Annotated Bibliography On Factors Affecting Health Care Industry Workforce

Introduction

The chosen industry is health care and the articles that are chosen, discusses on the impact of various health care related factors on the health care system. The general employee retention issues due to the job stress, dissatisfaction along with the absence of proper training and guidance in the health care systems are causing certain amount of vulnerability which is discussed in the articles. The articles specifies the factors affecting the productivity and the quality in the health care industry. The general causes of concern causing genuine harm to the patients in the health care industry is also discussed in details in the articles.

Article 1

Asegid, A., Belachew, T., & Yimam, E. (2014). Factors influencing job satisfaction and anticipated turnover among nurses in Sidama zone public health facilities, South Ethiopia. Nursing research and practice, 2014.

Job Satisfaction, Turnover

The article focuses on the factors affecting the satisfaction among the nurses and the anticipation of the turnover in Sidama Zone Public Health Facilities, South Ethiopia. The turnover of the workforce is a genuine concern in the health care industry as the separation of the qualified employees from the industry will create significant vacancy in the operation which will have an adverse effect in serving the customers. Hence the assessment of the factors that are influencing the separation is much needed and the article served that need in perfect manner. The methodology was basically a cross sectional study design which was carried out on 278 number of nurses in the Sidama zone public health facilities by means of both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection for a duration of 25 days starting from 12^th May to 5^th June of 2010. The study consisted of interviews of 242 nurses with a response rate of 87% and that included 68.6% of female participants. The average of the participants was 28 for both the genders. The study observed that the satisfaction with the working environment and the group cohesion along with the other factors like professional training, recognition of the work were major factors in the turnover in the workforce. The managerial decision makers of the organization must consider their decision of focusing on the modification of the working environment rather than trying to modify the retention policy of the nurses on the basis of the experience.

The research is able to help my study with the findings like the proper training and group engagement activities which are instrumental for the health care industry as those are able to describe the major reasons and their solution in order to answer the much needed query regarding the turnover of the employees. The employee retention is a major concern in the health care industry and with the increasing pressure of the patients, this will only increase. In this sort of situation the managerial position holders of the organization need to come up with a plan to stop this as much as possible this will reduce the effective productivity of the organization. The article is a research in that context trying to find out the factors which are influencing the turnover. The article was able to find out the implications of the factors like improving working environment, group cohesion as the parameters of job satisfaction. With the increasing pressure of patients on the health care industry, the workforce is in major need to modify relation between the employees in order to divide the pressure among the entire workforce and to motivate their employees by the proper recognition of their work in order to eradicate the dissatisfaction of the employees to extract more productivity.

Article 2

Lasala, K. (2017). Nursing workforce issues in rural and urban settings: Looking at the difference in recruitment, retention and distribution. Online Journal of Rural Nursing and Health Care, 1(1), 8-24.

Nursing workforce Recruitment, retention, distribution.

The general motive behind the research is to examine the factors relating to the nursing workforce recruitment, retention and distribution. The study generally focuses on the issues that are developed in the management regarding the retention of the employees in the rural health care settings. The general problem of the health care industry in the rural health setting is the shortcomings in the infrastructure. That relates to a considerable number of employees leaving the workforce. The paper also acknowledges the presence of the emotional factors as the triggers of the employees’ separation from the workforce. The methodology for the research was a survey in written format on 131 rural and urban nursing administrators. The response rate was 57% and evaluation of the open-ended and quantitative responses regarding the strategies and barriers of the recruitment and retention and the specific personnel numbers were observed. The findings observed the application of the full time equivalency formula in producing the statistics of lesser number of current vacancy in the rural setting but it also described that when the major vacancy arises, the rural setting is observed to have the larger impact of it in the form of significant vacancy.

The article is produced significant help to my study as it was able to answer the reasons behind the apathy of the working employees in the rural setting along with the effect of the infrastructural change in retaining the employees. The general issues of the distribution of the employees and the recruitment along with the retention of the employees have tremendous effect on the health care industry and poses great significance in providing quality to their services. The article relates to the general gap in the infrastructure of the rural healthcare settings which somehow demoralizes the employees in producing quality work. The genuine problem of these settings in serving critically ill patients is a major concern for the health care industry. The dissatisfaction which generates among the working individuals due to this sort of unavailability in serving the people has a major impact on the decision of the employees to leave their job. The article also admits the possibility of the emotional factors like homesickness as a genuine threat in retaining the employees. The article generally describes the format of the major changes in the health care industry regarding the infrastructural changes largely depends on the local economies and the occupational foundations and the distribution, recruitment and the retention issues of the health care industry are majorly affected by this.

Article 3

James, J. T. (2013). A new, evidence-based estimate of patient harms associated with hospital care. Journal of patient safety, 9(3), 122-128.

Patient harm, preventable adverse events, transparency, patient centred care, Global trigger tools, medical errors.

The general purpose of the research is to analyse the number of patients that are dying due to the medical errors in America. The medical errors are a significant reason behind the number of increased deaths in the country. The reasons behind the errors can be considered as the immense work pressure on the workforce in the health care industry. The casual and general approach of the health care employees regarding the production of specialized service to the patients is one of the major concern for the industry which is described as a significant source of the vulnerability. The Institute of Medicine produced an estimation of 98000 people died each year due to the medical errors from the detailed analysis of the records of the patients treated in New York hospitals but the study was conducted almost 30 years ago. So to get the current fact and figures along with the analysis, this research was initiated. The methodology was a literature review which was able to identify 4 different studies which used the Global Trigger Tool to show the evidence in the medical reports in the form of abnormal laboratory reports or medication stop orders. The combined findings of the 4 different studies was able to produce the lower limit of the deaths as 210000 per year relating to the preventable harms in the hospital. However the limitations of the studies regarding the incapability of the tool or the exactness of the medical reports were not able to describe the approximate figure of 400000 per year.   

