Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 8.
The future cancer experience.
Patient brokers will guide patients who have cancer through the system
Choice will be real and will involve cost decisions
Patients will contribute to their care costs
Complementary therapies will be widely available and well-regulated
Themed death chosen by patients will be possible
people for jobs that will no longer exist. Policy makers have begun to grasp some
of the workforce difficulties that lie ahead. They are making moves to ensure that
healthcare professionals have responsibilities commensurate with their level of edu-
cation and professional skills. Nurses and pharmacists are being encouraged to take
over some of the responsibilities that have traditionally been held by doctors, such
as prescribing. At the same time, the roles that have always been held by nurses and
pharmacists are being given to technicians and other support staff.
Having the appropriate mix of skills will become critical. The barriers that have
existed between healthcare professions will have to be broken down, so as to deliver
new approaches to the care of patients with cancer and many other diseases. Intra-
professional barriers will disappear. The work of pathologists and radiologists will
be united, as their traditional skills are augmented by the new generation of diagnos-
tic and treatment devices. Oncologists will find that many forms of chemotherapy
will be delivered with the aid of new technology. And surgeons will use robots
to operate. Fewer highly trained specialists will be required, since much of their
responsibilities will be delegated to specialist technicians and nurses working to
protocols. Furthermore, since the technology will be mobile and skills may be used
remotely, highly trained individuals will have the capability to work at a number
of sites on the same day. A number of factors will determine the balance between
different skills. Some of these factors are the size of the medical workforce, the
capacity of the system to provide care, and the availability of trained support staff
(Table 9).
Table 9.
Manpower considerations required to meet future
needs.
The right person for the right job — key challenges
Planning the amount of manpower need for new technology
Doctors and other healthcare specialists
Prescribing of cancer drugs by nurses, pharmacists and others
Training the caregivers of elderly people with co-morbidities
Making patients equal partners in decision-making
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