Unsuccessful Medical School Applicants as a Potential Health Manpower Resource

RECENT DECADES HAVE WITNESSED an enormous growth in the population's demand for medical services, with concomitant strain on the country's health manpower resources.It is now widely believed that available numbers of health personnel (both present and projected levels) are not sufficient to deliver an optimal level of health care (1-4).While studies often concentrate on physician supply and productivity (5,6), far greater shortages exist (and are anticipated) in other health occupations (7,8).The wide range of health-related activities is illustrated by a Public Health Service publication (9) specifying about 125 health professions and occupations.Weiss (10) has described nine "job families," four directly concerned with patient care (mental health, nursing, medical, and den- tal care), and five outside direct care (technical and laboratory, administration and planning, data processing, environmental health, and health re- search).