Healthcare Careers

It has become popular in Australia, New Zealand, and Great Britain. It has even been embraced in the rural villages of Alaska. Now, dental therapy is coming to the continental United States, thanks to a pilot training program offered through the state of Minnesota.

Dental therapy is the future wave, offering patients additional access to dental treatment, using a more cost-effective solution to many common dental issues. Dental therapists operate as middlemen between dentists and dental hygienists, offering many services usually provided by dentists but often at a fraction of the cost. The program was introduced in Minnesota to help reach the state's rural areas where people cannot access dentists easily due to distant locations and unaffordable fees.

This video offers a look at what a dental therapist does.

The English Example

According to the National Health Service website, dental therapists are a mainstay in countries like Great Britain, where approximately 380 were on the General Dental Council Role in 2002. Since then, dental therapists have been authorized to work in all areas of dentistry, including general dental practices. The therapist works directly with a registered dentist, providing the treatment that the dentist prescribes.

Dental therapists in England also have opportunities to move into other areas of the dental field, including research and teaching roles. A diploma course in dental therapy takes about 27 months to complete and includes a variety of topics, including preventative

Do you have a passion for caring for others? Are you looking for a career in which you can start relatively quickly? Certified Nursing Assistant programs are cropping up nationwide, thanks to stimulus funds designed to get people into the healthcare field as quickly as possible. In as little as three months, you can move from a student at a community college to a fully certified nursing assistant working in a hospital, nursing care center, or home setting.

While these programs are not new, additional funding from the stimulus package has allowed many community colleges to increase the number of certified nursing classes they offer. This means even more students can get on the fast track to a healthcare career that is much more stable than many other industries today. The short amount of time in school also means tuition savings for those who want to explore new career opportunities but don't have many extra funds to do so.

What is a Certified Nursing Assistant?

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, certified nursing assistants work in various settings, offering hands-on care to patients under the supervision of RNs and other medical staff. In some cases, CNAs may help patients eat, bathe, or perform other daily tasks. Some might also take patient vitals, including temperature, pulse, and blood pressure. They may assist the rest of the medical staff by moving equipment, setting up supplies, or assisting with some procedures.

This video describes the nursing

Many Americans are searching for a new career in today’s shifting job market. One option worth considering may be working in polysomnography technology.

What is Polysomnography Technology?

Polysomnography technology is a branch of healthcare devoted to studying sleep disorders. Sleep technologists monitor individuals while they sleep, recording their brain activity, muscle and eye movements, respiration, and blood oxygen and carbon dioxide levels. These measurements are used to help diagnose sleep disorders such as:

• Narcolepsy
• Insomnia
• Sleep apnea
• Restless leg syndrome

What Can a Polysomnography Technologist Expect to Earn?

Starting salaries vary by region, but are generally quite impressive. The website for the Moraine Valley Community College Polysomnography Certificate program indicates that a typical sleep technologist in the Chicago area earns $51, 773.

The Shift Work Disorder News indicates that those who have completed sleep technologist training programs can earn “$42,509 to $80,300 annually, depending on the certification level and the years of experience.”

Texas’s Alvin Community College, which offers certificate and associate’s degree programs in polysomnography technology, indicates that “starting salaries are typically $20 to $25 per hour.”

What Jobs Does a Polysomnography Technologist Perform?

A sleep technologist may perform many duties. According to the website for the American Association of Sleep Technologists (AAST), a sleep technologist’s jobs may include:

• Ensuring that equipment is functioning properly
• Monitoring and analyzing polysomnograms (sleep tests that measure air flow, eye movements, oxygen, and other variables)
• Recognizing

Careers

With the convenience and efficiency of EHRs, patient information can be recorded and sent to approved medical providers and treatment centers with less hassle for both patients and medical providers. EHRs typically include information such as, “Patient demographics, progress notes, problems, medications, vital signs, past medical history, immunizations, laboratory data, and radiology reports.”

EHRs are gaining steam in medicine and healthcare, and subsequently, students can take advantage of a growing and lucrative healthcare career in EHRs starting at their local community colleges.

This video explains what an EHR or Electronic Health Record is.

The Rising Demand for EHRs

EHRs essentially serve to streamline communication and informational systems among clinicians. By generating complete records of a patient’s medical and treatment history, an EHR offers an array of benefits, including reducing a clinician’s workflow, as well as providing patients with improved healthcare services. Elaborating on this, as the Health Information Management Systems Society explains, EHRs offer direct or indirect interface features, providing health care workers with details “Including evidence-based decision support, quality management, and outcomes reporting.”

Investigating EHRs’ applications in the professional setting, studies prove that EHRs are significantly boosting patient health and recovery. As PR News Wire reveals, a randomized study of EHRs conducted by Kaiser Permanente found that the use of EHRs helped to reduce the risk of cardiac-related deaths by 73 percent! Specifically, by using EHRs to streamline communication, “Patients

If you enjoy learning about the human body and caring for others, then a career in nursing may be an excellent choice for you. In addition to the emotional rewards, nursing is a recession-proof career that can provide you with both employment stability and peace of mind. As the need for nurses continues to rise, graduates with nursing degrees or certifications will find themselves to be in high demand.

The Recession-Proof Perks of Nursing

Individuals who are considering a career in nursing should be thrilled to learn of the tremendous healthcare industry demand for nurses. As the average lifespan of Americans continues to rise, areas across the country are predicting a steady increase in the demand for nurses to meet their local population's needs.

For example, as the Washington Post reveals, healthcare industry leaders are seeking to increase the enrollment rates in the field of nursing, as many individuals are "Concerned that the average age of nurses is rising at the same time aging baby boomers are expected to increase the demand for medical care." Essentially, as nurses continue to age and retire, along with the general population, the field of nursing will continually demand more and more employees!

Elaborating on these concerns, the Secretary of the Maryland Department of Health, John M. Colmers, reminds individuals that the current healthcare employee is constantly and inevitably moving closer to retirement. For example,