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Addressing workforce shortages
Have you read about the "doctor nurse" ? As a response to the increasing shortage of primary care physicians, nursing schools in the US have established doctorate of nursing programs to equip graduates with skills that are equivalent to primary care physicians. The two year program, which includes a one year residency, is expected to create a hybrid practitioner with more skills, knowledge, and training than a nurse practitioner with a master's degree. Apparently Doctor Nurse Practitioners (DNP) are being trained to have more focus than doctors on coordinating care among many specialists and health care settings. By 2015, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing aims to make the doctoral degree the standard for all new advanced practice nurses, including nurse practitioners.
Some physician groups have obviously responded that blurring the line between doctors and nurses could confuse patients and jeopardize care, and want DNPs to be required to clearly state to patients and prospective students that they are not medical doctors. These groups believe that 4 years of medical school and 3 years of residency training prepares physicians to understand complex medical issues much better.
However, the primary aim of the DNP is not to usurp the role of the physician, but to deal with the fact that there simply won't be enough of them to care for patients with increasingly comples care needs. As physicians face shrinking insurance reimbursements and rising malpractice-insurance costs, more medical students are forsaking primary care for specialty practices with higher incomes. As a result, there could be a shortfall ranging from 85.000 to 200,000 primary care physicians by 2020, according to various estimates.
India is already facing shortage of physicians, and the situation is not expected to get any better. For instance, around 25,000 doctors graduate from medical school every year, but only 60-70 % go to work in healthcare. Every year only 20 new medical schools are being set up, and even these are challenged to find good faculty. What is of even greater concern is the shortage of nurses. Physician groups and policy makers need to quickly respond to this situation.
Have you read about the "doctor nurse" ? As a response to the increasing shortage of primary care physicians, nursing schools in the US have established doctorate of nursing programs to equip graduates with skills that are equivalent to primary care physicians. The two year program, which includes a one year residency, is expected to create a hybrid practitioner with more skills, knowledge, and training than a nurse practitioner with a master's degree. Apparently Doctor Nurse Practitioners (DNP) are being trained to have more focus than doctors on coordinating care among many specialists and health care settings. By 2015, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing aims to make the doctoral degree the standard for all new advanced practice nurses, including nurse practitioners.
Some physician groups have obviously responded that blurring the line between doctors and nurses could confuse patients and jeopardize care, and want DNPs to be required to clearly state to patients and prospective students that they are not medical doctors. These groups believe that 4 years of medical school and 3 years of residency training prepares physicians to understand complex medical issues much better.
However, the primary aim of the DNP is not to usurp the role of the physician, but to deal with the fact that there simply won't be enough of them to care for patients with increasingly comples care needs. As physicians face shrinking insurance reimbursements and rising malpractice-insurance costs, more medical students are forsaking primary care for specialty practices with higher incomes. As a result, there could be a shortfall ranging from 85.000 to 200,000 primary care physicians by 2020, according to various estimates.
India is already facing shortage of physicians, and the situation is not expected to get any better. For instance, around 25,000 doctors graduate from medical school every year, but only 60-70 % go to work in healthcare. Every year only 20 new medical schools are being set up, and even these are challenged to find good faculty. What is of even greater concern is the shortage of nurses. Physician groups and policy makers need to quickly respond to this situation.
posted by Srivathsan @ 8:10 AM
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