Healthcare School Questions

What are the skills of effective health care majors and professionals?

Depending on the type of health care a person hope to pursue, a variety of kills are required. However, there are several common skills that are important for students and professionals who want to be effective and successful in completing a health care training program and working as a certified health care professional.

• A Strong Academic Student - Medical school is famous for its grueling hours and nursing school is no pushover either. Health care students must all take a number of science classes, which require good memorization skills, long hours in the lab, and late nights studying. Pre-medical students must study subjects such as physics, math, English, biology and organic chemistry. Even if you are only trying to earn an associates degree to become a certified nursing assistant, you need to take classes such as anatomy, nutrition and hygiene.
• Mentally and Physically Tough - Trained health care professionals, especially those who work in hospitals, must be tough. Shifts often run at least twelve hours, sometimes longer and nurses and doctors must be fully attentive and functional during the entire period, much of which is spent standing or moving quickly from one room to another.
• Able to Manage Stress Well - After graduating from a health care school program a professional must also deal with high-stress situations where a person’s health and life may be on the line. In all possible scenarios, health care professionals should maintain a cool and calm composure and handle the situation in a professional manner.
• Strong People Skills - Certified nurses and doctors often have to attend to worried or grieving patients and family members, some of whom may be very upset due to circumstances. Those who decide to pursue a career in the mental-health professions (psychology, psychiatry, etc) should be even more disciplined in interpersonal relations.

Top 5 Health care Professions

• Registered Nurse - With over 2.5 million RNs working in The United States, this profession makes up the backbone of the American health care system. Certified nurses are responsible for coordinating patient care in a number of settings, including hospitals, doctors’ offices, clinics, and nursing homes.
• Nursing Aides/Home Health Aides - Nurses and doctors are incredibly busy people and trained health care aides help them conduct their job by attending to some of the more mundane yet critical tasks related of patient care. Feeding, dressing, and helping patients get in and out of bed are just some of the important jobs performed by the nation’s 2.3 million nursing and home health aides.
• Medical Assistant - Medical assistants help physicians, nurses, and other health care practitioners with administrative and clerical tasks. Duties for medical assistants include updating and filling out medical records and insurance forms. The fact that there are 417,000 medical assistants in the U.S. is a partial testament to just how much behind the scenes work is involved in modern medical care.
• Specialists/Surgeons - The nation’s 377,000 specialists and surgeons are among the most highly trained (and highly paid) health care professionals. Doctors in this category include heart surgeons, radiologists, anesthesiologists, and plastic surgeons.
• General Care Physicians - 256,000 doctors are included in this health care category, which includes general practice physicians, obstetricians, and pediatricians. These physicians work to keep up the general health of their patients and refer them to the right person if specialized care is needed.

What diploma nurse credits transfer from RN to BSN?

A diploma nurse program generally lasts 2-3 years, and it prepares students to work in hospitals and other inpatient facilities. A BSN (bachelor’s of science in nursing) is a degree granted from a 4-year college or university. A BSN enables students to advance higher in the health care system to be, for example, nurse managers and these positions are generally paid more than diploma nurse positions. Nowadays, there are fewer than one hundred schools which offer diploma nurse school programs due to the fact that the majority of health care facilities want at least an associate’s degree if not a full bachelor’s of science in nursing.

The new emphasis on more nursing education means that many schools offer RN and BSN programs, which allow students to transfer some of their diploma nurse credits into the BSN program so that they do not have to take on a full four years of school and start at the bottom again. Classes are usually flexible and are held in the afternoon and evening to accommodate working nurses.

Every college, whether it is online or at a physical campus, has different courses and credit transfer requirements. However, in general the number of credits registered nurses are allowed to transfer to BSN usually maxes out at about 72 semester credits from community college courses, and usually all credits from 4-year colleges and universities. Despite this, keep in mind that these numbers can vary drastically depending on the school in question. To get accurate information on this subject, speak to a school representative.

What are the pre-requisites for nursing programs?

High school students looking to enter nursing school programs should take a wide variety of science, math and language classes to prepare them for nursing careers. Most students will need to take three years of high school math including geometry and algebra II, and three years of science, including biology and chemistry. Also required are four years of English and at least two years of a foreign language. If you are looking for a step up, Spanish, Polish, Russian and Chinese are all in very high demand at the moment.

