Academic medicine stakeholders delved deep into physician re-entry—including how to define re-entry and whether there is a need to create specific re-entry resources—at a special forum convened by the AMA Council on Medical Education (CME).
According to CME reports, it is becoming more common for physicians to temporarily leave clinical practice, whether it’s a planned break or not. But a lack of data about how many physicians are leaving and returning to clinical work, how they are re-entering the workforce and what the best process is for re-entry is leaving physician groups puzzled about how to best address the perceived issue.
At the same time, some specialty groups and other stakeholders are reporting that physicians who do want to return to clinical practice are encountering barriers, from complying with licensing regulatory requirements to the lack of dedicated re-entry programs and training to the financial costs. Meeting attendees tried to discern whether these reports are just the tip of the iceberg on the topic of re-entry.
To some, leaving and re-entering the workforce may not be an immediate problem, but it is a normal part of the career process that should be incorporated into planning.
“In this day and age, it’s normal and common and part of a lifestyle of a physician,” said Norman Kahn, MD, executive director and CEO of the Council of Medical Specialty Societies. “We’re going to need to focus our lens a bit better and understand the assessment [of re-entry] before we target interventions.”
Other issues in the current profession, such as the possibility of stricter maintenance of licensure policies, could uncover more physicians who need resources similar to those who would use re-entry resources.
“We need standardized curriculum for how re-entry or remediation takes place,” said Eileen Handberg, PhD, director of the Florida practitioner competency assessment program Florida CARES. “This is going to be a much bigger issue and now is the time to come up with solutions.”
The meeting revealed that more discussion on re-entry is necessary to develop appropriate resources and training. Thomas J. Nasca, MD, CEO of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), said his organization would be willing to help develop a process for re-entering physicians based on competency-based assessment, using the ACGME’s outcomes-based milestones as a framework.
“The country needs every physician we can put back into practice,” Dr. Nasca said. “We have the tools today, and the organizations in this room could put it together. We have a real opportunity to intervene in a positive way.”
The AMA House of Delegates passed policy related to re-entry at the 2014 AMA Annual Meeting. Under the new policy, the AMA will encourage states that do not grant a full and unrestricted license to physicians undergoing re-entry to develop a non-disciplinary category of licensure for physicians during their re-entry process.
For more information on physician re-entry, visit the AMA’s re-entry Web page, or download key re-entry facts (AMA login required).
