Physician Re-entry: One Way To Address the Physician Shortage

Many are concerned about the current and impending physician shortage, particularly in primary care. With healthcare reform, the current physician shortage will be much more drastic.

According to this article in Physicians News, one way to address the physician shortage is to return inactive physicians to clinical practice. Returning a non-practicing physician to clinical medicine is appealing. First, it is significantly less expensive to re-train an inactive physician than to train a new one. Second, one can re-train physicians much faster than one can train new physicians, so more physicians would be available in less time. Also, in the current economic climate, many retired physicians are looking to return to medicine.

However, re-entry also has its limitations. Physicians wanting to return to clinical medicine face numerous challenges: low self-confidence in their skills, lack of professional networking possibilities, limited resources for gaining up-to-date skills and knowledge, and cumbersome regulations from licensing and credentialing bodies or employers. Of equal concern, programs offering reentry face financial and (educational) resource challenges.

Read the full article at Physicians News, or click here:

http://www.physiciansnews.com/2010/08/12/physician-re-entry-one-way-to-address-the-physician-shortage/