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Workforce » Mismatches in Skills Needed

Why It's Important

There is an ever increasing awareness that traditional training and job descriptions will need to be changed as the system undergoes changes. For example, a social worker may not be given age related training such as medication management as part of their professional education. Another example would be a home care worker who receives personal care training, but could benefit from more, such as interviewing/communication skills or psychological skills to optimize their role in home care. Job descriptions need to be upgraded in terms of responsibility and hence requiring new training to accommodate these changes. The basic principle will be to consider some individuals like nurses delegating portions of their current job to CNA or home health workers and physicians delegating some of their job description to nurses.

See Data By: Richmond MSA | Virginia | National

How Richmond Is Doing

Only half (46%) of employers agree the community performs well on a trained, educated and adaptable workforce, including only one in ten (11%) who say the region performs very well. About the same number of Boomers (47%) also says the community performs, with only one in ten (9%) agreeing the region performs very well. (ODP BUSINESS LEADER & RESIDENT, 2008)
While nearly half (46%) of residents say support for the aging population is important, only about a third (36%) of business leaders say it is. (ODP BUSINESS LEADER & RESIDENT, 2008)
Both employers and residents agree that quality education, and safety and security of citizens are top priorities in long-term planning. (ODP BUSINESS LEADER & RESIDENT, 2008)

Employer Priorities

Boomer Priorities

How Virginia Is Doing

Content coming.

How the U.S. Is Doing

In an article written by Guy Boulton entitled, Filling the Needs of Older Patients, Too Few Doctors Get Specialized Training, Boulton explains how geriatric health care services are among the most challenging to provide. The elderly tend to have multiple chronic conditions that often times manifest differently than in younger patients making diagnose difficult. There are fewer medical students choosing gerontology. Fewer than 300 doctors nationwide entered geriatric fellowships -- a year of additional training after a three-year residency in family or internal medicine -- in 2003.

About one-third of the available geriatrics fellowships in the U.S. went unfilled in the 2004-'05 academic year creating a short supply of specialize doctors for an ever growing older population. Reasons for this are:

Disheartening and difficult specialty, with little glamour or prestige
Geriatricians make a fraction of what other specialists make
Medicare pays less than commercial health plans
Elderly patients require more time, limiting how many patients a geriatrician can see in a day

(JOURNAL SENTINEL, 2007)