Nursing Workforce in South Korea and UK - Assignment Example

 A comparison of nursing workforce in the Korea and UK Contents 1. Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………...1 2. Overview of the nursing workforce situation in S Korea 4 2.1 Proposed changes to the nursing workforce structure…………………………….5 2.2 Ratio of the nursing workforce by different types of medical facilities …………5 2.3 The demand of the nursing workforce …………...……………………………... 6 2.4 The supply of the nursing workforce……………………………………………. 6 2.5 Nurses’ turnover rate …………………………………………………………….7 3. Overview of the nursing workforce situation in UK 3.1 Proposed changes to the nursing workforce structure…………………………….7 3.2 Ratio of the nursing workforce by different types of medical facilities ………… 8 3.3 The demand of the nursing workforce …………...…………………………….....9 3.4 The supply of the nursing workforce……………………………………………. .9 3.5 Nurses’ turnover rate ……………………………………………………………..9 4. Comparison and Contrast between two countries 4.1 Comparison two countries ………………………………………………………..10 4.2 Contrast two countries ……………………………………………………………10 4.3 Focus on turnover rate based on expectation theory………………………………11 5. Recommendations & Implication………………………………………….11 6. Conclusion References ………………………………………………………………………………...…13 1. Introduction Since the early beginning of human history, the medical industry has been closely related to human society. Among the medical industry, the nursing status has been gradually growing which means that the nursing workforce has pivotal roles in the medical sector. Therefore, number of countries revised their system to manage their nursing workforce structure. However, most of the countries have not established efficient nursing workforce system; moreover, they have problems with severer shortage of nurse. For example, while South Korea, where I worked in a hospital as a nurse, has high level of medical service, South Korea has a high turnover rate of nursing workforce also (Korean Hospital Nurse Association, 2012). At the time when populations are ageing, this is part of a workforce dynamic influencing on labour markets more generally, but it is one which is particularly apparent in nursing (Boumans et al., 2008). For this reason, the nursing workforce is more important in healthcare part, and it is necessary to reform. The purpose of this assignment is to compare and contrast of nursing workforce of UK and South Korea, moreover, this assignment suggests of recommendations as to future priorities for managing that aspect of their health care system. The range of contents is limited to subject, object, and registration and management of health care system in South Korea and UK because a standard model of nurse workforce can be different depending on the perspectives. In addition, it is priority whether there are academic researches related to workforce of nurse since 2000 when it comes to choices of nations because past academic research before 2000 is relatively less valuable to suggest a recommendation for workforce of nursing. Assignment will be carried on by collecting the secondary data by literature review and descriptive, and applied is a comparative approach which will be concurrent and accounts for the methodology. Meanwhile, depending on the perspectives, suggestion of a workforce of nursing of health care system can be different. In order to maintain objectivity, this study will be conducted based on the literature reviews. 2. Overview of the nursing workforce situation in S Korea Health care demand in Korea has been on the rise owing to the improved living standards due to the socioeconomic development that has taken centre stage. In addition, in the year 1989, Korea saw a system of national health insurance being introduced. A primary concern is meeting this rising demand by providing healthcare professionals in numbers which are adequate. The ministry of health and welfare in 1998 discovered that of 112,000 licenced nurses, only sixty per cent received employment in health care services. The low employment rate could be an indication of a surplus of nurses. That, however, is not the case because institutions have reported a shortage in the nursing workforce (Hyeoun-ae and Eunyong 2001). A study to determine the supply and demand of nurses in Korea by 2015 took place recently. Prediction of the supply was done using a baseline project which used an assumption that the age structure of the nurses in current use remains the same. The basic employed of the past trend which is inclusive of losses and increments before the year 1996 for the five-year interval projections up to the year 2015. Predictions of the demand for the nurses in health care institutions were also there but the methodology used was a derivative method. The National Medical Insurance System provided the statistics that were helpful in the study (Hyeoun-ae and Eunyong 2001). These methods showed that 282,000 nurses will be available by the year 2015. When the index from the Patients’ survey is used to project the demand, the projected demand for nurses lies at 147,000. It lands at 215,000 when the index obtained from the Medical Law Standard is utilized. These results clearly show an oversupply of nurses is something to be expected by 2015 if the present productivity index remains constant. However, dissatisfaction with the current productivity index has been expressed by both the patients and nurses sides. The patients do not like the quality of health care services whereas the contentment of the nurses with the quality of working conditions, and this leads to lower quality health care services is not there. 