That total includes 209,000 practicing primary care physicians, 56,000 nurse practitioners and 30,000 physician assistants practicing primary care. Further analysis of the primary care workforce also revealed an uneven geographic distribution of primary care professionals persists. A majority of family physicians and general practitioners (77.5 percent), general internists (89.8 percent) and general pediatricians (91.2 percent) reported working in urban healthcare environments in 2010.
By comparison, approximately 11.1 percent of family physicians and general practitioners; 6.7 percent of general internists and 6.2 percent of general pediatricians reported working in large rural communities. Similar trends were noted for nurse practitioners and physician assistants.
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