Tag: physicians

The Physician’s Role in Disaster Response

If you’ve ever wondered what your role is when it comes to disaster response, here are seven things that can help you prepare for the next emergency.

By Deborah Swanson

Alongside firefighters, police, and other first responders, physicians are often some of the first people to respond to disasters. In emergency situations, physicians have to balance many competing priorities, from figuring out which patients to treat first to weighing their own safety against the need to treat patients. If you’re a physician wondering what your role is when it comes to disaster response, here are seven things that can help you prepare for the next emergency:

Remember Your Ethical Commitments

Disaster relief can present a complex ethical situation for individual physicians. Doctors have an obligation to provide critical medical care while also weighing the risks of providing care in the moment vs. being able to provide care in the future. After all, disaster relief can put physicians’ safety and health, and sometimes even their lives, in danger. The American Medical Association provides the following ethical guidelines for disaster relief:

“With respect to disaster, whether natural or manmade, individual physicians should:

(a) Take appropriate advance measures, including acquiring and maintaining appropriate knowledge and skills to ensure they are able to provide medical services when needed.
Collectively, physicians should:

(b) Provide medical expertise and work with others to develop public health policies that:

1. Are designed to improve the effectiveness and availability of medical services during a disaster

2. Are based on sound science

3. Are based on respect for patients

(c) Advocate for and participate in ethically sound research to inform policy decisions.”

Take an Emergency Response Training Course

Your hospital will likely provide disaster response training, and other seminars and workshops may also be available locally. There’s also training available from international and national organizations, such as the American Board of Disaster Medicine (ABODM). Through ABODM, the American Board of Physician Specialties® (ABPS) offers disaster medicine certification and recertification to physicians of many different specialties and backgrounds. After applicants meet the eligibility requirements, they must pass an online exam that runs for four hours and consists of 200 multiple-choice questions. The certification shows that physicians are skilled in competencies critical in a disaster, such as triage principles, protective equipment, psychological first aid and more.

Build Relationships with Local Agencies

If you live in an area prone to floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, wildfires and other natural disasters, it’s a good idea to build relationships with your local agencies so you know what their plan is in a crisis and who to call. These agencies may also be able to assist you in updating your hospital’s emergency contingency plans so you can work together. Even if you’re lucky enough to live in an area that doesn’t get a lot of natural disasters, you should still get to know your local agencies in case of a situation such as an active shooter, which can occur no matter where you live.

Plan, Plan, Plan Ahead

Don’t wait until a disaster strikes and then grab your medical bag and try to react in the moment. You should have a plan in case of a disaster at the personal, family and institutional level. For example, if a flood strikes your area, you should know how to keep yourself safe, where your family will evacuate to and what your hospital will do in the time of crisis. Your facility will likely already have a plan in place, but there’s always room for improvement. If you have experience in disaster relief or have gotten your certification, you can volunteer to review the policies or serve on an assessment committee.

Embrace Your Leadership Role

In some cases, you may be directly responsible for helping your facility to prepare for and respond to disasters—for example, if you serve as an emergency physician in addition to acting as the chief of hospital operations. In other situations, you may not have a direct leadership role when it comes to disaster relief. Even so, in emergencies, people naturally look to physicians for leadership. Your nurses, techs, and other medical personnel will definitely be looking to you to lead, and so may ordinary citizens and bystanders. Clear-minded decisions by an authority figure can make a difference in a disaster, so rather than resisting this role, embrace it and prepare for it as much as possible.

Make Sure Your Own Family Is Prepared

You won’t be able to care for patients in a crisis very well if you’re worried about your loved ones. Talk with your spouse, partner, children and anyone you’re responsible for to come up with a plan in the case of common disasters. How will you communicate with each other? What will you do for food and water if you’re snowed into your house? If you need to evacuate suddenly, where will you meet up? Do you have a backup in case the power goes out? Your emergency plan should be customized to the natural disasters most likely to affect your area.

Register for Disaster Relief Organizations

If you’re really passionate about disaster relief, you can be proactive and volunteer for one of several organizations that helps mobilize doctors, nurses and other medical personnel to travel to disaster areas. The American Red Cross is perhaps the best-known organization, but there’s also Doctors Without Borders, the Emergency System for Advanced Registration of Volunteer Health Professionals, the Medical Reserve Corps, HealthRight International, the Registered Nurse Response Network and many more. Many of these organizations require you to complete additional training before you can be mobilized, but if you’re really passionate about disaster relief, it’s a great way to make a difference and truly save lives.

When it comes to a disaster, you can’t just throw on your scrubs and rush to the scene. Preparing in advance and having an emergency plan in place will maximize your chances of keeping yourself safe and treating as many patients as possible. Follow these seven steps to make sure you’re ready as a physician and as an individual in case you ever face a disaster.

