Shorter Degrees and More Power to Nurses May Help Relieve Doctor Shortage

We’ve reported on the nursing shortage that has been taking its toll on the United States recently, but problems within the health care field are far more complex than a shortage of nurses alone. Today, Epoch Times reported yet another shortage that could have major repercussions. This time, it’s a lack of primary care physicians.

According to the article, the shortage of primary care physicians is no shock: for all of the time, effort, and money students spend on medical training, those that go into primary care often get the short end of the stick when it comes to career benefits compared to their specialist peers. “While they are in the highest demand, they also get paid the least among doctors, making nearly half of what specialists do,” it notes. “Now, consider that these primary care physicians are more or less required to complete a four-year bachelor’s degree, then a four-year medical degree, and then a minimum of one to three years of clinical training. That’s at least nine to eleven years, and they’re still at the bottom of their profession… Add onto that decade of rigorous tutelage an average of at least $150,000 of debt and you have a truly unpleasant stretch of life that must be knowingly swallowed by 18-year-olds. Is it any big surprise then that there is a shortage of primary care physicians?”

It’s a problem that President Obama addressed at a town hall meeting last month, but solutions are in the works.

One solution that the President suggested was to allow for additional incentive pay for primary care physicians; still, considering that primary care physicians do still earn a desirable salary compared to the average U.S. citizen, it’s noted that it could be a difficult proposition to sit well with congress or taxpayers. (While at the bottom end of their profession, six figure salaries don’t attract a lot of pity.)

Another suggestion, this one from officials in the Administration, is to broaden the scope of responsibilities allowed for those with nurse practicioner degrees and physician assistant training. This one is a proposition that could carry well. As it stands now, even though nurses and physician assistants often have the qualifications and know-how to perform many of the same procedures as doctors, “they are restricted by state-based medical boards who limit their ’scope of practice,’ as it’s known in health industry lingo.” With a change, however, these nurses and assistants could offer their services without the need for a physician to oversee their work.

A third suggestion is to shorten the amount of schooling needed to obtain a health care degree. Right now, the leap from nurse to doctor is quite drastic in terms of additional education, but it isn’t like that everywhere. “Instead of taking about 10 years to get a doctor on the street,” the article states, “our neighbors in the United Kingdom get their equivalent of the primary care physician in just five years. After high school, students in the United Kingdom, and other commonwealth countries like Australia, New Zealand, and India, enter directly into five- or six-year programs leading to a degree known as a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery Degree (MBBS).” On this side of the Atlantic, such changes could make drastic improvements in the amount of students willing to enter the field of primary care — from a reduction in debt to a quicker show of results for all that time and hard work. Whether any — or even all — of these suggestions will be taken remains to be seen, but something needs to be done, before the shortage becomes an epidemic.

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