Health Care Professionals

Health Care Professionals

1. Identify and describe three reasons there may be a physician shortage rather than a surplus in the United States.

When looking at the pyramid of healthcare over the past decades, there has been a significant decrease in the amount of available clinicians within the United States. More specifically, there is a shortage of physicians and is constantly on the rise partly due to the preferences of each physician by having a choice with efficiency, an increase in female physicians and more physicians are demanding a controllable lifestyle. With the ever changing elements within the healthcare system, physicians and patients have been increasingly dissatisfied with limits on choice. Insurance reimbursement rates have decreased significantly causing a severe backlash for physicians (Williams & Torren, pg. 270). As a result, this has created fee-for-service plans thus creating patients to demand efficiency with each physician. Secondly, dating back two decades, statistics revealed only 30.7 percent of women were enrolled in medical school (Williams & Torren, pg. 270). Compared to recent statistics, women make up approximately 49.5 percent of medical students enrolled in 2004-2005 class (Williams & Torren, pg. 270). As a result, this has created a shortage in physicians because women are still the forerunners of raising children and maintaining a home, which leaves less time to operate a practice (Williams & Torren, pg. 270). Lastly, with an increase of women physicians, the shortage of physicians has also been due to demanding a controllable lifestyle. Physicians within this decade seek a different lifestyle that allows for weekends off, limits on the number of hours worked per week, and other amenities that allow for activities outside the workplace (Williams & Torren, pg. 270). Therefore, by physicians decreasing their availability for patients creates a shortage within the United States.

2. Identify and describe three factors that...