FYI: HPSP (maybe med students are wising up?)
http://www.usmedicine.com/article.cfm?articleID=1315&issueID=88
June 2006
Medical Recruiting Shortfalls Worry DoD Leaders - Sandra Basu
Navy Surgeon General Vice Adm. Donald Arthur, MC, USN
WASHINGTON-Top Department of Defense (DoD) health care leaders told the Senate Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense last month that they are experiencing shortfalls in recruiting and retention of medical professionals in the military.
DoD officials said that in FY 2005, the Army filled 77 per cent of its medical corps Health Professions Scholarships Program (HPSP) and 89 per cent of those for its dental corps. The Air Force filled all of its slots for the HPSP, while the Navy filled 56 per cent of its medical corps HPSP slots and 73 per cent of its dental corps HPSP slots. These scholarships are a major source of military accessions for physicians and dentists.
Subcommittee members expressed concern about the challenge of attracting students to the HPSP.
"I am worried when I hear that the Health Professions Scholarship Program, the Army and Navy were unable to fill the slots allocated," said subcommittee chairman Sen. Ted Stevens (R., Ark.).
Navy Surgeon General Vice Adm. Donald C. Arthur, MC, USN, told the subcommittee that the inability to fill slots may be due to the need for more publicity about the benefits of medical service in the military.
"Certainly, there is less interest in military service and a lot of those people coming into medical schools don't know about the Health Professionals Scholarship Program. I think it would behoove us to do a better job of publicizing the scholarship and also a better job of publicizing the kind of experience they get in the military health system," Dr. Arthur told the subcommittee.
Army Surgeon General Lt. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley, MC, USA, said that the impact of falling short now in filling the dental and medical HPSP may not be felt for a another four to seven years. He said that one of the reasons for the difficulty of filling HPSP slots is that there are other scholarships that the HPSP competes with in gaining the attention of students and that people do not always understand the benefits of medical service in the military.
Dr. Kiley and Dr. Arthur said that steps are being taken to publicize the scholarship and more effectively recruit medical professionals. They both said that a step they have taken to strengthen their recruiting efforts is to have physicians recruit physicians and nurses recruit nurses, instead of leaving that task to recruiting professionals. The ability for a medical student to speak with a military physician or a nursing student to speak with a military nurse could be more helpful to a prospective military medical professional.
In addition, they said that they will be sending more physicians to meetings where part of their obligation will be to not only attend the meeting, but to be part of a recruiting booth to talk with medical students and physicians.
Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D., Md.) agreed at the hearing that allowing medical students to speak with military medical professionals was a good idea.
"I think it requires creative outreach. Where you think you are going to be, is who you want to talk to," she said.
Nursing Shortage
All three of the Services experienced nursing shortages in FY 2005. The Air Force was short about 516 nurses. At the end of calendar 2005, the Navy said it had a deficit of 175 Navy nurses. The active component of the Army Nurse Corps was 320 officers short in FY 2005.
Chief of the Army Nurse Corps Maj. Gen. Gale S. Pollock, NC, USA, said at the hearing that the majority of military nursing work in Iraq and Afghanistan is being done by Army nurses. She said that continual rotations for them in combat areas can lead to stress-related issues.
Sen. Stevens wanted to know whether nurses are reluctant to deploy to combat operations. Maj. Gen. Pollock said that what she has heard from Army nurses is that they are willing to go, but the duration of time that they are deployed is wearing them out.
"They are more concerned about the length of time. Each day that the nurses and medics and physicians are serving, they are dealing with an injured soldier or Marine or airman or sailor. They don't have any relief," Maj. Gen. Pollock said, adding that army medical treatment facilities face shortages with civilian nurses, as well.
"In all Army medical treatment facilities, we face significant shortages of civilian nurses, particularly in critical care postoperative, perioperative and OB-GYN nursing," she said.
Maj. Gen. Pollock said that they have found that it helps to have Army nurses assist with recruiting.
"We learned from recruiting that results were much improved when candidates spoke directly with Army nurses. In response, we launched the "Every Nurse is a Recruiter Program." Now all nurses are actively engaged in identifying opportunities to recruit," she said.
