Dr. Nurse

Doctor shortage. Lack of primary care providers. Aging boomers.

What do you do?

How about a new kind of PCP? A Doctor Nurse.

Doctor nurses are trained in finance, health policy and systems know-how in addition to core clinical expertise. They can do a lot of what many doctors no longer have time to do in an increasingly complex health care environment.

This is an idea that makes a lot of sense to me.

36 percent of active physicians are older than 55 and most will retire by 2020, said Edward Salsberg, director of workforce studies for the Association of American Medical Colleges. A new generation of physicians is less willing to work the long hours usually associated with the profession.

Med schools are graduating fewer docs who want to go in to primary care. Instead, they are opting for specialty practices that pay more.

This year, U.S. medical graduates filled just 1,156 of 2,387 residency positions nationally in family medicine; the rest were filled by foreign medical graduates. Primary care doctors are paid far less than specialists.

We want to watch and see if this trend catches on.