Finding Solutions to the Healthcare Staffing Shortage
The Council on Physician and Nurse Supply (CPNS) was created in response to the
emerging shortage of physicians and the ongoing nurse shortage in the United States.
Based in the University of Pennsylvania's Consortium for Health Workforce Research
and Policy, CPNS is supported by San Diego-based
AMN Healthcare, the nation's largest healthcare staffing
organization.
With both physician and nurse shortages predicted to escalate by 2020, CPNS has
called for an immediate increase in physician and nurse training. If more physicians
and nurses cannot be trained, the adverse consequences could include:
- Inadequate access to care, particularly in rural and inner-city locations.
- Lack of emergency preparedness.
- Decreased ability to accomplish planned expansions of healthcare services, resulting
in negative effects on local and national economies.
Other findings based on CPNS research include:
- At current levels of training and the state of today's healthcare system, these
shortages will continue to increase and there will be too few physicians and nurses
to meet future needs.
- The emphasis of nursing education expansion should be at the baccalaureate (BSN)
level, rather than on associate degree nursing (ADN) programs, which currently receives
the bulk of federal funding. Few ADN graduates move on to advanced practice or faculty
levels, both of which are needed.
- Nurses and physicians are interdependent, so shortages in one group will aggravate
shortages in the other, therefore the infrastructure for nursing and medical education
must be expanded.