| Dear Reader,
Before Thanksgiving recedes into distant memory, AMA staff
would like to give thanks to the nearly 60% of health professions
education programs who completed the annual survey (online at
http://www.ama-assn.org/go/hpsurvey).
The updates and data you've provided will help ensure the accuracy
and completeness of the 2004-2005 edition of the Health Professions
Career and Education Directory (to be printed in February 2004).
So again, our thanks to you and to the many professional associations
and accrediting bodies who helped encourage survey completion.
Happy Holidays!
Fred Donini-Lenhoff
Health Professions E-Letter, 12/2003
1. Oral majority: Physicians, dentists
join forces to provide dental care
2. Quotable: Who's minding the health
workforce?
3. The top 10 ways states can address
health workforce shortages
4. Physicians finding that "PA"
also stands for "practice asset"
5. African Americans, Hispanics
have lower rates of influenza vaccination
6. Outsourcing health data overseas
can be security risk
7. New proposed federal legislation
to address health disparities
8. US facing "severe"
shortage of diagnostic imaging professionals
9. Orthoptics is "Allied Health
Profession of the Month"
10. AMA endorses JCAHO protocol
for safe surgical care
11. "You are feeling sleeeepy:"
Hypnosis moving into medical mainstream?
12. ASRT survey shows educator
shortage compounding practitioner shortage
1. Oral majority: Physicians,
dentists join forces to provide dental care
Working in a collaborative spirit with dental professionals,
more physicians are providing preventive dental care for their
patients, according to a recent article in American Medical
News ("Physicians, dentists collaborate on oral health,"
December 1).
Groups such as the American Academy of Pediatrics and the
American Academy of Family Physicians are highlighting the
importance of oral health.
Both doctors and dentists agree the partnership is needed,
with tooth decay the most common chronic childhood disease
and a shortage of dental professionals nationwide. In 2000,
the first Surgeon General's report on oral health cited a
"silent epidemic" of dental and oral diseases and
called for health professions to work jointly to improve the
nation's oral health.
To read more, see: http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2003/12/01/prsa1201.htm
2. Quotable: Who's minding the health
workforce?
"Currently, many sectors within the allied health professions
are ailing and failing," writes Thomas Elwood, DrPH,
in the Summer 2003 issue of Diversity: Allied Health Careers.
"Although a high proportion of all treatment furnished
in a hospital is accompanied by medical laboratory tests,
the medical technologists who perform these procedures are
experiencing a personnel shortage that is just as severe as,
if not worse than, what afflicts nursing."
Elwood, the executive director of the Association of Schools
of Allied Health Professions, also describes how the number
of magnetic resonance imaging procedures is growing but the
number of radiologic technologists is not
keeping up, meaning that "the possibility of a decline
in quality becomes more likely."
3. The top 10 ways states can address
health workforce shortages
1. Career ladders for current workers
2. High schools oriented to health careers
3. Innovative, flexible educational programs
4. New and improved technologies, particularly information
systems
5. More training programs for health careers
6. Increased education and training, including funds
from Medicare and Medicaid
7. Evidence-based scope-of-practice requirements
8. Training for recent immigrants who were educated
as health professionals in their native countries
9. Training of supervisors and managers
10. Expanded data collection and tracking of the supply,
demand, and use of health workers
Source: Making Sense of the System: How States Can Use Health
Workforce Policies to Increase Access and Improve Quality
of Care, by Edward Salsberg, Executive Director of the New
York Center for Health Workforce Studies.
The report was published by the Milbank Memorial Fund and
the Reforming States Group. To read the report in either html
or pdf format, see:
http://www.milbank.org/reports/2003salsberg/2003salsberg.html
http://www.milbank.org/reports/2003salsberg/Salsberg_Mech.pdf
4. Physicians finding that "PA"
also stands for "practice asset"
Increasing numbers of physicians are discovering the benefits
of hiring physician assistants, according to a November 17
article in American Medical News ("More family doctors
find PAs to be practice assets").
Philadelphia dermatologist Susan C. Taylor, MD, told AMNews,
"Having a physician extender has worked well to accommodate
my patients. [Without the PA] the wait would be longer, things
would not move as smoothly and I would be overworked. They're
just a wonderful addition to medicine."
To read more, see: http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2003/11/17/prsd1117.ht
5. African Americans, Hispanics have
lower rates influenza vaccination
- Each year 114,000 people in the US are hospitalized because
of influenza
- 36,000 people die annually due to influenza and its complications
- African Americans and Hispanics have significantly lower
influenza and pneumoccal immunization rates compared to
the rest of the population.
The AMA and its Minority Affairs Consortium, reflecting
a commitment to eliminate racial and ethnic health disparities,
ask all health professionals to encourage their patients to
get influenza vaccinations. The most effective way to influence
patients is to let them know YOU received your flu shot and
inform them that the vaccine will not give them the flu.
For more information, see: http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/11620.html
6. Outsources health
data overseas can be security risk
"A woman in Pakistan doing cut-rate clerical work for
UCSF Medical Center threatened to post patients' confidential
files on the Internet unless she was paid more money. . .
. The violation of medical privacy -- apparently the first
of its kind -- highlights the danger of 'offshoring' work
that involves sensitive materials, an increasing trend among
budget-conscious US companies and institutions."
"A tough lesson on medical privacy"
San Francisco Chronicle, October 22
http://tinyurl.com/rxz2
7. New proposed federal legislation
to address health disparities
Senate Democrats have announced legislation that aims to
reduce the proven disparities in health care and access to
medical service between minority communities and other Americans.
