Demographic Changes Hit the Doctor Ranks

America is aging and so are her doctors and nurses — just when the public needs them most. That's the news from a research report by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

What's more, the study finds the doctors of tomorrow don't expect to work the same hours as their older peers because of their desire for a healthier work-life balance than their predecessors.

In addition to a shortage of clinicians to meet expected demand, the report found geographic disparities of physicians by specialty and geography caused by the move toward hospital employment or higher-paying subspecialties. About 20 percent of Americans currently live in areas with too few primary care physicians — at a time when the same percentage of internal medicine residents are choosing primary care medicine as a career.

Within primary care, the roles of physicians and nurses are changing too. Hospitals increasingly are relying on nurse practitioners and physician assistants while the growing number of retail health clinics stiffens competition for their services. By 2009, it's expected that about 1,500 retail clinics staffed by registered nurses will open.

Meanwhile, with hospital vacancy rates running between 7 percent and 10 percent, many nurses are moving away from hospital employment — prompting hospitals to turn to temporary workers and international recruits to fill their positions.

Needed: Better Training and Work/Life Balance

The PricewaterhouseCoopers research shows that the quality of clinical training needs improvement, especially for nurses. The number of denied applicants for nursing schools is at its highest level partly due to a shortage of nursing faculty, financial incentives and clinical training sites.

On the bright side, a record number of new medical schools are scheduled to open in the next five to 10 years, which may level the imbalance of physicians in underserved areas and specialties.

The report concludes that health-care employers need to address the increased work/life balance sought by a new generation of doctors and nurses. Today's medical students now consider work/life balance the top criteria for their choice of specialty and the most important measure of job satisfaction.

Organizations that deliver on these issues for physicians and nurses will have a competitive edge in recruiting and retaining top talent.

Source: plansponsor.com