Posted September 20, 2006
Patient Safety and Quality Healthcare: e-News
National Council to Address Shortages of Nurses and Physicians
A group of national healthcare leaders has come together to address the growing problem of nurse and physician shortages. According to Richard "Buz" Cooper, MD and Linda Aiken, PhD, RN, co-chairs of the newly created Council on Physician and Nurse Supply, the U.S. may lack as many as 200,000 physicians and 800,000 nurses by the year 2020. "By training more doctors and nurses now," they said, "it may be possible to avert long waiting times for routine health care and remedy the understaffing of hospitals."
The Council is based in the University of Pennsylvania's Consortium for Health Workforce Research and Policy, a joint program of the Schools of Nursing and Medicine and the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics. It is supported by AMN Healthcare, San Diego, the nation's largest healthcare staffing organization.
The Council will monitor data and act as an advocate for change, advising legislators and others on ways that the supply of nurses and physicians can be altered to meet the public's needs. Its goals are to bring objectivity to the study of physician and nurse supply and to shape public policy. It is the only multidisciplinary organization in the nation dedicated exclusively to addressing issues of nurse and physician supply.
"This Council enters at an important time in the evolution of healthcare," said Susan Nowakowski, President and CEO of AMN Healthcare. "The healthcare industry needs a clear, convincing voice calling for solutions to this growing problem. We are pleased to support efforts of some of the best thinkers in the nation to solve this problem."
At its first meeting, which is being planned for October 2006 at the University of Pennsylvania, the Council will examine a range of domestic and international issues that must be addressed as the U.S. attempts to better align its health care workforce with the nation's future health care needs.
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