Deborah Swanson is a Coordinator for the Real Caregivers Program at allheart.com. A site dedicated to celebrating medical professionals and their journeys. She keeps busy interviewing caregivers and writing about them and loves gardening.

Disclaimer: The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.

Physician Burnout on the Decline?

Recent research indicates that physician burnout improved since 2014 and is now even lower than levels not seen since 2011.

Recent research indicates that physician burnout improved since 2014 and is now even lower than levels not seen since 2011, suggesting progress to combat this widespread problem is not only possible, but well underway.

The findings, which were published last month in Mayo Clinic Proceedings, come as a result of researchers surveying more than 5,000 physicians in the U.S. on burnout and work-life integration. According to the findings, 43.9% of respondents indicated that they experienced at least one symptom of burnout, down significantly from 54.4% in 2014, and less than the 45.5% who self-reported burnout in 2011. Satisfaction with work-life balance has also improved, up from 40.9% in 2014 to 42.7%.

The news isn’t entirely rosy, however. According to the findings, 41.7% of physicians who responded screened positive for depression, a steady increase from 2014 (39.8%) and 2011 (38.2%). The findings also indicated that more than 20% of physicians would not choose the same profession, if they could go back and do it again.

While the research indicates that progress has been made, it is very clear there is still much work to be done in terms of improving the lives of the nation’s physicians.

Disclaimer: The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.

Top 3 States with the Most Physician Jobs

Given the growing physician shortage, it’s a buyer’s market, so to speak. If you’re thinking about a new job, you might want to consider these states.

Healthcare as a whole has added nearly half a million jobs so far in 2019, and with the physician shortage being a continual hot-button issue, it’s a buyer’s market, so to speak. So, where are the jobs? We analyzed data on our site and came up with the three states with the most available openings for physicians right now, as well as a selection of noteworthy positions.

1. California

Average Annual Physician Salary in California: $204,190

Noteworthy Openings in California:

Click Here to View All Jobs in California

2. New York

Average Annual Physician Salary in New York: $139,710

Noteworthy Openings in New York:

Click Here to View All Jobs in New York

3. Washington

Average Annual Physician Salary in Washington: $239,080

Noteworthy Openings in Washington:

Click Here to View All Jobs in Washington

Disclaimer: The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.

“Hey, Google, Find Me A Doctor.”

60% of patients turn to search engines to find a doctor, while 51% rely on social media. If you don’t have an online presence, it’s time to get one.

Your online presence is more important than you may think.

Newly released results from Binary Foundation’s Healthcare Consumer Insight and Digital Engagement Survey indicate that digital research has skyrocketed for patients seeking the right provider. So, if you and your practice are not online, or if your online presence is poor, now might be the time to rethink your digital strategy.

According to the report, which surveyed 1,000 American adults to produce their findings, 60% use search engines to find a doctor, while 51% turn to social media. Both numbers are on the rise, but, in particular, social media searches are soaring, up from only 7% in 2017, or a 621% increase.

And what are patients looking for exactly? Ratings and reviews, it seems.

The survey found that 75% of patients are influenced by online feedback, such as reviews and star ratings, and it was also found that comments from other patients about a practice or provider are the second most important factor for patients when choosing a physician.

Factors that are less important to patients now than in 2017 as identified by the findings included hospital affiliation, facility location, and insurance coverage.

Disclaimer: The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.

Physician Pay Up, Productivity Stagnant

Physician compensation rose significantly in 2018, according to findings from the AMGA. See a breakdown of the numbers here.

Physician compensation increased significantly in 2018, while productivity stagnated, according to the newly released findings of the American Medical Group Association’s 2019 Medical Group Compensation and Productivity Survey.

Overall, physician pay rose by a median of 2.92% in 2018, a sharp rise over 2017’s 0.89%. Productivity, however, did not see such a large increase as a whole, up only 0.29% from 2017’s 1.63% decline.

Median pay for all Primary Care specialties increased by 4.91%, a staggering difference over the 0.76% compensation growth in 2017. Within Primary Care, Family Medicine saw the highest increase in compensation at 6.25% in 2018, followed closely by Internal Medicine (5.90%), while Pediatrics saw a slight decline in compensation of -0.04%.

The overall median compensation was up for medical specialties, as well, seeing growth of 3.39% in 2018, with Psychiatry seeing the sharpest increase of 15.6%.

“The 2019 survey shows that physician compensation in 2018 rebounded from a stagnant 2017,” said Fred Horton, M.H.A., AMGA Consulting president, in a press release. “While productivity also increased, it did not increase enough to surpass the decline we saw in last year’s survey, meaning productivity still has not risen since 2016.”

