Health Professionals Shortage

Here in Dublin, I am repeatedly struck by the severe shortage of health professionals and implications. There are a ton of nursing positions posted online and nurses are in the fast track work authorization scheme. Actually, many health professions are in this scheme.

It is a similar situation with speech and language therapy. Until recently, there was only one training course for Speech-Language Therapy in all of Ireland. I believe that program accepted about 20 people a year. That meant only 20 new graduates a year for a field that had waiting lists for up to 2 years for an assessment!

Some people think that the current staff shortage is going to go away when the two new courses in Ireland start graduating more people. I don't think it will for a few reasons. First, the field has very high attrition. It is a high burnout field. The pay is OK but not great and there are high workloads. This is an international issue, not just an Irish one. In Ireland, there is also a different way of working than there is at home. At home, services are given in the school and are given for an entire school year. Here, blocks of therapy are given. A person is seen for a set number of weeks and then given a break while the therapist works with someone else. I wonder how this way of working affects burn out.