Quote:
Originally Posted by Number 6
I have a friend who is a physician (Internist) who has a daughter in medical school. His advise to her is to get into a specialty that does not require a stethoscope. And you wonder why there is a shortage of primary care physicians.
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No, the reason for the shortage of primary care physicians is not just higher pay as your post implies.
The biggest reason is that there are too few
required residency-training slots for the number of medical-school graduates in need of them.....
"All medical students must complete residency in a field of their choosing before they can practice medicine. New medical schools are opening across the country, but strangely, the number of medical residency spots is remaining nearly constant. Most residency programs receive funding from Medicare. The number of residency positions that Medicare will pay for was set in a 1997 law called the Balanced Budget Act. No new federally funded positions have been added since then, even though the U.S. population has grown by 49 million people and the complexity of medical care has increased by orders of magnitude....
....By the end of the decade, the number of US medical and osteopathic school graduates is projected to exceed the number of residency positions (currently the extra residency spots are filled by graduates of foreign medical schools, who have historically helped provide much-needed primary care services and care in rural settings). Already many students are not able to train in the field they prefer due to a lack of available residency spots. Soon, students who have gone through the medical school admissions process and the long hours and considerable expense of medical school will not be able to continue to any residency position.."
"Medical School Enrollment Outpacing Available Residency Slots
May 20, 2013 02:47 pm Sheri Porter – New survey results released by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) show that enrollment at U.S. medical schools and schools of osteopathic medicine continues to increase at a steady pace. However, the same survey report highlights increasing concern from the nation's medical school deans about insufficient numbers of residency training positions being available to meet matriculating students' graduate medical education needs....."
And then there is the fact that a doctor who's finished with all their education and training has around $360,000 in student loan debt as our friends' son has, which is going to be almost impossible to manage on a family practice or internists'
gross pay of $150,000 that has to also fund their first home purchase, funding their kids' college education that will probably cost $200,000 each, funding their self-retirement funds, etc.
And then there is the question of whether every young doctor choosing a specialty is attracted to working with patients who will probably get better and go home, or whether they work with patients who probably are only going to get worse. That is not for everyone.
The Shortage of Medical Residency Spots: A Failure of Government Control - Forbes
Medical School Enrollment Outpacing Available Residency Slots -- AAFP News Now -- AAFP