Disclaimer: The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.

Physicians vs. Advanced Practitioners: Where Do You Stand?

A battle has been brewing between advanced practitioners seeking to expand their scope of practice and the physicians who oppose them. Where do you stand?

A battle has been brewing within the medical community for quite some time. As the physician workload has steadily multiplied due to physician shortages and increased documentation requirements, advanced practice nurses and physician assistants have upped their fight for full practice authority in an effort to boost productivity, lower health care costs, and increase access to care. This hot-button issue has split the physician community down the middle, into those who are glad for the assistance and those who greatly oppose non-doctors treating patients as if they are doctors. And, lately, for those who oppose APNs and PAs, the gloves have come off, so to speak.

Despite study after study after study after study finding that APNs and PAs provide care comparable to or even better than physicians, multiple doctors have taken to the internet to speak out against expanding their scope of practice.

“With all due respect to our healthcare team, I beg to differ that going through four years of college and completing an additional two years – sometimes online, no less – can truly be “just as effective”,” wrote Starla Fitch, MD, in an op-ed entitled NPs/PAs ‘Just as Effective’ as Physicians? I Don’t Think So.

In another posting, an open letter penned by the Presidents of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine Resident and Student Association directed at the American Medical Association Board of Directors called for the AMA to implement a public awareness campaign that “advocates for physician-led care and educates the public of the discrepancies in nurse practitioner care” and increase “resources on state-level legislative operations that combat independent practice bills introduced by midlevel providers.” The authors of the open letter went on to state, “These efforts should be a priority for the AMA. Waiting for the complete devaluation of our medical degrees and the resulting significant harm to our patients’ safety as they actively pursue less capable “providers” is not acceptable. We must work together to directly combat this pressing issue in order to protect our profession, our future physicians, and most importantly our patients.”

“There are absolutely patient safety concerns associated with NP and PA care. We don’t diminish the fact that physicians make mistakes, of course, but the type of mistake is often very different from those of non-physician practitioners. We have had many physicians and patients share stories with us of missed diagnoses and misdiagnoses by NPs and PAs, as well as excessive and inappropriate testing, prescribing, and treatment,” said another physician—Carmen Kavali, MD, who is also a board member of Physicians for Patient Protection.

There is no shortage of opposition. However, as Alison Moriarty Daley, MSN, APRN, PNP, put it as far back as 2011, “There are too many people who need high-quality, dedicated providers; we are such providers and deserve the appropriate respect, recognition, and support from the healthcare community.”

The physician shortage is not getting any better. The Association of American Medical Colleges predicts a shortage of between 21,100 and 55,200 primary care physicians by 2032, and physicians are burning out and, sadly, dying by suicide at an alarming rate. So, why the fight?

Where do you stand on the issue? Tell us in the comments below.

Disclaimer: The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.

Physicians and Suicidality: Identifying Risks and How to Help

Despite often being known as the healers, those who aim to save lives, it is estimated that as many as 400 physicians die by suicide in the U.S. each year.

Our physicians are unwell. Despite often being known as the healers, those who aim to save lives, it is estimated that as many as 400 physicians die by suicide in the U.S. each year. The profession has the highest suicide rate of any job, and one that is reportedly 1.4 to 2.3 times higher than the suicide rate of the general population—a rate that is, itself, up 33% since 1999.

The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention reports that physicians are less likely to seek help due to several barriers, including time constraints, not wanting to draw attention to self-perceived weakness, and fears regarding their reputation and confidentiality.

Knowing the risks and warning signs associated with suicide can help physicians identify colleagues who may need help, but are not asking for it.

A recent systemic review found that physicians whose career is in transition, such as having recently completed medical school or residency, or those who are approaching retirement, are often the most vulnerable, and that anesthesiologists and psychiatrists are at a higher risk of attempting suicide. Other identified factors of risk include being female, identifying as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, or those who have a prior history of mental illness or substance abuse.

Warning signs to look for include:

If a person talks about:

  • Killing themselves
  • Feeling hopeless
  • Having no reason to live
  • Being a burden to others
  • Feeling trapped
  • Unbearable pain

Behaviors that may signal risk, especially if related to a painful event, loss, or change:

  • Increased use of alcohol or drugs
  • Looking for a way to end their lives, such as searching online for methods
  • Withdrawing from activities
  • Isolating from family and friends
  • Sleeping too much or too little
  • Visiting or calling people to say goodbye
  • Giving away prized possessions
  • Aggression
  • Fatigue

People who are considering suicide often display one or more of the following moods:

  • Depression
  • Anxiety
  • Loss of interest
  • Irritability
  • Humiliation/Shame
  • Agitation/Anger
  • Relief/Sudden Improvement

Suicide is preventable. Help is possible. We encourage any physician that may be struggling with their mental health to seek help.

