Shortage of Healthcare Professionals in the U.S.
Assignment Five
Kathy Cole
American Sentinel University
Assignment Five
This paper will explore the effects of the looming labor status of physicians, pharmacists, and nurses, how the aging demographics will affect the health care system and how technology may play a role in the provision of care. There are many factors that influence the demands for health personnel. These factors are interdependent and include physician supply, changing nature of disability, disease, treatment, technology, expansion of home care, and corporation of health care (Sultz & Young, 2009, p. 218).
The use of health care resources is mostly decided by physicians. The growing number of older adults and the enactment of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) both contribute to the recognition that there will be a shortage of physicians (Mann, 2011, p. 1). The Association of American Medical Colleges projected in 2010 that there will be a shortage of 63,000 physicians by the year 2015. This number is expected to increase to 95,100 by 2020 and 130,600 by 2025. These shortages encompass primary care physicians as well as specialists.
There will be an increase in the need for nurses in the coming years. The coming of age of the baby boomers and a generation of aging nurses who will soon retire make the prediction of a nursing shortage in the future a very real reality. In the recent past with the economic struggle that our nation has faced, the nursing shortage did ease somewhat. That is expected to change and for the worse (Courchane, 2011, p. 1).
The problem is not the amount of people that want to be nurses but the lack of faculty to teach them. The National League for Nursing gave reasons for the shortage of faculty as being an overworked, aging faculty who earn less than nurses that are just entering clinical practice (Williams, 2011, p. 1). There are also fewer nursing faculty that hold advanced degrees. Nursing faculty make 25% less than the salary that faculty in other
Kathy Cole
American Sentinel University
Assignment Five
This paper will explore the effects of the looming labor status of physicians, pharmacists, and nurses, how the aging demographics will affect the health care system and how technology may play a role in the provision of care. There are many factors that influence the demands for health personnel. These factors are interdependent and include physician supply, changing nature of disability, disease, treatment, technology, expansion of home care, and corporation of health care (Sultz & Young, 2009, p. 218).
The use of health care resources is mostly decided by physicians. The growing number of older adults and the enactment of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) both contribute to the recognition that there will be a shortage of physicians (Mann, 2011, p. 1). The Association of American Medical Colleges projected in 2010 that there will be a shortage of 63,000 physicians by the year 2015. This number is expected to increase to 95,100 by 2020 and 130,600 by 2025. These shortages encompass primary care physicians as well as specialists.
There will be an increase in the need for nurses in the coming years. The coming of age of the baby boomers and a generation of aging nurses who will soon retire make the prediction of a nursing shortage in the future a very real reality. In the recent past with the economic struggle that our nation has faced, the nursing shortage did ease somewhat. That is expected to change and for the worse (Courchane, 2011, p. 1).
The problem is not the amount of people that want to be nurses but the lack of faculty to teach them. The National League for Nursing gave reasons for the shortage of faculty as being an overworked, aging faculty who earn less than nurses that are just entering clinical practice (Williams, 2011, p. 1). There are also fewer nursing faculty that hold advanced degrees. Nursing faculty make 25% less than the salary that faculty in other
References: Healthcare Technology Solutions from LGS Innovations. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.lgsinnovations.com/solutions/healthcare Job Outlook for Pharmacists Lewis, N. (2013). Remote Patient Monitoring Market to Double by 2016. Retrieved from http://www.informationweek.com/healthcare/mobile-wireless/remote-patient-monitoring-market-to-doub/240004291 Mann, S Marsolier, C., & Wilson, P. (2010). Making tomorrow’s Healthcare System Fit for an Aging Society. Retrieved from http://www.cisco.com/web/about/ac79/docs/pov/Making_Tomorrows_Healthcare_Systems_Fit_0903FINAL.pdf Nursing Shortage Roney, K. (2012). 3 Future Trends for Telehealth. Retrieved from http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/healthcare-information-technology/3-future-trends-for-telehealth.html Rowe, J Sultz, H. A., & Young, K. M. (2009). Health Care USA (6th ed.). Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers. Williams, MSN, RN, S. (2011). Nursing Faculty Shortage. Retrieved from http://nursing.advanceweb.com/Regional-Content/Articles/Nursing-Faculty-Shortage.aspx