The vast majority of nursing schools require entrance exams (check with the school you are applying to for specifics), but the two exams that are usually obligatory are either the SAT or the ACT. Any prerequisites which are missing can be easily met by training an LPN or CNA through a certificate program. Further, while at least an associate degree is required to become a registered nurse, a bachelor’s of nursing science degree is required for a career as a nursing supervisor.

Prerequisite training for any nursing career includes first aid and basic emergency medicine. Other nursing classes cover the prerequisites of monitoring and long term care of patients in a hospital or permanent health care environment. The three major education paths to registered nursing are:

• Bachelors degree
• Associates degree
• Diploma nursing program

Are there health care jobs I can do from home?

There are many opportunities for those who want to stay at home and work a health care job. This is a fantastic option for moms or dads who have families to look after and need some additional income. Some of the many health care jobs which can be performed from home include:

• Medical billing and coding specialists
• Health care recruiters
• Health care consultants
• Health care insurance consultants

Health care recruiters work from home to identify and attempt to recruit qualified medical professionals to fulfill open positions.

Health care consultants and health care insurance consultants fill a wide variety of roles including answering patient questions about medical care and coverage.

Medical coders maintain patients' records using a universally recognized coding system to ensure compliance with federal regulations and insurance requirements. After a short training program, a coder can work from the comfort of his or her own home and perform the exact same job which is performed in an office setting. Medical billing is a subspecialty of medical coding. Since medical coding is the first step in the medical billing process, a smart option may be to consider education programs that combine both billing and coding in one.

A local travel nurse can take whole summers off, choose to not work holidays and weekends and can work as much or as little as they please. They are in great demand, so the job affords a lot of flexibility in both earnings and the amount of work performed.

Are nursing jobs in high demand?

In a word, yes! As of 2005, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that nurses make up the largest health care occupation, with over 2.4 million jobs. Most hospitals have far too many patients and not nearly enough nurses to provide quality medical care and medical assisting. There is also a large shortage of qualified people to teach nursing, as well as a general inability to train a large student population.

The rising cost of health care means that doctors have less time to spend with each patient. This is where nurses come in. Not only do nurses save lives and help patients recover from injuries and surgeries, but they play a key role as intermediaries between doctors and patients. For instance, bi-lingual nurses are in especially high demand. Highly trained nurses are fully equipped to help doctors administer medical treatments, but they also serve as counselors to patients who are sick, worried and scared.

As technology improves and medicine advances, it is as important as ever that patients receive quality, one-on-one interaction with a human being who genuinely understand what the patients is going through. Due to this, specialty care nurses are in especially high demand. These individuals include:

• Ambulatory care nurses
• Emergency and trauma nurses
• Home health care nurses
• Occupational nurses
• Psychiatric nurses
• Radiologic nurses

Average nurse salaries are around $60,000, but nurses with specialized training can earn twice as much. Due to the high demand for qualified nurses, many schools are now offering online nursing school programs in an attempt to transition nurse students as quickly as possible to hospitals and other workplaces.

What should I consider if I want to advance my pharmacy tech degree within the health care field?

Pharmacy tech certification is the necessary qualification for individuals who want to become pharmacist technicians. Certified pharmacy technicians help licensed pharmacists with a variety of duties from maintaining patient profiles to filling out prescriptions under the guidance of a licensed pharmacist.

After attending pharmacy tech school and earning a degree there are many career options open to students. They can go on to become fully licensed pharmacists, but many students also choose to become lifelong pharmacy technicians. Other graduates go on to other health care careers such as nursing or pharmaceutical sales. These additional careers open up even more doors in the health care industry. Regardless of what one decides to do with their schooling, once a pharmacy technician receives his or her degree, they can work in a wide variety of settings, including:

• Hospitals
• Local pharmacies
• Grocery stores
• Establishments that provide pharmaceutical services

As mentioned before, holding a degree in pharmaceutical technician can lead to a wide range of other careers. Pharmacy technician training includes instruction on:

• Drug preparation and dispensation
• Rationing and proportions of chemical compounds
• Proper dosage calculation

The coursework varies from program to program, but usually involves chemistry, mathematics, statistics, drug interaction, pharmaceutical calculations, label preparation, prescriptions and related fields of study. In addition, pharmacy technician training includes coursework on drug interaction, the symptoms of various illnesses and diseases, and the drugs used to treat them.

