Health manpower management最新文献

Notes the attempts by many companies today to identify innovative compensation strategies that are directly linked to improving organizational performance. Observes that there are many approaches to incentive compensation such as cash bonuses, stock purchase and profit sharing. Examines the individual and group incentive concepts that reward performance based on predetermined organizational goals and metrics, several behavioural theories that can be associated with reward and compensation, and convergent and divergent views and conclusions from the business community.

Very little has been published about the effects of hospital closure in terms of the service, financial or management issues of the process. Attempts through a case-study format to redress the balance and as such represents the reflections of practitioners who have recently undergone the experience of hospital closure and the often neglected issues arising both during and after the process.

Considers a variety of pressures, both internal and external to the National Health Service, which in recent years have ostensibly increased the importance of sound workforce planning initiatives. These include, among others: skill shortage; the drive towards cost-efficiency and effectiveness; an altered philosophy of care through technology; the develop of competence-based training initiatives; nationwide demographic changes; and the need to develop identifiable skill shortages. Presents reprofiling (skills alignment with organizational needs) and skill mix and distribution as useful approaches to workforce planning and concludes with a brief consideration of implications for planners of professional boundaries and changed educational priorities for health service personnel.

Briefly looks at the stress and coping strategies in nurses from palliative, psychiatric and general nursing areas. Examines the results of a recent study where 308 nurses completed questionnaires on sources of stress and coping strategies. Identifies five major sources of stress, concluding that, if patients are to receive quality care, then the needs of nurses must also be taken into consideration.

Introduces the 1993 Calman Report on specialist medical training, summarizing the report's recommendations and then exploring its implications for service purchasers and providers. Illustrates these using discussions within University College London Hospitals NHS Trust and The Royal Hospitals NHS Trust.

Examines the issues of work-related stress in the healthcare professions, focusing on junior medical and dental staff. Identifies the stressors, and reports on an interview survey conducted as part of a larger study funded by the National Health Service Management Executive to identify the levels of stress. Concludes that outsourcing to an independent counselling service could prove to be an effective stress-management strategy.

Reports that performance appraisal (PA) has become an important tool in "controlling" employees in modern public industries. Little work, however, has focused on its mediation or actual practice in relation to different groups, such as women and ethnic groups. Examines the changing nature of employee management under PA in relation to how it affects the role of women in organizations. Illustrates with research, gathered from a case study in the midlands. Moves analysis beyond the individual-collectivist tradition towards assessing the subtle control strategies now employed in the contemporary form of 1990s management. More specifically, illustrates the requirement for women to make the correct self-presentation as a means of "getting on" and, from a managerial stance, of subordinating them. The use of a hospital case study highlights some of these issues in relation to the changes taking place in the public service sector, which faces fundamental transformations to its concept of service. Concludes that PA has seriously affected the role of women in public health organizations and that PA has seriously failed to meet the needs of women.

Health care costs continue to rise because increased demand for services and limited budgets put pressure on resources, however efficiently they may be used. Proposes discrete event simulation as an effective tool in the search for more efficient health care systems. Looks at the application of a desktop computer simulation package to model part of a hospital subsystem. The simulation package shows how efficiency might be improved by moderating available resources and times taken to complete tasks. Maintains that the principles expounded here are applicable to many different aspects of health care management.

Relates performance appraisal in the National Health Service to performance management and emphasizes the need for integration of diverse management initiatives. Identifies the multiple purposes of appraisal and a number of perennial issues. Outlines rules of thumb for enabling appraisal systems and states that these form the basis for specifying success (and failure) criteria for the design of appraisal systems. Stresses the importance of the context within which appraisal exists.