HCAD 600
Overcoming the Physician Shortage in the United States
University of Maryland Global Campus
HCAD 600
The ongoing physician shortage in the US has only been amplified by the
coronavirus (COVID 19) pandemic of the past year. Near the beginning of the pandemic,
countries across the world—including the US—were allowing newly trained physicians to
skip processes near the end of their credentialing process in order to practice medicine to
address the urgent need of physicians. Unfortunately, a large and untapped resource
exists in the US to help alleviate this problem in the heart of the coronavirus pandemic:
foreign-trained immigrants in the US.
In the US alone, there are over 165,000 foreign-trained immigrants who have
degrees in health-related fields, but are either unable to practice in their trained discipline,
or are underemployed; having to settle for traditionally lower skilled positions than which
they were trained for in their native country (Hawryluk, 2021). These workers come
from all over the world and have vast experience in dealing with AIDS, pandemics,
underserved communities, etc. These skills are largely left uncultivated due to the
rigorous, and restrictive licensing and credentialing process here in the US. Many of
these foreign-trained health care professionals find it near impossible to enroll in
necessary training in the US in order to become fully licensed physicians. “…it’s
difficult for foreign-trained physicians to secure a spot [in residency], because many are
earmarked for U.S. med school graduates. And many residency programs are open only to
recent graduates, not those who finished medical school years ago” (Hawryluk, 2021).
Five states and the District of Columbia have adjusted guidelines to allow some of these
, foreign-born health care professionals to work during the pandemic to help address the
physician shortage in the US (Hawryluk, 2021). This alone is not enough to address the
shortage, but there are other means by which this persistent problem in healthcare can be
resolved.
Although this physician shortage cannot be fully alleviated at this point
(especially given how the coronavirus has exacerbated this problem), there are other
effective avenues that should be used to address it. Being able to retain the talent
necessary is a challenge all positions of the healthcare industry faces, especially
physicians. Physician retention poses a problem across the entire industry. With the
aforementioned shortage, these medical professionals face longer hours, less pay, and are
becoming burned out at an increasingly high rate. As the article highlights, tapping into
the existing foreign-trained medical professionals would go a long way in addressing this
shortage, while also alleviating the existing physician/nurse burnout. At the individual
clinic/practice level, task-shifting is a simple, yet effective way of balancing the workload
of individual healthcare workers. Although effective in temporarily addressing the
problems caused by the physician shortage, task sharing can lead to other unforeseen
problems, such as worker resentment, being over-worked, and high employee turnover.
Using principles like task-shifting, improving retention ideas, and hiring foreign-trained
physicians can greatly improve the staffing shortages we face in America.
Dealing with the shortage as an administrator does not necessarily mean solving
the problems, but dealing with them in a way that most benefits the patients and the
practice. Task-shifting, as defined by the WHO, is “a process of delegation whereby
tasks are moved, where appropriate, to less-specialized health workers” (2007). As
health care administrators, we are not only responsible for the welfare of our patients, but
also the welfare of our practices and employees. Task-shifting is one method that
Overcoming the Physician Shortage in the United States
University of Maryland Global Campus
HCAD 600
The ongoing physician shortage in the US has only been amplified by the
coronavirus (COVID 19) pandemic of the past year. Near the beginning of the pandemic,
countries across the world—including the US—were allowing newly trained physicians to
skip processes near the end of their credentialing process in order to practice medicine to
address the urgent need of physicians. Unfortunately, a large and untapped resource
exists in the US to help alleviate this problem in the heart of the coronavirus pandemic:
foreign-trained immigrants in the US.
In the US alone, there are over 165,000 foreign-trained immigrants who have
degrees in health-related fields, but are either unable to practice in their trained discipline,
or are underemployed; having to settle for traditionally lower skilled positions than which
they were trained for in their native country (Hawryluk, 2021). These workers come
from all over the world and have vast experience in dealing with AIDS, pandemics,
underserved communities, etc. These skills are largely left uncultivated due to the
rigorous, and restrictive licensing and credentialing process here in the US. Many of
these foreign-trained health care professionals find it near impossible to enroll in
necessary training in the US in order to become fully licensed physicians. “…it’s
difficult for foreign-trained physicians to secure a spot [in residency], because many are
earmarked for U.S. med school graduates. And many residency programs are open only to
recent graduates, not those who finished medical school years ago” (Hawryluk, 2021).
Five states and the District of Columbia have adjusted guidelines to allow some of these
, foreign-born health care professionals to work during the pandemic to help address the
physician shortage in the US (Hawryluk, 2021). This alone is not enough to address the
shortage, but there are other means by which this persistent problem in healthcare can be
resolved.
Although this physician shortage cannot be fully alleviated at this point
(especially given how the coronavirus has exacerbated this problem), there are other
effective avenues that should be used to address it. Being able to retain the talent
necessary is a challenge all positions of the healthcare industry faces, especially
physicians. Physician retention poses a problem across the entire industry. With the
aforementioned shortage, these medical professionals face longer hours, less pay, and are
becoming burned out at an increasingly high rate. As the article highlights, tapping into
the existing foreign-trained medical professionals would go a long way in addressing this
shortage, while also alleviating the existing physician/nurse burnout. At the individual
clinic/practice level, task-shifting is a simple, yet effective way of balancing the workload
of individual healthcare workers. Although effective in temporarily addressing the
problems caused by the physician shortage, task sharing can lead to other unforeseen
problems, such as worker resentment, being over-worked, and high employee turnover.
Using principles like task-shifting, improving retention ideas, and hiring foreign-trained
physicians can greatly improve the staffing shortages we face in America.
Dealing with the shortage as an administrator does not necessarily mean solving
the problems, but dealing with them in a way that most benefits the patients and the
practice. Task-shifting, as defined by the WHO, is “a process of delegation whereby
tasks are moved, where appropriate, to less-specialized health workers” (2007). As
health care administrators, we are not only responsible for the welfare of our patients, but
also the welfare of our practices and employees. Task-shifting is one method that
