Physicians Practice January 22, 2024
Patients are clamoring for care as the physician shortage gets worse. Here’s why nurse practitioners and physician assistants are part of the solution.
In the United States, we are facing an increasingly severe shortage of primary care physicians: More than 100 million Americans do not have access to primary care due to a lack of providers in their local community. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the Association of American Medical Colleges was already predicting a primary care shortage of as many as 48,000 doctors by 2034. As increased burnout rates push many physicians into early retirement from primary care, the true scale of the future shortage may be expanding.
The American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) reports that nearly 90%...