California Job Outlook - Healthcare Workers in Huge Demand

Temperature is right for Healthcare Opportunities

A healthcare career might be just the cure for your occupational woes. Whether it's working with patients, being a key contributor in a medical office team, or opening up your own business, healthcare is a satisfying, challenging and exciting career choice. And there's never been a better time to train for a healthcare position. With the aging of the baby boomers (those born between 1946 and 1964), a shift from inpatient to outpatient care, and the expansion of healthcare centers, the demand for healthcare workers is expected to increase in the years to come, especially in California.

Below are the fastest growing Healthcare Careers in California:

*Dental Assisting*

Average Annual Wage: $31,985

2002-2012 Job Growth: 57%

Future Career Paths: Dental Hygienist, Licensed Vocational Nurse

*Health Claims Examiner/Medical Biller*

Average Annual Wage: $31,772

2002-2012 Job Growth: 41%

Future Career Paths: Medical Coder, Insurance Adjuster

*Massage Therapy*

Average Annual Wage: $36,340

2002-2012 Job Growth: 21%

Future Career Paths: Physical Therapist, Day Spa Manager

*Medical Assistant*

Average Annual Wage: $28,890

2002-2012 Job Growth: 46%

Future Career Paths: Licensed Vocational Nurse, Medical Coder

*Optical Dispensing*

Average Annual Wage: $32,441

2002-2012 Job Growth: 23%

Future Career Paths: Store Owner, Manufacturers Sales Rep

*Pharmacy Technician*

Average Annual Wage: $33,632

2002-2012 Job Growth: 31%

Future Career Paths: Occupational Therapy Assistant, Dietetic Technician

*Surgical Technology*

Average Annual Wage: $40,178

2002-2012 Job Growth: 36%

Future Career Paths: Central Supply Mgr, Asst. Operating Room Admin.

*Diagnostic Medical Sonagraphy*

Average Annual Wage: $60,908

2002-2012 Job Growth: 21%

Future Career Paths: Physician's Assistant, Medical Technologist

** Salaries listed above are average annual wages reported by the Employment Development Department of the State of California and do not reflect entry level salaries for the healthcare positions listed.

Key Success Factors

Do you have a genuine desire to help people? Then chances are you'll be successful as a healthcare professional. The four other critical skills you'll need to succeed in health care are:

o Team player. Healthcare is a group activity, so people skills and teamwork are essential.

o Compassionate and caring. Helping take care of people requires patience and a service-orientated attitude.

o Comfortable in any setting. You might be part of a huge organization or a small staff, working at the local, state, regional or national level. The possibilities are endless.

o Desire for lifelong learning. You'll need to keep studying and learning throughout your career to keep up with the latest developments in the field.

Healthcare provides a helping hand

Healthcare professionals are essential when it comes to caring for the physical, mental, social and emotional wellbeing of individuals. Whether you're a health information specialist or a dental receptionist, all support staff play a vital role in patient care. As an important contributor to the healthcare system, you'll need to be able to establish trust and credibility with fellow workers and patients. Good communication skills, ability to follow directions, and strong listening ability are important, especially if you're working in a clinical environment.

Technical abilities are a must

Technology has altered the practice of healthcare. No matter what the healthcare field, an ability to work with computers and high-tech equipment is a powerful asset. As a medical biller, you will probably be asked to help process some claims electronically. Medical clinical assistants may need to deal with an Electronic Medical Record. Pharmacy technicians often operate automated pill dispensers. But if you're unfamiliar with such tools, don't worry--your all-important career college will help introduce you to these concepts.

Exciting environments

Is it any wonder that shows like NBC's "ER" and "Scrubs," and CBS' "Rescue 911," have been so popular? They show the drama of medicine and the reality of life-and-death situations. Healthcare is filled with stimulating and interesting interactions. Of course, big-city hospitals bustle with activity, but even a quiet suburban assisted living facility, chiropractic office, retail pharmacy, HMO, or medical clinic have everyday drama and fascinating daily interactions. If you like a variety of tasks, work well under stress, and take pride in doing a job well done, then you have what it takes to be a valuable member of the healthcare team.

Lifelong learning

Medical-related workplaces have always been settings that support and encourage professional growth and development. Opportunities for on-the-job training and continuing education abound, and often employers will subsidize your schooling. You'll also have lots of opportunities for advancement, so your ambition will serve you well in a healthcare profession. If you're interested in a career like massage therapy, be assured that complementary and alternative medicines are being integrated into conventional healthcare systems, offering you even greater opportunities. No matter what your area of interest, be sure you start out at a school that provides a positive learning environment and is prepared to help you launch your career in this exciting arena.

