The health care field will need to increase the amount of money, workers and knowledge required to care for the 78 million baby boomers in the United States as the first wave of boomers turns 65 in 2011, according a report released Monday by the Institute of Medicine.

“If our aging family members and friends are to live as robustly as they can and in the best health possible, we must have a work force of adequate size and competency to take care of them,” John Rowe, a Columbia University professor of health policy and management and chairman of the IOM committee that released the report said in the report’s press release.

Today, the Senate Special Committee on Aging will hold a hearing addressing the IOM report. Rowe will speak along with other experts, including Martha Stewart, 67, said IOM spokeswoman Christine Stencel.

Stencel said students pursuing careers in health care should consider geriatrics.

“Students must be taught how to treat common geriatric conditions even if they do not specialize in it,” she said. “All health professionals should know how to take care of older patients.”

The report found one in five Americans will be 65 or older by 2030 and health caretakers are not sufficiently trained to handle the pressures caused by the aging demographic. Direct care workers require only 75 hours of training, less than is required for dog groomers and manicurists, the report said.

The report suggests higher pay for geriatric specialists and education curriculums that include issues affecting the aging population. Health care curriculums for every career from physician to psychiatrist need to include more training in the specific ailments that older people face such as diabetes, dementia and sensory impairment, the report said.

It also states that informal caregivers and the general public need to become educated about issues that face the elderly. More than 90 percent of older adults receive care from informal caregivers when they still live at home, according to the report’s press release.

Marilyn Hennessy, the president of Retirement Research Foundation, said IOM’s report will encourage education that is desperately needed for this high-priority issue.

“Some universities have already taken steps to include issues about aging in their curriculums, but this report will emphasize the need for continued steps in that direction,” said Hennessey, whose group collaborated with many other foundations and associations to fund the report.

Corinne Rieder, executive director and treasurer of John A. Hartford Foundation, another sponsor of the report, said drawing public attention in a society focused on the environment and the upcoming presidential election is difficult.

“Moving society in big ways is hard to do,” she said.

Reider said the stigma attached to working with the elderly has led some programs to persuade health care workers to study geriatrics by forgiving their loans.

“Everybody loves little kids . . . generally, working with the elderly is not seen as the most attractive work,” she said.

Reider said she found elderly care relies on those not working in health care. East Coast-based Reider said she calls her parents, who live in California and are in their 90s, every day and supervises their medical information. She said anyone can be an advocate for the aging.

“All of us hopefully have parents and grandparents, or even an older neighbor,” she said. “The general public should know how people age and educate themselves so that they can care for those around them in many important ways.”