AF Strains to Find, Keep Health-Care Staff

While the Air Force has resolved recent issues regarding the retention of the right amount of active-duty line officers, the service continues to have problems recruiting and retaining health-care professionals into its officer ranks. For the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2008, the Air Force recruited 15 doctors, 14 dentists, 136 nurses, 65 biomedical scientists, and 35 medical administrators. In all career fields but the last, the new accessions fell below recruitment goals, Let. Gen. Richard Y. Newton III, the Air Force manpower chief, told members of the Senate Armed Services personnel subcommittee during a May 20 hearing. To meet health-care needs, Newton said, the Air Force is targeting potential applicants who live in areas with high student populations, and offering them medical-school scholarships. The plan seems to be working, he said. "With spring medical acceptance letters yet to be released from most institutions, we are on target for this year," Newton told lawmakers.