforce surpluses or shortage, the most appropriate thing to do would be to connect the hospital and health centers in a network. As such, this will enable the transfer of the workers purely based on demand. It is generally regarded that in healthcare, human resource management is more complex compared to other fields or industries. One of the reasons to explain this is the fact that the outbreak of diseases can be difficult to predict. The healthcare industry lacks a central data source that could be used in forecasting (Cogin, Ng, &Lee, 2016). Thirdly, although the system primarily follows a demand-supply model, predicting the supply can be easier, unlike the demand.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
References
Cogin, J. A., Ng, J. L., & Lee, I. (2016). Controlling healthcare professionals: how human resource management influences job attitudes and operational efficiency. Human Resources for Health, 14(1), 55.
VanVactor, J. D. (2015). Healthcare succession management: are we ready? International Journal of Public Leadership, 11(2), 107-122.