It is significantly important to analyse the factors behind the increasing deaths and the research is also able to provide the account of human errors like casual approach on emergency cases, lapses in concentration and lack of proper or appropriate functioning while providing service, which are preventable from the part of the working individuals. This is important in context of the analysis of the errors in the health care industry.  The health care industry relates to considerable amount of emergency and the service that they provide generally cannot afford to be faulty as the loss in that case will be huge and cannot be fulfilled. In this sort of situation the exactness of the service is significantly demanded. The study was able to analyse the degree of imperfection in the service of the concerned professionals. The analysis is much needed in order to get the reasons of these faults so that they can be rectified in order to serve the customers with the desired degree of perfection. The research is able to describe the reasons of these faults like the faulty medical reports of the patients. In this case the research enables the organization to check their instruments and calibrate them if required so that the abnormality gets reduced and the doctors be able to judge the illness of the patient on the basis of correct evidence.

Article 4

West, M. A., & Lyubovnikova, J. (2013). Illusions of team working in health care. Journal of health organization and management, 27(1), 134-142.

Teams, Team work, Team effectiveness, Collaboration, Team Processes, Patient safety, errors.

Health care industry is liable to serve the customers in emergency basis and in that case the team work is significantly important for the effective service. The general impacts that the health care industry has on the employees is highly demanding. As the people in need of medical attention cannot be refused, the pressure of the immense workload keeps getting increased. Here exists the importance of the team. The team work enables the organization to divide the increased pressure among the entire workforce which helps the employees to have a certain share of the pressure but that lies in their reach. The research focuses on the several features of the team work which have considerable impact on the effectiveness of team in the context of the health care industry. The methodology is basically a literature from the management of the health services and the organizational behaviour in order to provide an analysis on the current picture of the healthcare teams. The findings describes that factors like organizational support, team task or the team structure are significantly affecting the objective of the team and leadership. These are observed to influence the patient and staff end results.

The findings and the conclusion of the research is able to help my study in accounting the effect of a good working environment on the employees along with the effect of a helpful team on greater productivity of the healthcare industry. As mentioned above the value of the team in the healthcare system is understandable. But the structure of the team and the effectiveness of the team in practical cases differ considerably. The paper provides a perfect analysis of the characteristics of the team and the effectiveness of the team so that the factors of the deflection and the effective aspects of the team in recovery of them get acknowledged. The general advantages of the proper team selection and the perfection in the structure of the team has immense impact on the satisfactory accomplishment of the objectives of the organization. The availability of different individuals with the variety of competences makes a team more flexible in order to achieve their goals even in the adverse condition. The organizational support in the form of the help from the team members plays a crucial role in not only achieving the collective goals but also in increasing the satisfaction of the employees regarding the completion of the tasks. The concept of fruitful team work helps the organization in order to get a more employee friendly and productive environment. With these sorts of inventions in the context of health care, the research serves a greater need of increased team effectiveness.

Article 5

Das, B. L., & Baruah, M. (2013). Employee retention: A review of literature. Journal of Business and Management, 14(2), 8-16.

Human Resources, Employee retention, Job satisfaction, Literature

The purpose of the study is to obtain the effect of the human resources in the health care industry. The human resource is significantly important for any organization in order to conduct their business in a smooth way. The general specialities of the human resource department provide a competitive advantage to the concerned organization. The health care industry similar to other industries significantly depends on the ability of its workforce in order to enable them in serving their customers in a more efficient manner. The general threat that the health care organizations are facing in modern generation is the ability to retain them rather than managing them. The study generally focuses on the factors that are influencing the workforce to leave their jobs. The study is conducted to observe the effect of the various researches that have been done in the sector of employee retention. The study also describes the relation between the various factors affecting the interest of the employees to stay with the job satisfaction. The methodology of the study is a descriptive analysis on the secondary data only in the form of books and research journals. The findings of the study is basically the factors like compensation, reward, recognition, decision making participation, work environment, work-life imbalance as the influencing factors.

The article is able to strengthen my study as it was able produce the major reasons like job stress or job dissatisfaction in the form of the findings of it, responsible for the separation between the organization and the employees in the analysis of the employee retention. The other factors which will be influencing the will of the employees to continue is also a need of my study and the article was able to answer them by the concept of job satisfaction by the introduction of the employee engagement programs. The study in the healthcare industry is significantly essential because the competitive market in the health care industry is observing a certain and rapid decrease in the skilled and efficient employees. The general demand of the health care service is significantly increasing with the increment in the population. Hence it is highly important for the organizations to be able to field efficient and sufficient employees in order to serve better. The study is able to describe the factors that are influencing the intention of the employees in order to be committed to their work. The factor wage is incredibly influential along with the rewards and recognition for their good work.

This motivates the employees in delivering quality work. Promotion to higher ranks and participation in the decision making are able to increase the responsibility of the employees in the organization. The scope of productive training is a major triggering factor for the employees in order to grow more as an efficient employee. Leadership in the workplace is also an important feature as good and co-operative leadership will be able to motivate the employees in a significant manner. The trust of employees in the organization regarding their livelihood is also crucial in the retention of the employees.