Tuesday, March 7, 2006
When Justin Hanke spent six months working as a certified nurse assistant at Pioneer Ridge Retirement Community, he found out that caring for elderly patients is difficult work.
Hanke, Wichita senior, is graduating this semester and is enrolling at New York University’s School of Medicine, where he plans to become an emergency room doctor. Hanke said his experience working at a retirement community was rewarding but very taxing. A lot of elderly people he worked with had multiple ailments and needed multiple medications, he said.
“Every day those people needed one thing after another,” Hanke said.
Statistics show that fewer and fewer young people are going into geriatrics, the field of medicine that specializes in caring for the elderly people. According to The American Geriatrics Society, there are approximately 7,600 certified geriatricians, yet another 14,000 are needed to adequately care for today’s elderly population.
With America’s rapidly growing elderly population the problem could grow into a crisis. According to The American Geriatrics Society, the number of adults 65 and older will nearly double to 70 million by 2030. By that time the nation will need 36,000 trained geriatricians to care for the booming elderly population.
Daniel Swagerty, geriatrician and associate director of KU Medical Center’s Landon Center on Aging, said there are many reasons the field of geriatrics is underserved, beginning with the pay.
Swagerty said geriatricians were among the lowest-paid of all the specialty doctors. He also said that caring for elderly patients was emotionally difficult and many future doctors were interested in more glamorous fields of medicine.
“It’s not as attractive to care for older adults. You have to deal with death, dying and physical rehabilitation, which is emotionally stressful but very satisfying,” Swagerty said.
Swagerty believes that America may never completely fill the need for geriatricians, but there are ways to bridge the gap.
He said that the government could provide more grants and tuition reimbursement programs to encourage more students into the field. He also said medical schools needed to include more geriatric training in their curriculums.
“We are currently working on ways we can emphasize geriatric training for all future medical students,” Swagerty said.
Doctors
A shortage of geriatricians exists in the United States and is projected to worsen during the next 20 years. Currently there are approximately 7,600 certified geriatricians, but another 14,000 are needed to adequately care for the elderly population.
By 2030, the number of adults age 65 and older will nearly double to 70 million.
By 2030, the nation will need 36,000 trained geriatricians.
Adults 85 and older are the fastest-growing segment of the entire population with expected growth from 4 million today to 20 million by 2050.
Source: The American Geriatrics Society
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