Experts say the U.S. will be in for a shortage of health care workers in many places soon. Now, more and more states are making changes — like asking retired doctors to volunteer and allowing out-of-state physicians to practice right away.
explains. Hospitals and health systems need to verify that physicians have the training and licenses they claim to have."Sometimes that's a laborious process," he says."Sometimes it takes weeks to complete."
Now, every day, she says,"there's a dashboard and I sign in to see what's needed and if any of my skills match what people are asking for in terms of health personnel."Although the idea of recruiting retired physicians and nurses has been a fairly popular move among states so far, Redlener thinks it's a bad idea for the front lines of medical care.
In his conversations with public health officials exploring these options, Redlener says,"all avenues are being explored." Nurse practitioners and physicians assistants can also work on the front lines if they're willing, he says. And public health officials are also talking about retraining specialists like plastic surgeons and dermatologists so that they could help care for COVID-19 patients. Dentists might be recruited and retrained, too, he adds.
He adds,"Whatever it is that we do, we should [recognize] that we're putting people in very high risk situations with respect to the coronavirus."There's another pool of people at the very start of their medical careers who would like to help out: medical students.
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