Healthcare Boom Opens Up Huge Demand for Support Staff

Posted by admin | Posted on 28-11-2010

Category : Pharmacy Students

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Healthcare Boom Opens Up Huge Demand for Support Staff

If you’ve always wanted to work in a hospital or doctor’s office, becoming a healthcare support staffer might be just the shot in the arm your career needs. With training from a top-notch career college, in about 8 to 12 months, depending on the program, you can be a valued team member in a hospital, lab, pharmacy, physician’s office or dental practice.

According to the Department of Labor, healthcare will generate three million new jobs between 2006 and 2016, more than any other industry, employing over 12 million workers*. California, in particular, has a shortage of healthcare professionals, with vacancies across the state, raising salaries and increasing employment opportunities for high school graduates, career changers and other job seekers.

Although the media has focused on the critical need for registered nurses (RNs), well-trained and competent clinical support staff, such as Medical Assistants and Surgical Technologists, as well administrative support staff, including Health Claims Examiner/Medical Billers, are also an essential component in providing quality healthcare services.

In the past, on-the-job training might have been sufficient to become a member of a medical/dental office or lab support staff. But today, the bar has been raised: workers need to hit the ground running, with a complete understanding of the advances in medical technology, as well as the knowledge and practical skills necessary to be competent in different environments, whether private, public, governmental or university-based. As a Medical Assistant, for example, you might expect to help out with basic insurance billing, medical records and other office skills, but you might also check vital signs or help set up for physical exams. Medical Assistants have found work in hospitals, clinics, HMOs, and home health organizations.

Other hands-on, patient-oriented careers that have been increasing along with a growing and aging population are Massage Therapist, Pharmacy Technician, and Dental Assistant.

Vocational Nursing is a respected, rewarding career that allows you to help people each and every day. It’s a career that offers high demand opportunities for qualified nurses in hospitals, doctors’ offices, clinics, colleges, home health agencies, and convalescent homes. It’s also a great first step for those considering further advancement in nursing or other healthcare careers.

Optical Dispensing is another field with great potential. An optical dispensing specialist who passes the National Opticianry Exam and Contact Lens Registry Exam can be qualified to work as an ophthalmic lab technician, contact lens fitter, eye doctor’s assistant, manufacturer’s representative or optical office manager. You can even open your own store someday — an exciting and challenging opportunity to realize your financial and personal independence.

No matter what healthcare support staff position is right for you, look for an accredited college with qualified faculty, modern facilities, and placement assistance. An admissions representative can help you figure out where your aptitude and talents lie. And when the time comes, you can receive help with interviewing skills, resume preparation, and job leads.

“I felt like I was in a dead end in my career, and now a whole new world has opened up for me,” said one recent healthcare graduate.

For more information about becoming an American Career College student, call 877-809-8686 or complete the form below.

*”U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook,” 2007-2008 edition.


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Pharmacy Schools And Its High Demand

Posted by admin | Posted on 28-01-2009

Category : Region V

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Pharmacy Schools And Its High Demand

There is equal necessity for the pharmacy field as much as the nursing field. The next eight years will see a sea change in the number of persons taking up this degree by taking maximum advantage of this course. There are a lot of schools that one can pursue a pharmacy course. Though each pharmacy school has something unique about it you need to take the decision to pick the right one for you.

One school that teaches the future pharmacy technicians what they need to know thoroughly to further pursue the career successfully is Creighton Distance Program. The focus of the school is to give courses pertinent to the process of good patient care. Their main focuses are prevention of diseases, patient outcomes/health of the patient, and disease state management. With a view to giving thorough knowledge of the entire subject the portion has been split into every semester at the Creighton Distance Program school. There will be laboratory sessions that are held in the summer months for about 2 or 4 weeks. There is a spread of these other classes in the whole year.

The prerequisite for undertaking a doctor pharmacy at Creighton is to have a minimum of 2 years pre pharmacy experience and four years of post graduation.

Midwestern pharmacy school is also a very fine school to pursue pharmacy education. For those that are accepted into this school, they would need to be enrolled in the school for 3 years, and it would be a full time course. At the conclusion of the class, taking the PCAT test is required of all of the students. After graduating, you have the option of being placed in many different facilities, including hospitals, educational institutes, home health care, pharmaceutical companies, laboratories, etc.

One can look at so many options in the Pharmacy schools other than the ones specified earlier. You must explore the ones present in your area for more details. A lot of pharmacy schools obligatorily need a review called PCAT. If the idea of taking the test leaves you perturbed then go in for the schools that do not require you to take the test. Only Spanish speaking have to take up the TOEFL test. A lot of these schools stipulate either one but again there are some of them that do not need any test such as the California Northstate California San Diego California San Francisco Oregon State University University of Southern California Touro University California and Washington State University. Anyone or both of these tests are needed by all the others.

You need to be both physically and mentally prepared to take on the PCAT or the TOEFL. In order to have apt attention and proper thinking you need to get a good nights sleep in the night and wholesome breakfast in the morning. In all you will have to take as many as 240 questions and two essays thus make sure that you are wearing clothes that are not very tight.

Author is an expert education articles writer and writes on topics like pharmacy schools and pcat.

Patient Demand for Proton Therapy on the Rise

Posted by admin | Posted on 25-01-2009

Category : Region V

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Patient Demand for Proton Therapy on the Rise

. Wilson was a scientist who worked on the Manhattan Project developing the atomic bomb and later championed the peaceful use of atomic energy. Today, the “father of proton therapy,” as he is often called, would be stunned by the growth and development of proton therapy in this country.

Before Wilson died, he saw his dream come true during a visit to the world’s first hospital-based proton center at Loma Linda University Medical Center in Southern California. His legacy lives on in the thousands of lives spared by proton therapy.

“The primary reasons for the growth of proton therapy, from a patient’s perspective, are that it is noninvasive and nonthreatening to healthy cells and organs, produces better outcomes and has fewer adverse side effects,” said Leonard Arzt, executive director of the National Association for Proton Therapy.

“We hear from grateful patients and their families, who have experienced the advantages of proton therapy. Many patients have come to realize that the treatment is no longer as frightening as the disease itself,” Arzt said.

Take, for example, men diagnosed with prostate cancer. Since the mid-1990s, men have taken their fate into their own hands, formed their own word-of-mouth networks, shared information and experiences, and referred themselves for treatment to the few proton therapy centers in the United States, such as Loma Linda University. Many of these men successfully sought noninvasive proton radiation therapy as an alternative to radical prostate surgery.

As additional medical studies are published about the advantages of proton radiation and the positive outcomes resulting from modern patient treatment protocols, the referring medical community may begin to realize that proton therapy could help their patients.

A good example is the newly published Journal of the American Medical Association study of 500 men who have had surgery for prostate cancer and have relapsed with the disease. The study says that if doctors treat them early with radiation therapy, such as proton radiation, these men can be cured. Other recent studies have established the greater efficacy of proton therapy over standard radiation therapy.

The increased demand for proton therapy has motivated one of the most prominent cancer centers in the world. The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston is building a 5 million proton facility due to open for patients in early 2006.