An Alternative Solution to Our Shortage of Nurses, Physicians, Pharmacists, and Other Health Care Providers?

Abstract

o, America has 76 million aging baby boomers, and in 30 years, 70 million Americans will be 65 years of age and older, representing one fifth of the U.S. population. Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) has expressed concerns that in light of these demographics, the shortages in numbers of health care providers will “place our nation’s seniors in peril.” 1 Lincoln further acknowl edges that in addition to boosting the number of certified geriatricians in this nation, we must also address the shortages of nurses, social workers, psychologists, nutritionists, and pharmacists who work together to provide a web of comprehensive care for our most frail, vulnerable seniors. Reports of shortages of health care providers with an interest in aging abound, and I won’t bore you with the numbers. Suffice it to say that we don’t anticipate having sufficient numbers of any of these health care providers to meet the needs of the ever growing population of older adults and the vast numbers of us adults who are aging as we speak. Moreover, I would further venture to anticipate given my own clinical practice that we will be seeing more and more individuals living beyond 100. These centenarians want and need health care services to continue to help them manage medical problems and optimize quality of life. We have begun to recognize that the problem of shortages can’t easily be solved by increasing the number of students we have in any of these professions, although that is a critical building block. In schools of nursing, we have more than manageable num-