By Brittany R. Ballenstedt
In the face of a critical shortage of health care professionals at the Veterans Health Administration, stronger incentives are needed to attract top talent into the workforce, group representatives told a House subcommittee Thursday.
"Shortages in health care staff threaten the VHA's ability to provide quality care and treatment to veterans," Joseph Wilson, assistant director of veterans affairs and rehabilitation for the American Legion, told the House Veterans' Affairs Subcommittee on Health.
By 2020, nurse and physician retirements are expected to create a shortage of about 24,000 physicians and almost 1 million nurses nationwide, according to government estimates. Further complicating the shortage is a lack of teaching faculty and classroom space in universities, which caused more than 42,000 qualified applicants to be turned away from nursing schools last year, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing reported separately.
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