Reality check

Although not every healthcare professional works with patients, those who do will find that people are sicker, older, and living longer, often with chronic diseases. Keeping a positive attitude is key for maintaining a cheerful office or clinic. Are you up to the challenge? Being a paid caregiver requires confidence, commitment and compassion.
Summary

The clock never stops ticking in the healthcare profession. Perhaps it's time for you to join this financially rewarding, stable and gratifying occupation. One recent study showed that California led other states in the number of advertised healthcare job vacancies, with other regions also showing a strong demand across the nation.

One healthcare worker said it best: "Touching someone's life in a positive way is the most rewarding work that there is."

To request free information about the healthcare career training programs offered in southern California, visit http://www.americancareer.com.

To request free information about the healthcare career training programs offered in northern California's San Joaquin Valley, visit http://www.acicareercollege.com.

About American Career College

For over 25 years, American Career College (ACC) has been helping thousands of students get their start in the healthcare industry. ACC offers nine healthcare training programs at campuses in Los Angeles, Orange County and Norco, California:

Dental Assisting

Health Claims Examiner/Medical Biller

Massage Therapy

Optical Dispensing

Vocational Nursing

Pharmacy Technician

Surgical Technology

Diagnostic & Medical Sonography (Ultrasound)

Medical Assistant

About A.C.I. Career College

At its McHenry Avenue campus in Modesto, CA, the College offers six accredited healthcare training programs:

Health Information Specialist

Medical Clinical Assistant

Medical-Dental Administrative Assistant

Pharmacy Technician

Massage Therapist

Medical Dental Receptionist

Nursing Homes - A Difficult (But Important) Choice

Luckily, I am blessed with independent parents who are in excellent health. My father is turning 70 this July and my mother is only a few years behind (sorry to blow your secret, mom!) While they could both stand to lose a little weight and get a bit more active, they still get around well and certainly don't need my help to make their way in the world. Sadly, of course, time is one race we all lose. Hopefully I won't have to worry about care for my parents for many, many years. This topic comes to mind, however, as I have had several cases come into my firm lately related to abuse and neglect at elder care facilities.

If you come to a point where you are unable to provide care for a loved one at home, you will be faced with some difficult decisions. The fact is, most nursing homes are run and staffed by compassionate and caring individuals. With some effort and homework, you should be able to find a facility where the odds of abuse, neglect or dangerous conditions can be minimized.

A good first step in the process is to obtain several recommendations from the physician providing care to your loved one. You can also ask friends and family members if they have suggestions. You should plan on getting at least three or four names of conveniently located facilities, and plan on visiting each one. When you visit, make sure to make an appointment to visit with the Administrator or the Director of Nursing. Come prepared with a list of written questions. Take careful note of the demeanor of the person you are interviewing. Are they providing direct and clear answers, or do they appear to be hedging or avoiding questions? Are their answers inconsistent with what you have observed on your visit?

On your visit, use all your senses. How does the facility look? Does it appear clean? How does it smell? Do the residents appear well cared for? Are the kitchen facilities (if any) clean? Do the staff seem interested and energetic?

Be sure to ask to see the most recent state survey report. All nursing homes are inspected and surveyed by the state annually. The report will cite deficiencies in detail and will also list facility efforts to correct problems. Be careful if there are excessive deficiencies or if it appears that the facility is not taking adequate steps to address the cited issues. Also ask to see any complaints which have been filed against the facility in the last year, as well as documentation of the facility's response. Also always ask for complete explanations of the facility's policies in regard to chemical or physical restraint. See if these policies are available in writing. Always ask about the incidence of pressure sores (bedsores) at the facility.

Ask about staffing ratios. While the law only requires that a facility maintain "sufficient" staff, the National Citizens' Coalition for Nursing Home Reform has set some rough guidelines for staffing. According to the NCCNHR, during the day there should be at least one direct care giver for every five residents, one for every ten residents in the evening, and one for every fifteen at night. Remember, these ratios will vary depending on the needs and independence level of the residents. Also, keep in mind, the majority of direct day to day care in most facilities is provided by nursing assistants. On your visit, take the time to introduce yourself to a few of the direct care providers and see if you can get a feel for their level of care, skill and compassion. Be sure to ask management about the turnover rate for providers.