If you are in crisis, or want to speak to someone regarding a colleague who may be exhibiting signs of suicidality, we urge you to call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741.

Disclaimer: The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.

More Doctors on the Way, as Med School Enrollment Exceeds Goals

As the physician shortage continues, it’s promising to know that medical school enrollment has outpaced growth goals. But the crisis isn’t over quite yet.

Medical school enrollment is not only up, but it has surpassed growth benchmarks set by the Association of American Medical Colleges, according to the results of the AAMC’s 2018 Medical School Enrollment Survey.

In 2006, the AAMC called for a 30% increase in medical school enrollment to help alleviate growing concerns regarding the long-predicted physician shortage. Medical school enrollment has now grown by 31% since 2002, just above the mark, and when combined with schools of osteopathic medicine, enrollment is now 52% higher than it was in 2002. The AAMC ties this growth to a number of factors, including increases in class sizes and the creation of 29 new medical schools.

Though the numbers are promising, concerns still remain high—particularly those regarding the availability of graduate medical education opportunities on state and national levels, as well as the number of clinical training sites and available preceptors. The AAMC is now seeking a shift of focus to increase the number of graduate medical education slots available, as well as calling on Congress to pass the bipartisan Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act.

The full results of the survey can be found here.

Disclaimer: The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.

5 Reasons to Give Travel Positions a Try

For those with a sense of adventure, travel positions need no other selling point. If you don’t have a natural love of travel, though, here are five other reasons to consider travel assignments.

Not a lot of careers come with the ability to travel the country and get paid for it, but there are quite a few in the healthcare arena that do. Physicians, advanced practitioners, nurses, therapy professionals, and more are afforded the unique opportunity to accept contract positions, often also referred to as locum tenens, at hospitals and clinics all over the United States, from sea to shining sea. For those with a sense of adventure or a love of travel, this needs no other selling point. However, here are five scenarios in which you may want to give travel assignments a try, if you need more convincing.

If You’re Relatively New

Travel positions provide a good opportunity to figure out what you want to specialize in, in which setting, or even what area of the country you want to live in. Since travel positions are predominantly contracts that are two or more months long, you’ll have plenty of time to see what you like, or don’t like, before fully committing to a permanent position somewhere and setting down roots.

If You’re Feeling Burnt Out

A change of scenery can do wonders for the seasoned clinician who is struggling with the all too common pains of burnout. Working with different populations of patients, or even different coworkers, in different places can help to alleviate the feeling of stagnation. Travel positions typically also afford more work-life balance and less intensive schedules, which allows you to focus more on the things that truly matter in your life—not just documentation.

If You Want More Money

Locums positions typically offer higher salaries than permanent positions, sometimes as much as 30-50 percent more. If you are trying to pay off a student loan, or just want to tuck some money away for a rainy day, signing on for a few travel positions is likely to get you out of the red.

If You Want a Trial Run

Travel positions allow you to try out a wide range of settings and patient populations, often with the option to take on a permanent role within the practice you are filling in at. If you are thinking of pivoting in your career, this is a good way to “try before you buy,” so to speak, that will allow you to make an informed decision about where you want to settle in for the long-term.

If You Want to Make a Difference

Locums positions are often available in remote and underserved areas, allowing you to significantly impact the lives of people who need your skills the most. From the most secluded towns in Alaska to small town America, you’ll be able to provide quality care for those who would not otherwise have adequate access to care.

Ready to give it a shot? We have over 40,000 travel positions available on our site right now, if you want to take a look.

Disclaimer: The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.

Residency Choices Heavily Swayed by Salary

More than 90% of medical residents say that salary potential strongly swayed their choice of specialty in some way, according to a recent survey.

Nearly all medical residents—more than 90%—say that salary potential strongly swayed their choice of specialty in some way, according to a recent survey.

The survey, which was conducted by Medscape and polled more than 2,200 residents, found that the average resident earns $61,200, a 3% rise over the last two years, but less than half (47%) of residents feel they are being fairly compensated for their work.

The survey found that the highest paid specialty for residents is Medical Geneticists, taking the top spot with an average salary of $67,500. Allergy and Immunology and HIV/Infectious Diseases tied for the second highest paid specialties, with both offering an average salary of $66,500.

The least paid specialty reported was Family Medicine, with an average annual salary of $57,400, and nearly half of primary care residents stated that they plan to subspecialize, which does not lend much hope to the growing primary care physician shortage.

Disclaimer: The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.