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.