2.1 Proposed changes to the nursing workforce structure i. Workplace strategies: the most commonly advised is the mandatory overtime to curb nurse shortage effects. This method will help reduce the shortage Impacts of nurses as most shifts will take place adequately. However, this method has negative effects on the quality of health care services. This is because the nurses will be overworked, and this will mean high turnover rates as nurses leave their jobs. With increased turnover rates, productivity is lower, and quality of care of patients decreases consequentially. ii. Minimizing ratios of nurse-to-patient: by recognising sufficient and adequate staffing level, conditions of service and nurse retention are positively affected. Allocating the nurses the amount of workload they can adequately handle without fatigue is one step closer to providing better working conditions for the nurses. Such an institution will have better retention of the nurses and more nurses will come back for employment thereby improving the health care services rendered by the institution.. iii. Continuing education and education levels: the education composition of the nurses is just as crucial as the nurse to patient ratios. Recent evidence has accentuated that hospitals and clinics with a higher number of nurses who are registered exhibit lower patient mortality and improved nurse retention. Additionally, creating chances and opportunities for training and continuing education is crucial in nurse retention. Continuing education will help the nurse keep up with the advancements in medical treatment brought about by technological advancements. iv. Pay levels: higher wage levels will work as incentives for the nurses to work even harder in their work places. This will go a long way to improving the quality of care in health care institutions (Jae and Tae 2009). v. Career advancement: giving the nursing career more weight and importance will help giving the nurses the motivation to further their careers. This means that they will work much harder to improve their careers and in turn, improve the conditions of care in health care institutions (Jae and Tae 2009). vi. Violence and harassments: with the fact that the nurses are viewed as lower class and are prone to violence and harassment at their work places. By protecting the nurses, they feel much more secure at their workplace improving their working conditions. Reducing workplace bullying and outlining procedures to curb this vice in workplaces will provide incentive to nurses to work much better (Jae and Tae 2009). 2.2 Ratio of the nursing workforce by different types of medical facilities The ratio of patient-to-nurse is high in South Korea is high owing to the fact that the number of nurses to help with the ever increasing number of patients is low. 2.3 The demand for the nursing workforce Development is evident throughout South Korea. In turn, the living standard of the citizens significantly improves. Thus, they become dissatisfied with the quality of health care services and demand for better. Therefore, to keep up with the increasing demand for better quality of care, the health care institutions have to acquire more nurses. Thus, the demand for nurses is high. 2.4 The supply of the nursing workforce Studies have shown that currently there is a seeming oversupply of nurses in the country. This may be due to the fewer number of nurses who receive employment in the health care industry. The projected supply will match the demand of nurses if South Korea keeps up the development index it currently has. Projections have shown that by the year 2015, the nurses needed will be 331,012 yet the available number will be at 282,334. Thus, the supply of nurses does not meet the demands of the nurses in health care centres. 2.5 Nurses’ turnover rate The rates of turnover of nurses in South Korea are high. Nurses have left their workplaces to seek better work conditions. The main reason is mainly that the job satisfaction level is low. The nurses are overworked, and many of them are not willing to go back to work. The pay is low hence they are demotivated. With advancements in technology, many of them are left out due to unavailability of the ability to further their education and keep up with technology. Thus, they become incompetent at their jobs and quickly lose their jobs. These are the primary reasons for the high turnover rates of nurses in South Korea (Kim 2015). 3. Overview of the nursing workforce situation in UK 3.1 Proposed changes to the nursing workforce structure A high turnover rate is a problem that is affecting the UK significantly. Therefore, reforms have been set up to curb this issue. i. At the local level, it was discovered that the older nurses and those who had children had a high preference for training within their home areas. Therefore, training institutions need to be decentralised to attract nurses to take up the new courses. This will help in reducing the costs of training and promote an influx of nurses into the profession. Those with families can raise their families and at the same time keep up with their work (Nicholas and Campbell 2010). ii. As the older generation nurses begin to leave this profession, the mantle is handed down to a new generation. The strategies, that suit these new generation nurses, need to acknowledge the fact that professional