Primary Care Workforce Solutions: PAs and NPs Volume 2 - Issue 4

James F Cawley*

• Professor, Department of Physician Assistant Practice, Florida State University, USA

Received: November 25, 2020   Published: December 14, 2020

Corresponding author: James F Cawley, Visiting Professor, Scholar-in-Residence Graduate School, Physician Assistant Leadership and Learning Academy, University of Maryland Baltimore, Baltimore, USA

DOI: 10.32474/JCCM.2020.02.000145

 

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Abstract

The United States continues to be faced with anticipated shortages of primary care physicians that, in the near future, will likely worsen. The Association of American Medical Colleges predicts a shortage of 54,100 to 139,000 physicians by 2033 with primary care physician shortages approaching 55,200 [1]. There is a consensus that the Nation’s health workforce will require an increased number of primary care providers and that this requirement includes physician assistants [2]. A key problem across professions is the diminishing fraction of new clinicians who are entering primary care, as opposed to specialties. While shift away from primary care has traditionally been the most apparent for medical doctors and osteopathic physicians), it appears to have spread to PAs as well who have increasingly elected employment within specialty areas. While health care reform (the Patient Protection and Accountable Care Act) has made health insurance coverage available to more than 20 million previously uninsured Americans, questions remain as to whether there will is a sufficient supply of physicians and other health professionals to serve the nation, especially in light of concerns that the nation was facing potentially significant shortages even before health care reform and the Covid 19 pandemic.

Abstract| Introduction| PAs and NPs in Primary Care| The Primary Care Team| References|