Human Resources: Strategy and Competitive Advantage

The Human Resources department (HR) is a key player in the organization as they are charged with recruiting healthcare professionals. HR interacts with the employees and addresses their concerns by complying with the organization’s policies and procedures or rules and regulations (Minghua, 2022). This assessment entails the Vila Health Human Resource media simulation, which describes the staff shortage and budget issue in St.Anthony Medical Center (SMAC) (Capella University, n.d.). SMACs strategic goal is to integrate the new staffing plan to improve the organization’s performance in the healthcare industry.

Comparing Current Workforce to Future Needs

According to Capella University. (n.d.), SAMC is one of the leading healthcare centers in Minneapolis. The nursing shortages in SAMC prevent hospitals from delivering care to patients optimally. The chemical spill caused by the train derailment incident increased the patient influx in hospital staff, shortage posed challenges for the hospital. The emergency room and pediatric intensive care unit have patient upsurge, and the nurse manager and chief nursing officer use the services of available staff to cope with the situation. Additionally, the unavailability of a multilingual workforce also contributes to worsening the situation. As the patient has other cultures and low English proficiency were unable to explain the healthcare needs. Likewise, the staff failed to comprehend that it also prevents providing optimal care in need of time. Additionally, the hiring budget needed to be higher, which hampered SMAC hiring new staff, and made the work environment challenging.SAMC faced workforce challenges, particularly a shortage of nursing staff and a low budget.

SAMC need to hire diversified staff to fulfill the need of diverse people. SAMC must implement a staff training program to enhance their cultural competency skills, which help provide culturally appropriate care to the people (Stubbe, 2020). Integrating technology-based language interpreter applications to comprehend patients’ needs will also help provide care to patients (Narang et al., 2019). In addition, the training for using technology also helps in using language interpreting applications to easily communicate with low English proficiency patients (Hwang et al., 2021).

The rationale for altering the workforce is to fulfill the needs of patients in SMAC. The shortage of nursing staff in the current situation provides low-quality care to patients. The increased workloads also led to burnout among existing staff, and SMAC underwent more staff shortages. The low budget for new hires also contributes to tight staffing, so there is a need to address the issue through other measures to improve patient care in SMAC.

Ideal Staffing Plan

The ideal staffing plan for SAMC, according to future needs, would be a diverse and inclusive workforce. SMAC needs a diversified workforce, including hiring diverse staff to manage diverse patients in the healthcare setting. According to Enders et al. (2021), the model used for the staffing plan in SMAC is Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). To create a diverse workplace DEI framework helps the organization retain a diverse workforce by valuing and respecting their work. DEI also helps in enhancing employee as well as consumer satisfaction.

According to American Hospital Association. (2023) Another model is the Workforce Planning Model (WPM), which relates staffing strategies with organizational strategic goals. The model helps identify the workforce gaps and invest in staff training programs to utilize the preexisting workforce. SMAC must invest in cultural competency training for existing staff to reduce the expense of hiring new staff. Cultural competency helps enhance the preexisting workforce’s clinical expertise to ensure optimal care will be provided to the patient according to cultural and linguistic needs. The model helps in prioritizing the ideal staffing plan for SAMC. Including a diverse workforce using the DEI model and investing in training for existing staff utilizing WPM help improve patient outcomes in SMAC.

Measures to Evaluate the New Staffing Plan

The evaluation is important to determine the efficacy of SMAC’s newly implemented staffing plan. The assessment helps determine whether the staffing plan fulfills the organization’s needs. The metrics used to evaluate the plan’s efficacy are patient outcome measures, employee retention rate, and financial performance (Stanford, 2020).

Patient Outcome Measure

The new staffing level’s main agenda is to improve patient health outcomes by providing effective and culturally appro


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