Put resources into geriatrics

Re “Crisis in healthcare foreseen,” April 15

The nursing shortage in the U.S. is one reason our healthcare system is unprepared to meet the needs of aging baby boomers. Plenty of enthusiastic and qualified applicants with interest in a geriatric focus are turned away from nursing programs because there simply is not enough faculty to educate them. Our healthcare system lags behind the expanding roles that nurses can play. Devoting resources to their education and training is an excellent way to address the shortage of practitioners with geriatric expertise.

Elisabeth Tove

Gundersen

San Francisco

One answer is to provide programs specifically geared to teaching medical students about geriatric care. Another is to provide incentives for them to pursue this field of care, especially in underserved areas. Physicians with a specialty in geriatrics can serve as clinician educators for all physicians, all of whom must learn more about geriatric care. They also will serve as the researchers for learning more about aging processes, delaying disability and ultimately reducing healthcare costs, goals that benefit everyone.

Raising the prestige of geriatrics in the medical community and schools will also have an effect.

We need additional public-private partnerships to accomplish this, and better Medicare reimbursement for hospitals that have geriatric programs so they don’t drown in debt while caring for a growing aging population.

Stephanie Lederman

Executive Director

American Federation

for Aging Research

New York