staff shortages in healthcare

The federal government predicts that by 2020, nurse and physician retirements will contribute to a shortage of approximately 24,000 doctors and nearly 1 million nurses. Health industry leaders are faced with the challenge of orchestrating care in an increasingly complex and converging healthcare labor market. Every healthcare institution has an ethical obligation to protect the safety of patients by providing staff in sufficient numbers and with adequate skills to deliver quality care. The ability of institutions to fulfill this obligation is compromised by the current and growing shortage of healthcare professionals and the amount of administrative time that can detract them from patient care. I feel like this issue can solved if Healthcare executives join forces with others in their service areas to address the problem of staff shortages. They should start collaborating to recruit qualified staff members together instead of competing with one another, as well as sharing staff members. For instance one hospital may have a RN shortage, the collaborating hospital could offer some qualified applicants that applied to their hospital. There are an abundance of applicants who are willing to work anywhere. Hospitals need to remember the common goal of healthcare is to serve the community as best as they can.

Whistle blowing in Healthcare: the right thing to do

Some may say that whistle blowers in healthcare are nothing but trouble makers, but I feel that they are courageous individuals. These are people who risk a lot to honor their Code of Ethics and alert someone to wrongdoing and neglect within a health care organization. Those who sit back and allow wrong doings to occur are the ones who should be frowned upon. Our society has become accustom to this unwritten law of not snitching on one another which is perceived as being a traitor. While I feel that the notion of whistle blowing is a courageous morale act, there are a lot of negative consequences that come from this act such as disillusionment, isolation, humiliation, formation of an "anti-you" group, loss of job, questioning of the whistleblower's mental health, vindictive tactics to make the individual's work more difficult and/or insignificant, assassination of character, and formal reprimand from superiors. Whistleblowers have been the driving force behind a series of recent major contemporary public inquiries that have clearly identified significant deficiencies in institutional healthcare quality and safety. In conclusion whistle blowing by health care professionals should not be considered morally wrong. If hospital authorities fail to take action over legitimate reported concerns, whistle blowing is likely to be the only means available to the individual to protect patients at risk of harm.

Healthcare's ethical obligation to patients treatment

It may seem that the hospital has a clear-cut ethical responsibility to offer free or reduced-cost care for all of those in need of medical attention, but in reality they don’t. Millions of uninsured Americans come into hospital wanting and expecting treatment for their illness, then at the sight of their medical bill become infuriated when the cost seems high. Contrary to peoples beliefs hospitals are a major business, and like any other business they strive from profit. If a hospital loses enough money through providing care for those who cannot afford it, it will eventually be forced to close. Ethically a hospital can not deny any person from medical treatment in the U.S insured or not, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be billed for it. Medical equipment, personnel, etc provided to a hospital needs to be funded. Allowing a hospital to operate in a way that allows treatment to go unpaid for jeopardizes the hospitals continuing existence and threatens to put hundreds out of employment. As a future hospital administrator I’m forced to look at this issue with a business point a view. I feel that it is impractical and even shortsighted to think that the hospital is acting unethically when they are only asking for the funds needed to treat the person.

Withholding treatment at the end of life.

When a patient isn’t capable of eating because he or she is ill, a healthcare provider is forced to make the decision of providing nutrition and hydration through intravenous hydration and a feeding tube. Healthcare providers usually don’t have a problem with starting this process, but withholding it at the end of life often becomes an issue that both physicians and family members face. Some people consider medically provided nutrition and hydration a basic human need, and subjecting the patient to a painful death through starvation and dehydration is immoral and barbaric. I feel that patients who aren’t going to recover from their illness should be taken off of feeding tubes by withholding the basic nutrients and hydration needed to live. Research studies have proven that forgoing nutrition and hydration near the end of life leads to greater patient comfort. In fact the study showed that these patients generally did not experience thirst or hunger through this process. People are getting feeding tubes confused with actual drink and food, which is not the case. Feeding tubes are small plastic tube passed through the nose or mouth into the stomach which provides the hydration and nutrients the patient needs to live. Now to me that sounds more barbaric.