1. Unionized healthcare facilities often encounter staffing challenges that hinder their ability to maintain adequate staffing levels. The strict union rules surrounding hiring and layoffs can restrict the flexibility of workforce management, making it harder to address staffing needs efficiently(Hut, 2023).
2. Workforce planning is key to preventing shortages and surplus. Special attention should be made when applying models to real-world applications in a rapidly changing system. Considerations must be made to external trends in our nation. For instance, if our economy is experiencing a recession, then the amount of money spent on healthcare will likely decrease and healthcare systems will be underutilized (Sampson & Fried, 2021). By using the workforce planning model, experts can forecast these types of trends and anticipate the changes. Planning must also account for supply and demand of workers, both by type of care and the area or region. One example of this is the Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals and their outlying clinics. If leaders recognize that the demand in a certain region has an increased demand for specialty care, they must train and/or hire staff with requisite staff to bolster an existing clinic’s capabilities. Alternatively, VA leader can open an entirely new clinic with multispecialty assets. In doing so, leaders must also account for the long-term benefits, the attrition of employees, health outcomes of certain populations, the training pipeline, and costs to move assets (Sampson & Fried, 2021).
