Background of Ireland’s Healthcare System
The healthcare system of Ireland has evolved in the past decades at an effective rate that is due to various internal and external factors in the economy. The main source of growth and development of the Irish healthcare system is the monetary funding provided by the private and public sectors in the country’s economy (Mercille, Turner and Lucey 2022). The mixed system has helped the Irish healthcare system expand business operations in other parts of the world. After the First World War, because of the rise in the inflation rate in the world, the monetary assistance provided to the Irish healthcare sector was affected negatively. To improve the conditions of the Irish healthcare sector, The Irish Hospitals Sweepstake was established to expand the business of the healthcare sector in other parts of the world. The major purpose of establishing this committee is to provide the Irish healthcare sector funding to conduct construction activities to expand the business (Molcho et al. 2022). The government of Ireland also implemented some significant measures to revive the Irish healthcare sector in the economy. The measures included transforming the country homes into medical centers to provide medical treatment to the country’s poor people and needy people. Workforce planning is also useful in making strategies for managing the staff in the organization and achieving the organization’s strategic goals (Turan et al. 2022). Strategic workforce planning helps increase the productivity of the employees at the workplace and manage the organization’s employee turnover.
Workforce plan
A successful strategic workforce plan consists of some significant steps framed to achieve the highest possible efficiency in implementing the process in the organization (Abbasi 2022). The University Hospital Waterford is struggling with the incapacity of the beds for patients that are availing the services of elective surgeries. Due to the incapacity of the beds in the hospital, the number of patients in the waiting line is increasing, resulting in the poor quality of treatment by the doctors. Moreover, the patients cannot get adequate treatment in the University Hospital, and sometimes the case of treatment becomes worse. Due to this reason, the patients are shifted to the emergency hospitals for a better quality of treatment. It is also creating a loss in the revenue generation for The University Hospital Waterford. The steps involved in the strategic workforce plan of the Elective surgical department of the University Hospital Waterford are as follows
The preliminary step involved in the process is to identify the long-term goals of the organization that are to be achieved by the activities conducted in the elective surgical department of University Hospital Waterford. Implementing the organization’s strategic workforce plan is to achieve the organizational goals effectively (Capano et al. 2022). Moreover, before starting the actual work of framing the long-term business goals, it is extremely important to engage all the organization’s stakeholders. For framing the long-term business goals, the human resource department has to coordinate with other departments such as finance, operations and marketing. Other departments involved in planning a strategic workforce plan help accurately identify the long-term business goals with adequate and wide knowledge. While framing the plan under the strategic workforce planning, it is also important to be precise to make the information easily understandable by the employees and another workforce (Vendraminelli et al. 2022).
The Evolution of Ireland’s Healthcare System
Moreover, it is to be ensured that long-term organizational objectives are achieved smoothly with adequate planning and implementation. Setting long-term business goals requires big decisions made by the top management of the organization (Baylis 2022). The decisions made for the workforce planning can influence the organization’s future actions. The long-term goal of the elective surgical department of the University Hospital Waterford is to expand the business operations in other parts of the world.
In this step of designing the work for the plan for the optimization, the skill set of the current workforce is analyzed, and the gaps are found for improving their performance. This part will analyze the number of doctors, surgeons, nurses and allied care workers needed. For this purpose, some significant tools are used to identify and analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the current workforce in the organization (Berman et al. 2022). For example, talent analytics identifies various employee factors, such as demographics and their complete profile. While analyzing the current workforce, the most significant factors that are taken into consideration are the quality and the quantity of the employees in the organization. For example, in the department of designing elective surgical, it is important to identify the employees’ skills and capacity for designing the workforce plan for the department. To analyze the organization’s current workforce, meetings are conducted with the division managers at the workplace to gather information about the employees and their activities in the organization (Akl et al. 2022). Some important actions are conducted to design the workforce plan and analyze the workforce’s present activities. The actions in the workforce plan involve projects on which the employees are working currently and the employees’ effectiveness while working in the organization. For example, it is important to analyze the current capacity of employees conducting surgeries in the elective surgical department and the equipment used.
The hiring and internal promotions are observed to analyze the workforce’s quantity. Hence the number of doctors needed in the elective surgical department of University Hospital Waterford is demonstrated through the workforce chart. It represents the number of doctors, health care allied workers, nurses, and the patients’ capacity required for effective treatment of the patients. Six nurses daily with double capacity for six days is required in the ward section. The requirement is four nurses daily with double capacity for six days in the night shifts. To assist the nurses, it is a requirement of 1 ward clerk daily for six days in the elective surgical department. In the University Hospital Waterford, the surgical unit requires two doctors daily with a minimum double capacity.
After analyzing the current workforce and setting the long-term business objectives, it is now important to create the actual plan implemented in the organization. Creating the workforce planning for the organization requires the actual layout and changes occurring in the style of working of employees in the organization (Alnajim 2022). Moreover, adequate skill sets and methods are required to layout and implement the work post plan in the organization. The plan also includes transferring employees from one department to another to increase productivity in the employees’ workplace. For example, to increase the employees’ productivity in the elective surgical department, it is important to reschedule the work of the employees. It is also important to introduce new measures such as hiring new and energetic employees in the department to enhance the work in the organization.
