German nursing shortage in hospitals – Homemade by Profititis?

Abstract

The shortage of nursing staff in Germany compromises public healthcare in deference to profits explaining why this is on the daily political and media agenda. In Germany, over a 22 year period, significant savings were achieved by decreases in: (1) hospital beds by −29.3% saving 119 000 beds, (2) patient care and treatment days by −23% saving 43.1 million patient days, and (3) length of hospital stay in days by −39% saving 4.7 days. This occurred together with the parallel increase of treated patient cases by +26.5% with an additional burden of 4.1 million patients. Since 2010, as birth rates increase again treatment cases will also increase. In parallel, the percentage of total nurses has decreased (−2.1%) as well as that of registered nurses in hospitals between 1999 (325 539) and 2009 (324 337) have decreased (−0.4%), in conjunction with nurses employed in preventive and rehabilitation facilities (+15.1%) and/or in outpatient care facilities (+41.1%) and/or nursing homes (+24.8%) and/or nurses working in retirement homes (+77.9%). This “profititis” endangers both patient care and detracts from people joining the nursing profession. It might even be a short-sighted tightrope act which, in the end, might counteract the marketing strategy of “patient safety” by risking quality of patient care. Maybe healthcare politics would be well-advised to re-think the fact that as the population gets older and as birth rates and immigration increases, these factors could result in increased patient caseloads in hospitals which need to be addressed now so as to avert a future crisis.

Evaluation of an Integrative Care Program in Pediatric Oncology

“…This was not only an issue on the pediatric oncology ward, but is a serious issue in the German health care system as a whole. 33 The shortage of staff members and the resulting understaffed shifts created an atmosphere of stress and frustration on the ward. Under these conditions, resistance to all kinds of additional work impeded the implementation of this new program.…”

Group-Treatment for Dealing with the Work-Family Conflict for Healthcare Professionals

“…The concept of ‘therapy culture’ highlights the blaming of the individual for structural injustices instead of addressing the origins of these injustices [ 110 , 111 ]. Therefore, it needs to be critically discussed which scope of action healthcare professionals really have in view of large structural difficulties [ 13 , 55 , 112 ], and if interventions that aim to build individual resilience in the workforce are sufficient to buffer adverse effects. To address these questions, the perspectives for future research would be a study with a larger sample size within a longer observation period.…”

“…In the healthcare sector, an alarming situation is emphasized in this domain, as healthcare professionals are confronted with specific work-related demands like shift work, long working hours, unpredictable changes of the work schedule, high quantitative workload, working under pressure, and high emotional commitment [ 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 ]. Furthermore, the lack of healthcare professionals due to demographic change and the foreseeable shortage of skilled workers in Germany and other countries might increase work-related demands [ 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 ].…”

Going Global: Insights of Indonesian Policymakers on International Migration of Nurses

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