Trends in the supply of physician assistants and nurse practitioners in the United States.
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In 2001 an estimated 103,612 nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs) were in clinical employment in the United States. The roles of PAs and NPs in providing comparable physician services are similar; they differ in that NPs are predominantly in primary care, while PAs are divided between primary and specialty care. PA and NP education processes also differ in the student pool and trends in the output. The combined number of graduates totaled 11,585 in 2001. However, the annual number of NP graduates is declining, while the number of PA graduates is increasing. These observations have implications for the future in the types of patients they see and the degree of health care services they provide. (+info)
Challenges to the pharmacist profession from escalating pharmaceutical demand.
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Unexpected growth in medication use has escalated demand for pharmacists that has outpaced supply. Responses to the pharmacist shortage include larger workloads and greater use of pharmacist extenders and technology. As the profession has moved from a product orientation (dispensing medications) to a patient focus, clinical training requirements have expanded. However, structural and process barriers, particularly in community and retail pharmacies, must be addressed to improve the medication-use process. These issues merit greater attention from health care leaders and policymakers. (+info)
Effects of current and future information technologies on the health care workforce.
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Information technologies have the potential to affect the types and distribution of jobs in the health care workforce. Against a background of an explosively growing body of knowledge in the health sciences, current models of clinical decision making by autonomous practitioners, relying upon their memory and personal experience, will be inadequate for effective twenty-first-century health care delivery. The growth of consumerism and the proliferation of Internet-accessible sources of health-related information will modify the traditional roles of provider and patient and will provide opportunities for new kinds of employment in health-related professions. (+info)
Arching the flood: how to bridge the gap between nursing schools and hospitals.
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A gap persists between what nurses can do and what they are employed to do, between the education nurses obtain and the work design of hospitals. Despite agonizing over standardization, current nursing education reflects the pluralistic nursing workforce, and nurses hold accountability for it. But nurses have not been proportionately or effectively involved in restructuring the hospital workplace. The result is that nurses are both overworked and underused. Fortunately, this gap may be bridged with a number of short- and long-term policy solutions. (+info)
Minimum nurse-to-patient ratios in acute care hospitals in California.
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Many registered nurses believe that nurse staffing in acute care hospitals is inadequate. In 1999 California became the first state to mandate minimum nurse-to-patient ratios in hospitals. State officials announced draft ratios in January 2002 and expect to implement the legislation by July 2003. We estimate that the direct costs of compliance will be small. However, mandatory ratios could generate opportunity costs that are not easily measured and that may outweigh their benefits. Policymakers elsewhere should consider other strategies to address nurses' concerns, because other approaches may be less costly and produce greater benefits to nurses and patients. (+info)
The growing challenge of providing oral health care services to all Americans.
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By many measures, the practice of dentistry has improved for the dentist over the past decade. Hours of work are down, and compensation is increasing. However, there is a growing disconnect between the dominant pattern of practice of the profession and the oral health needs of the nation. To address these needs, the profession will need to take some radical steps toward redefinition, or the responsibility for many for these needs and special populations may shift to other providers and other institutions. (+info)
Who cares for older adults? Workforce implications of an aging society.
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There is a critical shortage of geriatrics-prepared health care professionals. In 2002 more than thirty-five million people were age sixty-five and older, and 23 percent of them reported poor or fair health. Older adults use 23 percent of ambulatory care visits and 48 percent of hospital days, and they represent 83 percent of nursing facility residents. Yet 58 percent of baccalaureate nursing programs have no full-time faculty certified in geriatric nursing. Only three of the nation's 145 medical schools have geriatrics departments, and less than 10 percent of these require a geriatrics course. We argue that every health care worker must have some education in geriatrics and access to geriatrics care experts. (+info)
The case for diversity in the health care workforce.
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Increasing the racial and ethnic diversity of the health care workforce is essential for the adequate provision of culturally competent care to our nation's burgeoning minority communities. A diverse health care workforce will help to expand health care access for the underserved, foster research in neglected areas of societal need, and enrich the pool of managers and policymakers to meet the needs of a diverse populace. The long-term solution to achieving adequate diversity in the health professions depends upon fundamental reforms of our country's precollege education system. Until these reforms occur, affirmative action tools in health professions schools are critical to achieving a diverse health care workforce. (+info)