socialization and career choice have multiple factors affecting them. Therefore, these factors need to embrace these factors such as technology. Therefore, by merging these elements with the strategies, the nurses of the new generation can quickly perform their tasks and meet objectives of improving the quality of health care (Nicholas and Campbell 2010). iii. There are also plans to improve inflows into the nursing career. The strategies to achieve this include promoting reforms to nursing education and reducing recruitment of foreign nationals. Introducing changes to the nurse education will improve the quality of health care services and make available a larger number of registered nurses in the nation. This will ensure that health care centres have lower mortality and improve the quality of health care services in the general sense. The practise of recruiting foreign nurses (expatriates) will be significantly reduced as it increases costs to the nation yet the country can use local talent to promote health care services and the extra cash put to better use such as pay for the nurses. iv. Reorganization of the entire health care delivery system is a reaction to the shortfalls of nursing staff throughout the country. This reform has been in the interest of meeting the requirements of the patient-to-nurse ratio standards. This is achievable by replacing qualified nursing personnel with assistive human resource (Sweeney and Mictchell 2009). v. Controlling the movement out of the nursing profession will also go a great length to control the short handedness of the healthcare facilities. This will help the retention of qualified nurses and having them around is helpful because of the skill and experience they possess. They will also be the ones responsible for the passing on of the relevant knowledge and expertise to the new generation nurses. 3.2 Ratio of the nursing workforce by different types of medical facilities The number of nurse in the workforce has increased substantially in the recent years. However, the capacity increases in the NHS have eaten up this entire additional workforce whereas bed occupancy, as well as patient numbers, have increased drastically over the last two decades. Even though this increase is evident, there is little or no proof that the NHS has improved staffing levels (Buchan and Seccombei 2013). Research has shown that the UK has very high nurse-to-patient ratios which have led to pressurized working conditions. This has consequently resulted in lower levels of contentment of the nurses with their jobs. Hence, there is a greater turnover rate as the nurses tend to leave their professions and start other limiting the quality of health care (Buchan and Seccombei 2013). 3.3 The demand for the nursing workforce The demand of the nurses has increased and has been impacted significantly by the growing socioeconomic development evident in the UK. This has led to improvement in the living standards of citizens thereby increasing their demand for better health care facilities. The higher nurse-to-patient ratios, which have resulted in lower quality of health care services, is no longer enough. This has led to the rise in the demand for nurses in medical institutions. 3.4 The supply of the nursing workforce The supply of nurses is quite small in the UK owing to the broader public sectors cuts and the constraints on the NHS budget cuts. For instance, cuts in the higher education budgets limit the numbers of lecturers in institutions of higher learning leaving fewer individuals to facilitate learning. It has also defined the pre-registration places and courses to be offered. Recent reports have shown that there is a ten per cent reduction in the intakes related to the preregistration of nurse education. In addition, post-basic specialist education funding have significantly reduced (Currie and Carr Hill 2012). 3.5 Nurses’ turnover rate The turnover rates are great in the UK because of the level of job satisfaction being significantly low. With the high number of patients and fewer nurses to handle that amount of workload, the currently available nurses are overworked through mandatory overtime. This leads to a pressurized working environment with a lot of fatigue among the nurses. With poor pay, the nurses are demoralized and fail to provide quality care services to their patients (Murrells, Clinton and Robinson 2005). 4. Comparison and Contrast between two countries 4.1 Comparison two countries The two countries compare in that they both have higher patient-to-nurse ratios which means that the number of nurses available to service the number of patients present is less. This leads to working conditions that are full of pressure on the nurse. These makes the working conditions less bearable and results in high turnover rates which are in both countries. What is common in both countries is also the socioeconomic development. It is increasing, and so are the living standards of the nationals. As this is on the rise, their disposable income rises which increase their demand for better health care service. This makes the medical facilities seek more nurses that then results in high demand for the nurses. What is important to note is also the fact that both countries have a low supply of nurses and have put in place reforms to meet the targeted number of nurses I order to provide the best care services to their clientele. 