An accredited pharmacy technician training program takes one year and leads to a pharmacy technician certificate. There are also 2-year and 4-year degree programs that result in an associate’s degree or bachelor's degree.

Do medical assistant certifications need to be maintained?

All medical assistant certifications require recertification periodically. Medical assistants earn certification to demonstrate to potential employers and the public that they are competent to practice. The field of medicine, however, moves quickly with improvements coming in medicine and medical technology all the time. This means that a one-time demonstration of skills and knowledge is not enough and recertification shows that you are not behind the times.

A number of different organizations offer certification for medical assistants and each has its own requirements for recertification. The American Association of Medical Assistants offers a certified medical assistant certificate that lasts for five years. At the end of every five years, you must take an exam for recertification.

The American Medical Technologists offer a registered medical assistant credential to qualified individuals. Initial certification is granted to those who pass an exam and recertification is required every three years. However, taking the certification examination is not an option for acquiring recertification. Instead, registered medical assistants must earn a certain number of points through continuous employment, continuing education, or by complying with other means of meeting the recertification requirement.

Other organizations grant certification to specialized medical assistants. The American Society of Podiatric Medical Assistants awards a podiatric medical assistant certification (PMAC) credential. Recertification is granted periodically based on points, which can be earned by attending conferences, taking medical assistant classes, or reading medical journal articles and writing summaries. PMAC recertification is especially important in the states of Pennsylvania, South Carolina and West Virginia, where it is required to maintain radiology certification.

The Joint Commission on Allied Health Personnel in Ophthalmology offers three certifications: certified ophthalmic assistant, certified ophthalmic technician, and certified ophthalmic medical technologist. All three of these must be recertified every three years, and may be earned by attending continuing education classes or by taking a recertification exam.

Is becoming a certified nursing assistant a good first step to becoming a nurse?

If you are unsure whether nursing would be a good career choice, becoming a certified nursing assistant (CNA) can be a great way to find out. CNAs work under the direct supervision of a registered nurse (RN) and assist them in his or her daily duties.

One of the chief CNA responsibility is to act as the RN’s eyes and ears, checking in on patients, taking their vital signs, and seeing to their needs when the nurse is unavailable. CNAs are also caregivers, assisting patients in the day-to-day activities such as eating, changing clothes, walking, going to the bathroom, and moving in and out of bed. Though their specific duties are different than a nurse’s duties, both are responsible for the direct care of patients.

As a professionally accredited CNA, you will be in an excellent position to see what being a nurse is like and what challenges they are likely to face. You will also gain connections with the hospitals or clinics where you work, giving you a good source for recommendations and possibly giving you a connection for a job once you have earned your RN degree.

If you eventually decide to take the plunge and become a nurse, having earned a nursing assistant certification will give you a leg up. Some nursing schools even require a nursing assistant certification to gain admission. Classes such as anatomy, physiology and nutrition are pre-requisites for most nursing schools. Working as a CNA might also give you time to take other common prerequisites, such as English composition, social science, and humanities electives.

What would make me a successful certified nursing assistant?

Certified nursing assistants (CNAs) work under the supervision of a registered nurse and help care for the basic needs of patients. Since nurses cannot be everywhere at once and are increasingly asked to do more, they need CNAs to act as their eyes and ears by keeping tabs on patients, monitoring their vital signs, and alerting a nurse or doctor if a patient is in need of immediate care. CNAs are also caregivers, responsible for assisting patients with day to day tasks like walking, bathing, eating, and getting in and out of bed, wheelchairs, or stretchers.

Before working as a CNA, you should complete a training program, in which you are instructed in basic nursing skills, anatomy, nutrition and hygiene. Most employers require the completion of a nursing assistant certificate training program, and CNA training programs require a high school diploma or a GED for entry. However, these programs will only teach you the basics of care. Depending on where you work (nursing home, hospital, etc) you will have completely different tasks. For this reason, it is important to remain flexible and have the ability to learn quickly.

CNAs should be discreet, tactful, kind, thoughtful, and never demeaning. Helping patients to feed, dress, or go to the bathroom often makes them feel embarrassed, and it is the CAN’s job to make them feel comfortable and dignified. The job also requires a certain amount of mental and physical toughness. CNAs often work long shifts and are on their feet most of the time. When a patient is tough to deal with, the CNA must remain courteous and helpful, no matter how tired or annoyed he or she might be.