HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT: TOOLS FOR DEVELOPING THE HEALTH CARE SECTOR

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

In the recent past, the term, “Human Resources Management” has begun to be used instead of personnel management or personnel administration. This is due to the fact that people employed in the organization are resources which are as important, if not more important than financial or material resources. Like fund and materials, people in the health care sector must be given careful and expert attention to enable them maximally utilize other resources of the health care sector.

With improvement in the education of people and the development of trade unions, not many employees will want to submit passively to manipulations or dictatorial or autocratic control by management. Many employees expect and demand some degree of involvement in decision making, particularly with issues affecting their job performance.More importantly, some personnel management techniques such as performance appraisal, job evaluation, training and management by objective can only be successfully implemented with the consent and support of the employees. Human resources (workers) are now regarded as the most important assets of the health care sector because the success and failure of health services is largely dependent on the caliber of its workforce.

People represent the most flexible resources available to the senior managers of the health care sector. Deploying people in the right numbers, with the right skills and in the right place is fundamental to success. Personnel specialist can play a central role in assisting with the planning of human resource requirements of the health care sector.

Human resource planning is a systematic approach to the acquisition, use and deployment of people in an organization. It is viewed as a corporate activity arising from the objectives of the health sector and leading to specific plans for recruitment, training, promotion etc.

The basic component of maintaining human resource is a complete understanding of their performance in the organization. This understanding comes from the employee appraisal and can lead to rational training and development of employees through discipline, promoting, transfers, demotions and separations.

Once the human resource is sufficiently effective, there is bound to be prudent material management. This is because human resources will ensure adequate utilization and evaluation of both employees and materials.

1.2  STATEMENT OF RESEARCH PROBLEMS

This study is aimed at providing answers to general questions. But specific problems of the study which it aim to address are:

1.          What is Human Resources Management?

2.          What are the functions of Human Resources Management?

3.          What is the relevance of Human Resources Management to health care providers?

4.          What is the effect of Human Resources Management on patients in the health care sector?

5.          How does Human Resources Management help in the development of the health care sector?

1.3  OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The specific objectives of the study are as follows:

1.          To understand the relevance of Human Resources Management.

2.          To determine how Human Resources Management help to improve the health care sector.

3.          To know the factors that could help to ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of Human Resources Management in the health sector.

4.          To provide an insight on how Human Resources Management help in improving the services rendered by health care providers and the effect on patients.

1.4  SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

1.          This study will help the University of Benin Teaching Hospital and the general public to achieve effective Human Resources Management and identify tools for developing the health care sector with a view of effecting corrections for the progress of health services.

2.          The study will enlighten the general public on the importance of Human Resources Management in improving overall patient health outcomes and delivery of health care services.

3.          It will expose the role of Human Resources in the health care sector.

4.          To provide a reading material on Human Resources Management for students of Health Information Management and allied professions.

5.          To provide research material for other researchers on related topics.

1.5  SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The scope of the study is essentially on the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin City and the subjects of the study are the Human Resource Personnel in U.B.T.H. The information used for this research are generated using questionnaire. However, the researcher obtained some information from secondary sources for the study.