Program Offers Medical Students Fast-Track Path To Become Family Physicians
Primary care shortages are plaguing the country, as many students choose higher-paying specialties because of massive loans. But one program helps burgeoning doctors balance their debt and their desire to practice family medicine. Meanwhile, Congress looks to tackle OB-GYN shortages when it returns after the elections.
Modern Healthcare:
Medical Schools Tackle Primary-Care Shortages
Not long after Keeley Hobart started medical school at Texas Tech University in 2011, she joined a federally funded program that allowed her to finish school one year early and receive a scholarship equal to a full year of tuition. The caveat: the program's curriculum focused exclusively on preparing medical students to become family physicians, one of the lowest-paid specialties in medicine. ... Texas Tech's admissions officers look for students for the Family Medicine Accelerated Track who eventually want to practice in small towns, which face a shortage of qualified doctors willing to locate in their communities. (Castellucci, 11/5)
North Carolina Health News:
Federal Study: Nurse Midwives Could Fill Rural Maternity-Care Gaps
Extending this sort of care, as well as that of OB-GYNs, to more women in underserved areas nationally is the goal of legislation that won the recommendation of a U.S. House committee this fall and awaits Congress upon its post-election return. The bill, “Improving Access to Maternity Care Act of 2015 (H.R.1209/S. 628),” calls for the assessment of gaps in OB-GYN and midwifery care in rural areas. The resulting data could put the spotlight back on North Carolina’s requirement for midwives to have a contract to work under physician supervision. That requirement that has ended up limiting midwives’ ability to establish and run practices in many underserved areas. (Goldsmith, 11/7)
Meanwhile, as the economy improves and nurses are starting to retire again, demand is spiking —
The Wall Street Journal:
Nurses Are Again In Demand
After years of relative equilibrium, the job market for nurses is heating up in many markets, driving up wages and sign-on bonuses for the nation’s fifth-largest occupation. The last nursing shortage more than a decade ago ended when a surge of nursing graduates filled many positions, and the Great Recession led older nurses to delay retirement. But as the economy improves, nurses who held on to jobs through the uneven recovery are now retiring or cutting back hours, say recruiters. (Evans, 11/7)