"[The Healthcare Equality and Accountability Act of 2003]
will increase minority health coverage," said Senate
Democratic Leader Tom Daschle (SD). "It will strengthen
the health safety net, providing adequate resources for
public hospitals and community health centers and clinics.
Our plan will also increase the number of minority physicians
and other health professionals. It will target cultural and
language barriers that prevent many minorities, especially
immigrants, from getting proper health care."
In a related story, blacks and Hispanics are up to three
times more likely than whites to feel that minorities receive
a lower level of care, according to a recent study in Health
Affairs. Just one in five whites felt minorities got shortchanged.
8. US facing "severe"
shortage of diagnostic imaging professionals
"The national workforce shortage among diagnostic imaging
workers is among the most severe of all allied health care
professions," according to Diagnostic Imaging Workers
in California, a report from the Center for the Health Professions,
University of California, San Francisco.
"Practitioners in the field of diagnostic imaging point
to a lack of professional recognition and low salaries,"
the report notes, as well as job burnout and risk of injury,
not only from excessive radiation exposure but musculoskeletal
ailments caused by lifting and positioning patients.
To read more (Adobe Acrobat Reader required), see: http://futurehealth.ucsf.edu/pdf_files/Diagnos_Imaging_Brief2.pdf
9. Orthoptics is "Allied
Health Profession of the Month"
Now featured on the Health Professions Network's Web site
is the profession of orthoptics:
http://www.healthpronet.org/ahp_month/11_03.html
Profiled in recent months were art therapy, music therapy,
occupational therapy, and respiratory therapy.
To request that HealthProNet.org feature your health profession
in the future, send an e-mail to:
webmaster@healthpronet.org
10. AMA endorses JCAHO protocol
for safe surgical care
The AMA has endorsed guidelines established by the Joint
Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO)
for enhancing the safety, quality, and excellence of patient
surgical care. The guidelines include policies and techniques
to help health professionals eliminate avoidable surgical
errors.
"Injury to patients is rarely caused by simple failures
of health care professionals. More often, complex interactions
between multiple individuals, sophisticated technologies or
bureaucratic management systems can result in conditions that
inadvertently threaten patient safety," said AMA President
Donald J. Palmisano, MD, JD.
"The AMA is confident that both patient safety and satisfaction
will be improved as the protocol is implemented across the
health care system."
To read more, see: http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/article/1617-8204.html
11. "You are feeling
sleeeepy:" Hypnosis moving into medical mainstream?
Major hospitals nationwide are turning to hypnosis to treat
irritable bowel syndrome, relieve pain from burns,
speed healing of bone fractures, and reduce post-surgery recovery
time, reports The Wall Street Journal ("Altered
States: Hypnosis In Mainstream Medicine," October 7).
"Hypnosis may sound like magic, but we are now producing
evidence showing it can be significantly therapeutic,"
David Spiegel, a Stanford University psychologist, told the
Journal. "We know it works but we don't exactly know
how, though there is some science beginning to figure that
out, too."
The AMA certified the technique as a legitimate treatment
tool in 1958, upon evidence of its success during World
War II in treating pain. And in 1996, a National Institutes
of Health panel ruled hypnosis as an effective intervention
for alleviating pain from cancer and other chronic conditions.
12. ASRT survey shows educator
shortage compounding practitioner shortage
The number of first-year students in radiography, radiation
therapy, and nuclear medicine programs increased again in
2003, according to the results of a new study by the American
Society of Radiologic Technologists (ASRT).
Based on those figures, the ASRT projects that the United
States will meet government-projected demand for radiation
therapists and nuclear medicine technologists by 2010 but
will fall short of producing enough radiographers to fill
the expected number of job openings.
The ASRT study also showed that 79 percent of responding
radiography programs are at full enrollment; directors of
these programs reported that they had to turn away 23,550
qualified students, most often because lack of space or available
faculty.
"New faculty will be a problem over the next 5 to 7
years or so until we do a better job of preparing recruits
to
take places of 'worn-out' educators," one survey respondent
wrote. "We have not been proactive enough as a profession
in growing replacement faculty." Several respondents
blamed the educator shortage on low pay compared to practitioners.
Complete results of the survey will be posted early in 2004
in the "Professional Development" section of the
ASRT's Web site, at: http://www.asrt.org
ABOUT US . . .
The Health Professions Career and Education E-letter is produced
by the American Medical Association (AMA).
This periodic newsletter covers educational trends and career-related
issues for more than 50 professions
that participate in the delivery of health care, including diagnostic
and rehabilitative services, therapeutic treatments, health
or information services management, counseling for psychosocial
and cognitive needs, or related services.
Newsletter readers and contributors include staff of health
professions accrediting agencies, educational programs and institutions,
professional organizations, certifying/licensing boards, and
media contacts.
Previous issues are available online at: http://www.ama-assn.org/go/hpe-letter
GIVE US YOUR STORY IDEAS AND FEEDBACK
What's happening in the world of health professions? If you
have any leads or story ideas, please contact us. Also, let
us know what you think about this newsletter--and feel free
to forward it to your colleagues.
Direct suggestions, comments, compliments, gripes, to:
Fred Donini-Lenhoff, Medical Education Products
515 N State St, Chicago, IL 60610
312 464-4635
312 464-5830 fax
fred_lenhoff@ama-assn.org
http://www.ama-assn.org/go/hpe-letter
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Copyright 2003, American Medical Association
Submitted By: David
Yoder |
