Applying Economic Decision Making To Health
Part of any health administrator's job is to make decisions about the allocation of resources specifically in terms of Supply and demand to meet patients’ healthcare needs. For this activity, you will be tasked with using economic principles and tools to determine which department – or departments - have the most urgent need for nurses.
Complete media activity, Applying Economic Decision Making to HealthLinks to an external site. | TranscriptLinks to an external site., and make a decision based on the information from Vila Health, and from interviews with various at the hospital. Use this information to write a 250-300 word summary in which you:
Identify the departments that have the largest nursing shortages.
Analyze the obstacles to recruiting nurses for the identified department.
Sample Solution
Instructions:
-
Gather Information:
- Complete the media activity "Applying Economic Decision Making to Health" and access the Transcript.
- Conduct interviews with various personnel at Vila Health, focusing on departments experiencing nursing shortages. Remember to ask questions about patient loads, staff turnover, workload distribution, job satisfaction, and recruitment challenges.
- Take detailed notes or record your interviews for later analysis.
Full Answer Section
-
Analyze Data:
- Review the information gathered from the media activity, transcript, and interviews. Organize your notes and identify key trends or patterns.
- Analyze vacancy rates, patient-to-nurse ratios, staff turnover rates, and factors influencing nurse satisfaction and recruitment within each department.
- Consider economic principles of supply and demand to understand the relationship between nursing needs and available resources.
-
Identify Shortages:
- Based on your analysis, determine which departments have the largest nursing shortages. Consider qualitative factors from interviews alongside quantitative data from the provided resources.
- Prioritize departments with the highest patient-to-nurse ratios, the most critical patient needs, and the most significant recruitment challenges.
-
Analyze Obstacles:
- Investigate the specific obstacles hindering nurse recruitment in the identified departments.
- Consider factors like salary and benefits, workload demands, work-life balance, career advancement opportunities, workplace culture, and job autonomy.
- Use information from your interviews and research to understand the perspectives of both current staff and potential recruits.
-
Recommendation and Strategy:
- Based on your analysis, develop recommendations to address the nursing shortage in the identified departments.
- Consider economic principles to propose cost-effective and sustainable solutions.
- Your recommendations might include improved wage and benefit packages, flexible work arrangements, mentorship programs, professional development opportunities, or improved staffing distribution strategies.