The United States Facing A Physician Shortage

The purpose of this paper is to address the issue of the physician shortage in Unite State of America. This is more exactly delineate as a gap between the population’s demand for primary care services and the capacity of primary care, as currently delivered, respond to the demand. According to Nile (2015), physician is person trained and licensed to practice medicine or an individual with a Doctor degree in medicine. Physicians play a central role in health care delivery. Although now, physicians are sharing patient care responsibility with a team of Physician assistant (PA) and Nurse Practitioner (NP), especially with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act implementations. The PA and NP are alternative to medical doctor or physician

“A Council on Graduate Medical Education document anticipated that there had, “been 242,500 PCPs within the United States in 2010, and nearly 25% (55,000) of them aged ≥56 years. The common reimbursement for PCPs is approximately only 55% that of other scientific specialties, main to a cumulative lifetime internet income gap of about $ 3.5 million per primary care physician” (Collins, 2012). This makes being a primary care physician less desirable since the incentive is so low. A similar associated issue is the very low percent of medical institution students who are choosing to become primary care physicians. Another issue is that about 59 million Americans live in regions with health professional shortages. Shortages in a number of other primary care healthcare specialists exist, especially with nurses. “In 2014, US schools turned away almost 70,000 qualified nursing applicants because they didn’t have the capacity for them. In fact, almost two-thirds of surveyed nursing schools cited faculty shortages as the reason for not accepting all qualified applicants into nursing baccalaureate programs” (Erickson, 2016). This greatly contributes to the shortage of nurses if they cannot receive proper education and training to join the workforce. Many healthcare service professionals shortages are in regions within

The physician shortage is of highest concern in the United States, especially since the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has been passed. The question is, do we really have a physician shortage? Is it by geographical region or by specialty? I will explore this question and have several different solutions to the physician shortage problem.

The United States health care system is currently facing a projected shortage of up to 94,700 physicians by 2025, a number which has been exacerbated by policies within the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Current policies established or proposed to address this issue have been either insufficient in scope or lacked necessary funding for successful implementation. In order to assure quality and adequate access to health care for all individuals, new policies are desperately needed to both increase the physician population in the future and provide solutions until the need can be met. Recommendations to address this issue include increasing the team-based care structure within primary care, reducing the current limitations on non-physician practitioners, and increasing the number of residency positions offered through graduate medical education.

The shortage of physician primary care provider, has created public awareness bringing about the demand of the advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs). The APRN has the necessary training to assess, diagnose and treat patients. As the role of APRN begin to expand the need to prescribe medications becomes very important. According to the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP), APRN practice in the United States is divided into three groups: full practice, reduced practice, or restricted practice.

As the primary care physician shortage continues to rise along with the healthcare costs many states are looking for a solution to the crisis. Some states have already passed laws that have removed the limitations of a nurse practitioner’s ability to practice. Pennsylvania is currently not one of these states but that may soon change if the Senate Bill 1063 is passed (Larson, 2014).

Nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs) play a similar role in today’s healthcare system. Both seek to provide greater access to healthcare and are able to perform the necessary duties in a family practice. However, the theoretical, curricular, and training backgrounds of theses providers differ greatly.

Nurse practitioners evaluate, diagnose, prescribe and generally care for their patients. A survey was completed on the satisfaction nurse practitioners felt relating to their current job and the general consensus determined, “Overall, NPs in the workforce reported high levels of job satisfaction. NPs were most satisfied with their level of autonomy, time spent in patient care, sense of value for what they do, and respect from physicians and colleagues (Health Resources, 2014).” Nurse practitioners are practicing independently in twenty other states and the district of Columbia and national surveys and statistics are generally showing average or above average scores when compared to care given by a physician. A study was done to evaluate nurse practitioners in April of 2014, that compared the care of Medicare and Medicaid patients and the avoidance of hospital admissions,

Nowadays, America’s citizens take simple trips to the doctor for granted. Everyday, millions are treated by doctors for broken bones, sickness, cancer, etc. However, we may not have enough doctors to keep up with the demand. Many people whom have gone through medical school and/or medical classes in college would rather become nurses and doctor’s assistants than become professional physicians or specialists. This poses a major problem for the United States since there is an expected rise in demand for doctors in coming years. This research paper will explain the history, causes, long term, short term, and tried/potential solution to the nation’s shortage of doctors.

With the world of healthcare changing, no one really knows what is going to happen in the future. All we can do is predict, and wait for all of the bugs to be fixed as they arise. We do know that with everyone receiving healthcare, there will be a large increase of people who are now insured. What does this mean; more people will be trying to see the doctor, longer wait times and now a shortage of physicians. The time that it takes for a physician to receive all of their training just isn’t fast enough to keep up with the demand. We need people now and training takes at least 7 years. Then there is the issue: what if they want to specialize. If they specialize that leaves less physicians available to practice in primary care. Many of the physicians that are working today are close to retirement age, and they will be leaving soon. New policies need to be created and hospitals need to try to recruit physicians and need to get them to stay.

With the demand for primary care services already straining resources and capacity in most states, more than 16 million individuals are projected to gain health insurance coverage by 2016, and through advancements in medical science we have a rapidly aging population, many states are considering all options to increase the number and role of primary care providers. Despite a vigorous increase in the supply of physicians following unprecedented increases in medical school capacity in recent years, the “Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) still projects a shortage of 130,000 physicians by 2025, split almost equally between primary and specialty care.” (Association of American Medical Colleges. The Impact of Health Care Reform on

This revolution in health care has resulted in an increased demand of primary care physicians due to the creation of more job openings for health care professionals. A sudden surge in demand for health care professionals such as nurse practitioner and physician assistants has arisen in the past few years. According to “Advanced Practice Trends 2012-2013”, a report published by Jackson Healthcare, job growth in nursing is expected to increase by 27% (Jackson Healthcare). While this may be beneficial for aspiring nurses and physician assistants, it may contribute to the primary care physician shortage as the supply of physicians will not be able to meet these demands. In an effort to reduce this shortage, the Health Resources and Services Administration provided over $75 million to the training of nurse practitioners and physician assistants. This is meant to encourage more medical students to specialize in primary care because of the rise in well-trained nurses. As expected, the AAMC addressed this issue in their 2015 report “The Complexities of Physician Supply and Demand: Projections Through 2025”. After extensive research and data collection, the AAMC reported that demand for physicians would decrease by a large margin if nurse practitioners and physician assistants “play a larger role in patient care”. While the expansion of health care may

Research Question – What are the factors that created the shortage of primary care physicians?

In the United States, the number of physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants is not growing as quickly as needed. By 2025, it has been predicted that the United States will face an increase in shortage of 46,100 to 90,400 physicians. The growth of nurse practitioners and physician assistants was projected to diminish the shortage of physicians, which will require patient and health system acceptance and more available jobs in health care services. The critical increase of need for specialists in the recent years caused so much attention, and the demand was said to grow more rapidly than the supply. The shortage of available physicians in the United States has led to the aging and growing patient population, connected by the expansion of healthcare coverage to deprive of timely healthcare services.

Primary Care Physicians became scarce between the 1950s and 1960s especially in rural areas. Doctors decided then to collaborate with the Registered Nurses since they believed that RNs are knowledgeable and educated about health, wellness and illness. The demand for NPs grew, that’s why a group of renowned nurses and medical practitioners banded together to address. Despite of this, there were still some who opposed believing that they don’t meet the standards and qualifications.