Health care workforce today is highly skilled and well-trained. The education of health care specialists is extensive and very detailed. However, the facts say that the health care system is in crisis these days because of its tremendous inefficiency (Bodenheimer & Grumbach, 2012). There is more politics in health care related decisions than actual desire to help people. The “Ten Universal Commandments of the Political Process” became useful for the medical personnel of the different ranks because modern hospitals are involved in political games more than ever before (Estes, Chapman, Dodd, Hollister & Harrington, 2013). The legislation regarding health care gets passed because of the money to be earned in that or another way rather than because of the actual usefulness for the regular people.
The presentation of Dr. Atul Gawande (2012) in the TED Talk demonstrates how extensive the role of a health care professional is in the health care policymaking today. The presenter explained the pitfalls of the modern health care system and showed how the simple changes can lead to the substantial increase in the efficiency of the health care system. Dr. Gawande (2012) stated that it is necessary to look at the big data from the perspective of a helper and a team player rather than an autonomous, self-sufficient figure. It helps to find the most patient-focused and cost-effective solutions. The local community requires the following changes in the current health care policy. The first change is the reduction of the medical personnel per patient as the current number of the various health care professionals involved in the patient care per each patient is very high. The second change is the attitude of the personnel to the patients: currently, the medical staff of the local hospitals is focused on the money rather than on the actual help.
Modern health care system requires changes because it is ineffective in many aspects, including the actual effectiveness of the help it provides to patients. Conscious health care specialists have to involve to the political process to be able to influence it positively. It happens because people whose duty to help people get well cannot stand aside when the system aimed at helping people only makes things worse. The key political area that requires changes is the policy of the government that regulates the assessment of the system efficiency. In other words, health care professionals need to emphasize the role of the effective medical system but not the existence of the system itself as the most developed and technologically advanced as it happens today. The most prominent health care specialists should promote help to people as the core of the activities of a health care professional but not the paychecks he or she receives for the efforts.
The experienced health care professionals can help other professionals to play a politically active role, showing the example of how their efforts can help to change the situation for better. It is possible that the value of being a politically active health care professional can be too high for somebody as not all professionals, working in the health care industry want to change something. The opposition can be strong and the consequences unpleasantly severe (issues with career, bad recommendations, and other similar problems). The current system works for such a long time due to a reason. It means that some parties want it to work this way. The detriments of politically active position as a health care professional can be substantial. However, the increased effectiveness of the system aimed at helping people is worthy of any negative outcomes.
References
Bodenheimer, T., & Grumbach, K. (2012). The health care workforce and the education of health professionals. In T. Bodenheimer & K. Grumbach (Eds.), Understanding health policy: A clinical approach (6th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Medical.
Estes, C., Chapman, S., Dodd, C., Hollister, B., & Harrington, C. (2013). In C. Estes, S. Chapman, C. Dodd, B. Hollister, & C. Harrington (Eds.), Health policy: Crisis and reform (6th ed.) (pp. 10-24, 39-54). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Gawande, A. (2012). How do we heal medicine? [Video file]. Web.
