Demand And Supplies Of Nurses In Australia - MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Demand And Supplies Of Nurses In Australia. Answer: The two words demand and supply are tools of microeconomic analysis whereby the term demand means the quantity in which a product is needed and purchased by the customer at a certain price level whereas supply means how much quantity of a product the market can provide at a given price level (Edwards, p. 40). These two terms are always used together as important tools of microeconomic analysis since demand and supply of a product depend on different factors. Products demand depend on the cost of the product, Cost of related products, Buyers income, and number of buyers as well as their preferences while supply of product in the market relies on the cost of the product, cost of generation and also the future assumption about the price level (Case et al, p.271). Demand and supply of nurses in Australia can be a topic of interest since there is high demand for nurses in Australia due to the increasing population yet the supply is not steady. When analyzing the current economic state of Australia based on the demand and supply for nurses, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) records that the demand of nurses will most likely exceed the supply of nurses bearing in mind that the population of Australia is increasing each year. Nursing is considered as the largest profession within the health workforce Australia and since the population doubled in the last fifty years, the healthcare system of Australia has a high demand of nurses to help the people deal with the health issues they face daily. Some individuals require personal care attendant (PCA) to nurse them at home. The government has acted fast towards this demand by expanding the health care services and the maternity services and also the home and community care (HACC). They also have more hospitals constructed and this means skilled and qualified nurses are needed to fill the vacant positions in the hospitals. According to Caroline Mason, 2015, the d emand for nurses is higher than the supply hence forcing the healthcare services to recruit other skilled individuals from outside Australia so that they may fill the gaps left. The demand curve of an item is not always shifted by the fall and rise of the prices but rather the demand curve can be shifted by the reduction in the demand of a product (Baumol Blinder, p.55). The low supply of nurses in Australia has nothing to do with the kind of salary they earn but rather, it is due to the lack of skills and expertise. The market equilibrium gets impacted by this shifts yet the health care service still has to balance the demand and the supply of nurses. The human resource demand in Australia is marked to be higher than the supply of skilled labor which results in a high level of wages for the laborers. This denotes that supply cannot meet demand since there is lack of skilled labor. The demand for nurses keeps on increasing as much as the need for supply increase due to the high population hence more skilled nurses are required to join the health workforce (Buchan et al, p.164). When recommending possible actions to the key players, it is important to consider the term equilibrium which is an important aspect of microeconomics. Equilibrium is achieved when there is a balance between the demand and supply. This means that if Australia increases in terms of population, they also need an increase in nurses and this means the supply of nurses also has to increase. If they have to reduce salaries then they will experience low demand for nursing jobs which will eventually result in low supply. On the other hand, if Australia has to experience a hike in the supply of nurses, then it will mean the demand is high. In order to offer the people of Australia with quality healthcare services, then the health workforce Australia (HWA) will be forced to outsource and recruit skilled nurses from outside Australia in case they lack enough nurses to fill the gaps in the hospitals. In conclusion, based on the analysis we can agree that demand and supply of every product in the market do not only rely on the cost level of the product but they also depend on the interior and exterior factors. As the demand and supply of commodities change, the market equilibrium is also impacted. The health workforce has to understand well the concept of demand and supply so that they may ensure equilibrium within the health sector. More students may be advised to take the nursing course so that there may be enough supply of graduated nurses whenever needed. References Baumol, W.J., and Blinder, A.S., 2015. Microeconomics: Principles and policy. Cengage Learning. Buchan, J., Twigg, D., Dussault, G., Duffield, C. and Stone, P.W., 2015. Policies to sustain the nursing workforce: an international perspective.International nursing review,62(2), pp.162-170. The Case, K.E., Fair, R.C. and Oster, S., 2014. Principles of economics. Pearson Higher Ed. Mankiw, N.G., 2014. Essentials of economics. Cengage Learning. Ruttan, V. and Thirtle, C., 2014. The role of demand and supply in the generation and diffusion of technical change (Vol. 21). Routledge. Edwards, W.A., 2017. Principles of Microeconomics.