Retooling for an Aging America: Building the Health Care Workforce

By National Research Council

As the first of the nation's 78 million baby boomers begin reaching age 65 in 2011, they will face a health care workforce that is too small and woefully unprepared to meet their specific health needs.

Retooling for an Aging America calls for bold initiatives starting immediately to train all health care providers in the basics of geriatric care and to prepare family members and other informal caregivers, who currently receive little or no training in how to tend to their aging loved ones. The book also recommends that Medicare, Medicaid, and other health plans pay higher rates to boost recruitment and retention of geriatric specialists and care aides.

Educators and health professional groups can use Retooling for an Aging America to institute or increase formal education and training in geriatrics. Consumer groups can use the book to advocate for improving the care for older adults. Health care professional and occupational groups can use it to improve the quality of health care jobs.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0309115876
• ISBN13: 9780309115872
• Release Date: September 2008
• Publisher: National Academies Press
• Length: 316 Pages
• Weight: 1.44 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.1" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

warns of boomers retiring

The book is one of many others sure to follow, that warns of the impact of the retirement of the baby boomers. In 2010, at least nominally, the first boomers, born in 1945, will be expected to retire. The chapters give the medical implications that follow from this demographic inevitability. These include the increasing need for direct care health workers. Plus an expected greater emphasis in medical schools on geriatric issues. One scenario discussed is for some duties currently performed by resident nurses to be allowed to be done by lesser trained personnel. I can imagine some nurses who will not be thrilled by this. Both from the perspective of concern that others may provide substandard care, and from the possibility of competition for jobs. Other models of care delivery are posited. There needs to be greater efficiency. But this can be very hard, due to the inherent labour intensive nature of much care tasks.