The Hidden Reserve of Nurses in The Netherlands:A Spatial Analysis

Worldwide, nurse shortages constitute a problem, including in the Netherlands. Every region in the country has a shortage of all types of nurses. At the same time, there are large hidden reserves: persons who have been trained as a nurse but do not work in the healthcare sector. The size of the hidden reserve exceeds the shortage of nurses. Until now, the literature has not paid much attention to spatial aspects of the nursing shortage problem. In this paper, we analyze the size of the hidden reserves and how they are distributed over the country, across large and smaller cities, and across different nurse categories. We find that especially densely populated areas have relatively small shares of trained nurses as well as large hidden reserves relative to their population. These areas are also facing the largest nurse shortages. As nurse labor markets are local, policies that are more focused on local situations are necessary to activate these hidden reserves.</p

Identifying integration and differentiation in a Hospital's logistical system:a social network analysis of a case study

Background: Integration, the coordination and alignment of tasks, has been promoted widely in order to improve the performance of hospitals. Both organization theory and social network analysis offer perspectives on integration. This exploratory study research aims to understand how a hospital's logistical system works, and in particular to what extent there is integration and differentiation. More specifically, it first describes how a hospital organizes logistical processes; second, it identifies the agents and the interactions for organizing logistical processes, and, third, it establishes the extent to which tasks are segmented into subsystems, which is referred to as differentiation, and whether these tasks are coordinated and aligned, thus achieving integration. Methods: The study is based on case study research carried out in a hospital in the Netherlands. All logistical tasks that are executed for surgery patients were studied. Using a mixed method, data were collected from the Hospital Information System (HIS), documentation, observations and interviews. These data were used to perform a social network analysis and calculate the network metrics of the hospital network. Results: This paper shows that 23 tasks are executed by 635 different agents who interact through 31,499 interaction links. The social network of the hospital demonstrates both integration and differentiation. The network appears to function differently from what is assumed in literature, as the network does not reflect the formal organizational structure of the hospital, and tasks are mainly executed across functional silos. Nurses and physicians perform integrative tasks and two agents who mainly coordinate the tasks in the network, have no hierarchical position towards other agents. The HIS does not seem to fulfill the interactional needs of agents. Conclusions: This exploratory study reveals the network structure of a hospital. The cross-functional collaboration, the integration found, and position of managers, coordinators, nurses and doctors suggests a possible gap between organizational perspectives on hospitals and reality. This research sets a basis for further research that should focus on the relation between network structure and performance, on how integration is achieved and in what way organization theory concepts and social network analysis could be used in conjunction with one another

Advances and Challenges in the Labor Markets for Healthcare Professionals

A lack of nurses is a prevalent and persistent problem in many countries [...

De zorgsector heeft een aanzienlijke stille reserve

De zorg kent aanzienlijke personeelstekorten. Tegelijkertijd werken veel mensen die als verpleegkundige of verzorgende mogen werken niet of maar weinig uren. Door hen in te zetten zouden de personeelstekorten in de zorg opgelost kunnen worden.IN HET KORT● Er zijn nu 14.400 vacatures voor verpleegkundigen tegenover meerdan 24.000 afgestudeerden die niet in de sector werkzaam zijn.● Als alle in deeltijd werkende verpleegkundigen een dag meerzouden werken, dan zou dit 11.000 voltijdsbanen opleveren

Hospital management by product lines

Over the last decennium many reforms of the reimbursement systems have taken .place to improve the economic performance of health service organizations. These environmental changes have stimulated many hospital managers to introduce types of internal management control. Consequently budgeting is a very well known management tool. Less known in Europe is product-line management. The main purpose of this article is to introduce the concept of product-line management. Attention is paid to ways product lines can be defined in hospitals and which elements the implementation of product-line management envelope. Emphasis is laid on the consequences for the organizational structure and the cost information system. Finally, we deal with the advantages and disadvantages of product-line management

De zorgsector heeft een aanzienlijke stille reserve

De zorg kent aanzienlijke personeelstekorten. Tegelijkertijd werken veel mensen die als verpleegkundige of verzorgende mogen werken niet of maar weinig uren. Door hen in te zetten zouden de personeelstekorten in de zorg opgelost kunnen worden.IN HET KORT● Er zijn nu 14.400 vacatures voor verpleegkundigen tegenover meerdan 24.000 afgestudeerden die niet in de sector werkzaam zijn.● Als alle in deeltijd werkende verpleegkundigen een dag meerzouden werken, dan zou dit 11.000 voltijdsbanen opleveren