Primary-care Shortage a Threat to all Patients: More Pay, School Debt Luring Medical Grads into Specialty Fields
Theressa Forstein
Kaplan University PRIMARY-CARE SHORTAGE A THREAT TO ALL PATIENTS: MORE PAY, SCHOOL DEBT LURING MEDICAL GRADS INTO SPECIALTY FIELDS
The general point made by Stephanie Innes in her work, “Primary-care Shortage a Threat to all Patients: More Pay, School Debt Luring Medical Grads into Specialty Fields”, is that medical graduates are gaining interest in specialized medicine, such as cardiology, neurology, or urology, and due to this attraction, it has created a shortage in primary care physicians. Innes (2009) states, “Without enough primary doctors, patients may have trouble getting in to see doctors when …show more content…
This type of physician provides care and treatment from infancy to the teenage years only. According to the Committee on Pediatric Workforce (2013), “When the supply of pediatric care physicians in a community is inadequate, children will not have access to a pediatric medical home and may receive care in alternative settings, such as emergency departments and retail-based clinics, where the focus is on acute and episodic treatment rather than health supervision and preventative services.” Ultimately, the parents will then have the responsibility to make the decisions to travel for individual care for their child and for some, this can cause undue hardships. Due to the increasing number of children with chronic or acute diseases, pediatricians are a great need in the medical arena.
The Primary-care practice requires a physician to be knowledgeable in Family medicine, Internal medicine, and Pediatrics. Often times a family physician can tend to all of these, but an internist and pediatrician are only age specific. The shortage of primary care physicians relates to the lack of interest in the Primary care field of medicine. The medical graduate generally has a six-figure amount of debt, and with the possibility of earning more money with a specialized degree, most grads are leaning toward the specialties. Hence, the struggle continues to keep the interest of the medical graduates in the primary care field so that the shortage does not continue to
Theressa Forstein
Kaplan University PRIMARY-CARE SHORTAGE A THREAT TO ALL PATIENTS: MORE PAY, SCHOOL DEBT LURING MEDICAL GRADS INTO SPECIALTY FIELDS
The general point made by Stephanie Innes in her work, “Primary-care Shortage a Threat to all Patients: More Pay, School Debt Luring Medical Grads into Specialty Fields”, is that medical graduates are gaining interest in specialized medicine, such as cardiology, neurology, or urology, and due to this attraction, it has created a shortage in primary care physicians. Innes (2009) states, “Without enough primary doctors, patients may have trouble getting in to see doctors when …show more content…
This type of physician provides care and treatment from infancy to the teenage years only. According to the Committee on Pediatric Workforce (2013), “When the supply of pediatric care physicians in a community is inadequate, children will not have access to a pediatric medical home and may receive care in alternative settings, such as emergency departments and retail-based clinics, where the focus is on acute and episodic treatment rather than health supervision and preventative services.” Ultimately, the parents will then have the responsibility to make the decisions to travel for individual care for their child and for some, this can cause undue hardships. Due to the increasing number of children with chronic or acute diseases, pediatricians are a great need in the medical arena.
The Primary-care practice requires a physician to be knowledgeable in Family medicine, Internal medicine, and Pediatrics. Often times a family physician can tend to all of these, but an internist and pediatrician are only age specific. The shortage of primary care physicians relates to the lack of interest in the Primary care field of medicine. The medical graduate generally has a six-figure amount of debt, and with the possibility of earning more money with a specialized degree, most grads are leaning toward the specialties. Hence, the struggle continues to keep the interest of the medical graduates in the primary care field so that the shortage does not continue to