4.2 Contrast two countries Southern Korea has poor pay plan for the nurses which has significantly contributed to the poor working conditions that the nurses are exposed to. This has also been a significant source of discontent resulting in high turnover rates of the nurses (Lee, White and Hong 2009). The UK, on the other hand, has better pay. However, significant budget cuts have seen to pay less which is also demoralizing. Southern Korea has a lower absorption of its trained nurses. Taking up a small percentage of registered nurses leaving others out of the healthcare industry is demoralizing to the nurses. That is when they decide to take up other professions. Meanwhile, the country feels as if there is an oversupply of nurses yet in the real sense, they are short (Lee, White and Hong 2009). The UK has a better employment plan. They face a shortage because of other reasons but are trying to meet them by doing reforms on nurse education (Doherty 2009). 4.3 Focus on turnover rate based on expectation theory The expectation theory postulates that long-term interest rates encompass a prediction of future short-term interest rates. This theory further stipulates that one would earn averagely the same amount of gains if he or she invests in a one-year bond today and rolling the investment into another new bond a year later of the same magnitude as compared to purchasing a two-year bond the same day (Seino, Uesugi and Hada 2010). The expectation theory seeks to explain the importance of readiness. One can only be ready by adequately preparing for the future. This means projections into the future are very helpful to avert crisis scenarios. Projections into the future about the turnover rates should be conducted adequately. This crucial statistics once provided, should be useful in the fabrication of strategies to meet the new turnover rates implications. If high, then policies to encourage the retention of nurses in healthcare facilities should be promoted. Where little, plans to solidify this by adding auxiliary workers to assist on other matters to make the facilities more efficient should be carried out (Hysom 2009). 5. Recommendations & Implication Motivation of the nursing workforce: incentives should be provided to the nurses in terms of better pay and other motivational strategies put in place. The effect of taking this approach is that it will make the nursing profession much more marketable and will attract new people to take up the job. Proper budget should be provided to the NHC to make the appropriate changes to the working conditions of the nurses. The NHC should fight to provide better-working conditions so that the nurses can improve the level of contentment with their jobs. In this manner, they can provide better quality of care. Enacting the reforms to the nurse education should improve the quality of education by integrating it with technology. This will keep the nurses up to date with the technology currently used throughout the world making them marketable everywhere in the world. References Buchan J & Seccombei I 2013, ‘The end of growth? Analysis NHS nurse staffing’, Jounal of advanced nursing, 69, 9, pp2123-2130. Currie J.E Hill C.A.R 2012, ‘What are the reasons for high turnover in nursing? A discussion of presumed causal factors and remedies’, International Journal of Nursing Studies, 49, pp 1180-1189 Doherty C 2009, ‘A qualitative study of health service reform on nurses’ working lives: Learning from the UK National Health Service (NHS)”, International Journal of Nursing Studies, 46, pp1134-1142. Hyeoun-Ae P and Eunyoung C 2001, ‘Projected Supply and Demand for Nurses in Korea by 2015’, Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 33, 4, pp 387 Hysom, SJ 2009, 'Status Valued Goal Objects and Performance Expectations', Social Forces, 87, 3, pp. 1623-1648, Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost, viewed 9 January 2015. Jae San P & TE Hyun K 2009, ‘Do types of organizational culture matter in nurse job satisfaction and turnover intention?’, Leadership in Health Services, 22,1,pp 20-38. Kim, MY 2011, 'Effects of Oncology Clinical Nurse Specialists' Interventions on Nursing-Sensitive Outcomes in South Korea', Clinical Journal Of Oncology Nursing, 15, 5, pp. E66-E74, Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost, viewed 9 January 2015. Lee, C, White, B, & Hong, Y 2009, 'Comparison of the clinical practice satisfaction of nursing students in Korea and the USA', Nursing & Health Sciences, 11, 1, pp. 10-16, Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost, viewed 9 January 2015. Nichols, J, & Campbell, J 2010, 'The experiences of internationally recruited nurses in the UK (1995-2007): an integrative review', Journal Of Clinical Nursing, 19, 19/20, pp. 2814-2823, Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost, viewed 9 January 2015. Murrells, T, Clinton, M, & Robinson, S 2005, 'Job satisfaction in nursing: validation of a new instrument for the UK', Journal Of Nursing Management, 13, 4, pp. 296-311, Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost, viewed 9 January 2015. Seino, J, Uesugi, W, & Hada, M 2010, 'Expectation values in two-component relativistic theories', Journal Of Chemical Physics, 132, 16, p. 164108, Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost, viewed 9 January 2015. Sweeney, J, & Mitchell, D 2009, 'A challenge to nursing: an historical review of intellectual disability nursing in the UK and Ireland', Journal Of Clinical Nursing, 18, 19, pp. 2754-2763, Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost, viewed 9 January 2015. Read More