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Originally Posted by Chakrabs
You make it sounds so easy. Pray tell, how will you pay for the increased number of residency spots? Funding for current residency spots is threatened as is. That said, I'm with you, I'd rather see more physicians treating our patients, but thats not likely to happen anytime soon.
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The money is there if we decide primary care is a priority for the country. We can get qualified doctors into this country practically for free through the use of foreign medical schools. What we need is more primary care residency spots. The need to have DNP's practice primary care is a red herring argument and won't alleviate the primary care shortage in this country any better than opening more residency slots.
The Obama administration realized this and put over $250 million dollars in guaranteed funding towards primary initiatives in the 2011 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
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On June 16, 2010, the Obama Administration announced it would allocate $250 million to increase the number of primary care providers. The money, drawn from the Prevention and Public Health Fund established by PPACA, is directed at six initiatives:
• Primary care medical residency positions: $167 million for more than 500 additional medical residency positions in primary care specialties (i.e., family practice, general internal medicine, general pediatrics);
• Physician assistants: $30 million to educate more than 700 additional physician assistants;
• Advanced practice nursing students: $31 million for financial assistance so that 600 part-time nurse practitioner and nurse midwifery students can enroll on a full-time basis and complete their degrees more rapidly;
• Nurse-managed clinics: $15 million for 10 nurse-managed clinics that will provide clinical education for nurse practitioner students;
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The countries legislators realize the primary care shortage this country faces and are doing what they need to, to combat it.
The main issue is the nursing lobby using a doctor shortage to make a professional land grab, rather than the more sensible solution of increasing the doctor supply.