Physician Shortages Identify and Describe Three Reasons

Physician Shortages

Identify and describe three reasons there may be a physician shortage rather than a surplus in the United States.

One of the reasons for physician shortage in the U.S. is the exorbitant cost of a degree in medicine according to the Council of Physician and Nursing Supply in Philadelphia. This Council has done a study to determine that there is a seriously number of physicians completing their education in the field of medicine. The result is a drop by over 100,000 physicians graduating over the next 15 years (Miller & McIntyre, 2011). They suggest that in order to recover, the number of graduates needed medical schools must be expanded to provide professional who can teach at the Graduate Medical Education (GME) position. The number of additional GME qualified teachers is an additional 30% (Miller & McIntyre, 2011). According to a survey given by the AMN Healthcare, which is a national organization that staffs doctors and nurses, there were 66% of hospital Chief Executive Officers' that reported of physician shortages. According to these surveys, the CEOs also agreed by over 80% that this would impact the level of medical care that patients receive very soon, basically within the next 10-15 years (Miller & McIntyre, 2011).

The number of physicians that specifically responded that the number of physicians was adequate of the 400 surveyed was only 2 to 4% (Miller & McIntyre, 2011). The Council has contacted the White House for a conference to discuss the shortage accordingly (Miller & McIntyre, 2011).

Secondly a shortage of physicians is caused by the retirement of baby boomer generation practitioners. By 2011 it is expected that 75 million or more baby boomers will reach retirement age, therefore needing geriatric care. The problem being a shortage of geriatric trained physicians. The number of Physicians that are qualified to practice geriatrics, which requires additional level of training is presently at projected at 36,000 by 2030 (Weldon, 2008). However even now projections are showing that at present graduate rates, the number entering the field is less than 8,000. One of the reasons for such a low number of practitioners is that the pay rate is lower than for other branches of the medical field. Since many of the patients of that age range are on Medicare which pays less than private medical insurance (Weldon, 2008). With a lower pay rate the incentive to practice Geriatric medicine and pay for additional education is not attractive to many medical students (Weldon, 2008). This unfortunately only exacerbates the shortage of Physicians in the field.

Thirdly, there are shortages due to lack of practitioners residing in many counties throughout the U.S. For example in Armstrong County of Texas, there is no access to doctors (Santiago, 2008). Nearby counties such as Carson, and Briscoe have no physicians as well (Santiago, 2008). It is reported that over 66 million Americans live in rural areas where there are no physicians. These shortages of practicing physicians in rural areas are due to many of the physicians choosing to practice in cities or areas where there are a larger number of potential patients with private insurance (Santiago, 2008).

2. Identify and describe three factors that contribute to the nursing shortage in the United

States.

The first factor that contributes to nursing shortage is the number of nurses who will retire over the next 20 years. A Doctor and analyst from the AMA, has reported that during this time the age of Registered Nurses currently in the field will be at 65 to 67 years with many retiring. This leaves a massive shortage that will hit around the same time (. The reason the shortage will be inflated at that time is that there is a shortage of about 8% today that has not be remedied (Rosseter, 2011).

Nursing Teachers at the Graduate level are not available causing a shortage due to insufficient number of faculty staffing according to the Association of Colleges of Nursing (2011). The type of care needed by patients require graduate level nurse training. Yet the number of Bachelors of Science degreed nurses are unable to get the additional training due to lack of instructors holding a graduate degree. A requirement to teach Advanced Nursing Practice (Miller & McIntyre, 2011). This creates a catch 22 of sorts as the number of nurses is due to a shortage of teachers with the Graduate level degree to train the upcoming undergrads in the field (Miller & McIntyre, 2011).

The Association of Colleges of Nursing has reported that 30,000 applicants who were qualified to pursue BSNs were 'turned away' due to shortages in Nursing available to teach at the graduate level (Miller & McIntyre, 2011). Up to 61% of nursing colleges have adequate faculty reports the AACN.

A Third factor for nursing shortage is cuts in funding nurse staffing by hospitals and managed care plans. The monies to reimburse for certain types of nursing care were cut or decreased to the point that the strain on the hospital became to great. Therefore hospital policymakers chose to restructure workloads of nurses in order to compensate for additional insurance monies. This led to overloading the nurses to the point of RN burnout according to Dana Weinberg of Cornell Press (2003). It is also reported that the nursing profession is often misrepresented and misunderstood in terms of importance to patient care. Leading to as many as 250,000 nurses leaving the workforce as of 2005(AACN, 2007).

3. Identify and describe at least three roles the public health professional has in the health care system.

One role of the public health professional is to find ways of making it easier to access health care. There are so many agencies offering alternative health services such as mobile services for dental, seasonal vaccinations, and even lab services.

Another role is that of social worker for those with backgrounds in psychology to investigate incidents of troubled youth and teens (Public Health, 2011).

A third would for be for health professionals with backgrounds in counseling and substance abuse care to educate the public and provide outpatient services to communities.