Healthcare Reform

Everyday our recruiting agents speak with countless pharmacists, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and other healthcare providers who live throughout the United States. We're constantly checking the temperature of quality skilled medical & wellness providers to see if they might be interested in exploring great new career opportunities. Some of the individuals we speak with are interested in becoming candidates for new employment, while others are fulfilled or at least content with their current career situation. In the past, the conversation would often end there. Either a pharmacist was looking for a new career opportunity or they weren't. A quality nurse practitioner wanted to be informed about new cardio jobs that became available or they didn't. A skilled physician assistant living in one area was interested in relocating to a new city for a job or they were not. Sometimes even if the wellness professional we were talking with was not looking to make a change, we could network with the uninterested party to learn about other candidates in the healthcare industry who they knew might be interested in learning more about a job opportunity. Almost never did the conversation go much further than that. The busy healthcare workers we contacted were either interested in new healthcare jobs or they weren't. If they weren't interested for themselves, maybe they knew of someone else that was "looking" but that was pretty much it. They didn't stay on the phone to trade casserole recipes, discuss the Dallas Cowboys, or swap gossip about a hot new reality show. The conversations were almost always brief and to the point and that is what best served both their interests as in-demand healthcare professionals and our interests as a healthcare recruiting agency.

Lately however the conversation has gone a bit further. Many of the individuals we've been speaking with have had questions about President Obama's new healthcare reform bill and how it will affect their future in healthcare. The most common question has been -- How will it effect their future employment opportunities? While it's a conversation that we're willing to have, as we're always interested in helping medical professionals in any way that we can, the immediate answer to the question is not a simple one. It will probably take years to fully understand the impact of the forthcoming policies and how they will ultimately shape the healthcare landscape. That being said, it does seem clear that pharmacists, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants stand to benefit greatly from these changes. As the number of health-insured individuals in the United States increases by the millions over the next few years, there will be an increased demand placed upon an already fatigued healthcare system. Likewise, the need for prescription pharmaceuticals will also increase, as will the workload placed upon pharmacy professionals. The healthcare infrastructure in its current form simply will not be able to handle the increased load. The result will be increased demand for clinical pharmacists, specialized pharmacists, and mid-level medical providers such as NPs and PAs.

Regardless of where you may or may not stand on the healthcare reform debate, if you are a pharmacist, nurse practitioner, or physician assistant you stand at the precipice of great change. Your professional services, which are already in great demand, are only going to become even more sought after in the years ahead. The mass influx of citizens (who previously went without medical coverage) into the healthcare marketplace will cause an even greater need for your services. Your employment options will be more bountiful and in all likelihood your salaries will be on the rise. As the need for increased pharmaceutical care overloads the system, the overflow will not be manageable for pharm-techs alone. There will be a necessity to employ skilled pharmacists and compensate them appropriately. Along those same lines, already overtaxed physicians will not be able to handle the massive influx of patients seeking care and inevitably it will be necessary to employ and properly compensate more and more nurse practitioners and physician assistants.

Up on Capitol Hill the Democrats are pounding their chests while the Republicans scream bloody murder. Meanwhile, the rest of us are left standing around and wondering what it all means. No matter how much we do to try to understand the 2,000 page reform bill, the ultimate ramifications are impossible to wrap our heads around. Will it be better for America? Maybe . . . maybe not. Really only time will tell. The only way to truly understand the future is to go forth and live it. The one thing that does seem certain however is that for pharmacists, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants; the future they live in should be one of increased healthcare jobs and opportunities.