Factors Driving the Growth of Ireland’s Healthcare System
Moreover, while creating the work with a plan is also important to set a particular time frame under which the plan will be completed and implemented in the department (Rowles 2022). The cost incurred while creating and implementing the plan is also calculated at the end of the process. In creating the workforce plan, the demand and supply analysis of the employees in the organization is conducted to identify the improvements that need to be done. In the workforce’s supply analysis, the quantity of employees in the organization is analyzed, and trends in hiring are observed. This method helps accumulate the number of employees that need to be hired or transferred to other departments in the organization (Magennis et al. 2022).
Moreover, the performance of current policies in procedures implemented in the organizations for managing the employees is also analyzed. The employees’ work activities are analyzed in the demand analysis process, and the organization’s capacity is observed. For example, in the department of elective surgical, the work is observed. The employees conduct that, and according to work, the number of employees is assigned to the particular task (Mazzilli and Defelix 2022). In the demand analysis process, the resources used for conducting the activities by the employees in the organization are also analyzed, and changes are made to them. For the effective use of the organization’s resources, the number of employees is adjusted in the department while designing the work plan in the organization.
Another activity conducted for creating the workforce plan in the organization is the gap analysis. In the gap analysis process, the employees’ supply and demand are analyzed, and the gap between these two domains is utilized to make crucial decisions. A brief comparison is made between the supply and demand of the employees at the workplace to improve the framework of the workforce plan (Loh et al. 2022). The identified gap between the demand and supply of the employees helps the organization increase its effectiveness in work and maintain healthy relations with all the employees at the workplace. The identified gaps are analyzed on some significant factors that are very important for the human resource manager while designing the workforce plan for the organization. The factors include a profile of the employee and all other activities that the employee at the workplace conducts. The last domain in creating the workforce plan for the organization is to analyze the solutions that are provided for filling the gap among the domains of demand and supply of employees (Baral et al. 2022). The stage of analyzing the solutions in designing the workforce plan for the organization demonstrates the activities implemented to improve the performance of the workforce at the workplace. In providing solutions to the identified gaps, there are different kinds of staffing options selected while designing the workforce plan for the organization. The staffing options include recruiting for a full-time job, providing training to the existing employees and hiring freelancers for a particular task in the organization.
The next stage in designing the organization’s workforce plan is executing the plan framed at the workplace for all the employees. The organization’s top management needs to execute the plan with adequate preparation and time. For executing the plan in the organization of weekly status reports is to maintain to update all the information about the activities conducted for implementation (Hadden, Gardner and Patterson 2022). This method helps track the progress of implementation of the plan, and all the organization’s stakeholders are aware of the activities under the execution of the plan. While executing, some modifications are also made according to the situation and the feedback from the department’s employees.
Strategic Workforce Planning for Healthcare Organizations
The last step in designing the workforce plan for the organization is evaluating the activities under the implementation of the plan. The evaluation of the plan helps to avoid loss and disruptions in the smooth flow of information in the organization. For evaluating the workforce plan in the organization, workforce analytics is used to collect the data on implementation and make adequate adjustments in the process (Tucker 2021). Moreover, while evaluating the plan in the organization, it is ensured that the purpose of designing the workforce plan is achievable by the employees in the organization.
The prop management faces some significant challenges while it workforce planning the organization. The challenges act as a barrier in the implementation process and slow down the growth and development of the employees in the organization.
After implementing the workforce plan in the organization, there are different opinions and perspectives of all the employees in the organization, creating conflicts among them. As the organization framework is changed due to the implementation of the workforce plan, the employees resist change according to the plan (Jaillet, Loke and Sim 2021). The challenge of perspective among the employees is addressed by discussing the implementation before starting the process.
Another challenge that arises while implementing the organization’s workforce planning is the kind of strategy adopted for the growth and development of the employees. The strategy that is implemented while designing the workforce plan has to ensure the individual growth and development of the employees at the workplace (Paley 2021). Moreover, it is also important for the top management to adopt a strategy that can create successful Change in the organization. To address this challenge in the organization, the top management needs to frame the strategies to the expert in the workplace. Moreover, the organization’s leaders must be clear about the expectations and needs of the employees in the organization.
Conclusion
It is concluded that various internal and external factors are involved in designing the workforce plan for the organization. The workforce plan for the elective surgical department in the University Hospital Waterford is designed and implemented using some significant steps discussed above. The discussion demonstrates the history of Ireland’s healthcare system and the details of the country’s evolution of medical care. The steps discussed in designing the workforce plan for elective surgical departments include steps that are implemented to enhance the performance of the employees in the organization. The steps include framing the long-term goals, analyzing the current workforce, creating the plan, executing the plan and lastly, evaluating the plan. All these steps discussed the elaborated formation used for designing the workforce plan for the organization. Moreover, some gaps are found in the framework data analyzed for employees’ individual growth at the workplace for analyzing the current workforce. In creating the workforce plan for the department, the employees’ skills are analyzed to make adequate adjustments in the way of working in the organization. To fill the gaps in the organization’s framework, different kinds of staffing options such as full-time jobs and training the existing employees are adopted. For executing the plan in the organization, a weekly status report is framed by the top management, under which all the activities are mentioned. Lastly, the organization evaluates the workforce plan to ensure the achievement of the organizational objectives and the purpose behind implementing the plan. While implementing the plan, the organization faces some challenges and is addressed by the proper strategy involved. The challenges phased are the perspective or opinion of the employees on the workforce plan and adopting the adequate execution strategy to avoid any conflicts in the organization.
Challenges with Capacity in the Elective Surgical Department of University Hospital Waterford
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