Impact of Globalization Issues

Global Nursing Shortage and Impact on Health Care Environment.

In recent years international healthcare organizations are more and more recognizing the impact of nursing shortages in every aspect of healthcare delivery. Many health care delivery systems are increasingly recognizing the threat of recurrent shortages of registered nurses impose on the health care system (Krall & Prus, 1995). This trend has become increasingly apparent from about the mid-1980s through the present, with concerns over nursing shortages leading many healthcare specialists to explore “the dynamics of the nursing labor market using neoclassical labor market analysis” (Krall & Prus, 67). Using this approach may suggest that chronic nursing shortages in the global market result from depressed wages and excess demand and that hospitals tend to command “monopsonistic power” when it comes to nursing management (Krall & Prus, 1995). Under this line of thinking, hospitals have traditionally resulted to substituting less skilled nursing personnel in place of RN’s when the need arises to cope with nursing shortages, potentially decreasing the quality of care afforded patients and customers of the hospitals.

One thing is certain; the future of the modern global healthcare organization is uncertain in light of chronic labor shortages among qualified nursing staff (Epstein, 1999). Many healthcare organizations are seeking alternative methods to provide patients with the quality care they need despite nursing shortages. Many are resorting to more emphasis on preventive care while others are branching out into the community in an attempt to identify community resources that may promote more support for patients in the healthcare environment (Epstein, 1999).

Heirich (1998) notes that it is vital that healthcare organizations rethink the health care delivery system in order to provide the innovation necessary to accommodate the rapidly changing world economy and the global healthcare environment.