Quality Improvement Initiative: Recruiting Healthcare Workers
Quality Improvement Initiative: Recruiting Healthcare Workers
Name
Institution
The Purpose of the Quality Improvement Initiative
Following the outbreak of Covid-19, Emergency Departments in various hospitals are overstrained, or at least are expected to overstrain in due course. In the past 3 three months, the number patients who need emergency services has skyrocketed with higher mortality. As of 10th April 2020, there were 1,697,255 cases of Covid-19 with 102,659 deaths across the world. Out of this, the United States accounts for nearly 30% of the total cases and 18% of the total deaths (Worldometers, 2020). According to Anthony Fauci, the President’s top medical advisor, it is predicted that the mortality emanating from the Covid-19 could range between 100,000-200,000 before it is fully contained. This is utterly deliberating on the medical facilities, especially the emergency facilities. As such, the department of may require to be armored properly for the current and the projected hard times ahead. One of the of the quality improvement initiative that could go a long way in helping both the patients and the medical personnel, is revising the staffing patterns to recruit more workers.
Recruiting more health workers will reduce the volume of patients handled by each healthcare provider. This will result in efficiency in services delivery and reduce chances of health care workers getting infected. Despite being armored with personal protective equipment, whose supply is quite low, the number of healthcare workers getting infected is genuinely alarming. This could be partially associated with healthcare workers handling too many cases, and perhaps getting overly exhausted resulting in mistakes that put them in higher risk of getting the disease. Based on empirical researches, fatigue reduces concentration and the general productivity of workers (Ricci, 2007).
Target Population
Covid-19 is generally a threat to the human race. Even though the elderly and people with compromised immunity systems are at higher risks of getting infected and succumbing, the chances of the rest of the people getting infected and succumbing to Covid-19 cannot be overlooked. The government through its various agencies should come in and try all it can to salvage the situation. As such, management of public and private institutions should not overlook their contribution to curb the menace. This includes the management of medical facilities.
Benefits of Recruiting More Health Workers
It is irrefutable that working hard is important in any kind of job. Specifically, healthcare service providers are required to work hard because a prosperous nation requires a healthy community. However, the physical and mental health of the health workers is utterly important. Overworking does not only reduce the productivity of workers, but also increases chances of developing health problems. According to Ke (2012), overworking could even result to death. Unfortunately, this is what the Covid-19 is subjecting the health workers to. Recruiting more health workers could help in alleviating the possible debilitating impacts of Covid-19 such as deaths and risky health conditions associated with too much stress at work places such as stroke. An increment in the number of health workers, especially at such times like now benefits the whole community.
Interprofessional Collaboration Required to Recruit More Health Workers
Recruiting competent healthcare staff calls for collaborative efforts to ensure that rogue health workers do not take advantage of the crisis facing the medical field to set their feet into the medical arena. Therefore, the recruitment in this case should not be any different from the usual recruitment process. Specifically, all the candidates should meet the job descriptions depending on the positions they apply for. For instance, a nurse has to have minimum educational specifications, certain level of experience and all the necessary certifications. There, the facilities’ management has to liaise with recruiting officers to vet for the desired personel.
Budget Justification
Recruiting new health workers will increase the organization’s expenditures. On average, a male health worker earns approximately $25.46 per hour, while the female ones earn approximately $19.44 per hour (Himmelstein and Venkataramani, 2019). The average American works for approximately 35 hours per week. However, due to the coronavirus, they are having to work up to more than 12 hours in 24 hours for seven days a week. This means that their workload has increased remarkably. Assuming a nurse earns $22.17 per hour and works 12 hours for 5 days a week, his dues amount to $1,328.4. Through proper infrastructural support, the medical facilities should be able to afford that. However, for the wellbeing of these workers, a tactical approach of recruiting more workers is more prudent than increasing the working hours per the already available workers. As aforementioned, this may increase the facilities’ expenditure significantly but the end justifies the means. The medical field is already overwhelmed by a terrible crisis, and spending on the short-time could have long-term benefits.
Evaluating the Recruitment of Health Workers
Since the proposed quality improvement initiative is on small scale, that is, covers a small jurisdiction, the recruitment process and its evaluation should be an internal affair. Concisely, adoption of a microsystem to evaluate the progress of the initiative could be more effective than complex system. This is because the based on the current situation in the medical field, it is logical to hypothesize that increasing the number of healthcare workers will lead to reduction of workload per worker, and also increase patients’ satisfaction. However, before the adoption and implementation of the initiative, it is appropriate to question whether there is really any problem, how compatible the proposed initiative is to the identified problem and the technical merit of the execution of the project.
References
Himmelstein, K. E., & Venkataramani, A. S. (2019). Economic Vulnerability Among US Female Health Care Workers: Potential Impact of a $15-per-Hour Minimum Wage. American journal of public health, 109(2), 198-205.
Ke, D. S. (2012). Overwork, stroke, and karoshi-death from overwork. Acta Neurol Taiwan, 21(2), 54-9.
Ricci, J. A., Chee, E., Lorandeau, A. L., & Berger, J. (2007). Fatigue in the US workforce: prevalence and implications for lost productive work time. Journal of occupational and environmental medicine, 49(1), 1-10.
Worldometers, (n.d). Confirmed Cases and Deaths by Country, Territory, or Conveyance. Retrieved from https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/?