If you have more questions about nursing home facilities or possible problems or issues, you should call the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services at (800) 458-9858. Sometimes, despite all your research, you may be faced with the tragic situation where your loved one suffers abuse or neglect at their facility. If this occurs, or if your loved one suffers a serious injury at a nursing home, you and your loved one have important legal rights. In this event, it is important that you contact a qualified attorney to help investigate the matter and assess the situation.

What is Assisted Living, and What Are Its Benefits?

An assisted living facility is very much like a nursing home, but it also provides special care to those who need it. What differentiates it from a nursing home is the very fact that it offers more freedom and independence the person receiving care. There is one more difference - where nursing homes provide their services only to the elderly people, these facilities welcome even the young ones if they are physically disabled and need special care. There are many companies who are specialized in providing special care and housing solutions for both the elderly people as well as those who are young but have serious accessibility problems. Still, in general, these facilities largely cater to senior citizens only.

How Does These Facilities Work?
Unlike what happens in nursing homes, an assisted living facility does not monitor their residents all the time. It provides private apartments for its clients where the staff members make periodical visits in order to provide assistance to those who need it. Some staff members just visit them in order to provide them companionship so that they do not feel lonely. However, meals are not provided to the clients at their separate apartments. The residents have to o to the communal dining halls for their meals. This way, if some of the residents who are disabled or have accessibility problems, they get a chance to go out in the public and interact with people (who are also suffering from similar problems) in a friendly environment. So, they don't feel self conscious anymore.

In most cases, the main objective of the assisted living facilities is to provide an opportunity and platform for the people with disabilities to become self dependent. That is the reason why many facilities also feature handrails, lower countertops and tables, and wheelchair-accessible showers.

How Can One Benefit From These Special Homes?
Assisted living homes make the best option for those who are otherwise self sufficient but need some special care and assistance because of their physical disabilities. These facilities provide them a good platform where they can learn how to live independently and without having any sense of inferiority. These facilities inculcate self confidence in their residents by having a busy schedule of events so that there's no time for worries or develop inferiority complex.

However, it is very important for you to understand that assisted living facilities are not meant for those who are mentally challenged or very frail. For them, nursing home is undoubtedly a much better option. These are the people who need assistance twenty four hours a day and seven days a week, which only a nursing home can provide.

Why Home Care Is Better Than Nursing Homes

For many of us, the time will come when our parents are no longer able to care for themselves. Oftentimes, this leaves us with one of two choices: place our parent in a nursing home or hire Denver elder care services.

Obviously, neither choice is easy: making the choice means admitting to ourselves that the roles have been reversed. Our caretakers now are the ones who need our help.

Still, unless you or a relative are able to pick up and move in with your parent as well as offer them 24-hour care, Denver elder care services may be the ideal choice. When compared to nursing homes, elderly home care Denver offers the following advantages:

Your Parent Will Stay in the Comfort of Their Home: Home, as they say, is where the heart is. Chances are, your parent is not ready to leave it. With Denver elder care home services, your parent doesn't have to. Since home care Denver based agencies work by coming to their home, your parent can stay in the comforts they've grown to love with their cherished belongings around them.

Your Parent Can Keep Their Pet: On average, people who own pets live seven years longer than those who don't. This, along with the cherished relationship your parent may have with their cat or dog, is reason enough to go with Denver elder care home services. With home care Denver based services, your parent doesn't have to say goodbye to a furry member of their family.

Your Parent Will Feel More Independent: The older we get, the harder it is to come to grasps with our increasing dependency. But, with Denver elder care home services, this dependency is not as overt. Your parent will feel much more independent with a companion in their home than they would inside the constrains of a nursing home.

Your Parent Can Keep Their Routine: Your parent may have a routine that is important to them. With elderly care Denver based, they can keep it. Maybe they play bridge every Wednesday or meet for coffee on the third of the month. Whatever their routine, elderly care Denver based agencies will help your parent keep the routine that is important to them.

It is an Easier Decision for the Family: Putting your parent in a nursing home is a difficult decision, one that many people have a hard time dealing with. Going with elderly home care Denver based services, however, is a much easier decision. This is because Denver elder care home services improve the life of your loved one whereas relocating to a nursing home may disrupt it. This makes Denver elder care services an optimal choice for you, your family and your parent.

Nursing Home CNA Training

Nursing home CNA training is training to become a nursing assistant that is offered at a nursing home facility. Continuing care communities often offer training for nursing assistants. The training is sometimes provided for people who have been hired to work for the facility but still need to take training to become certified.

There are times when a continuing care community will provide training for someone already working at the nursing home who wants to become a nursing assistant. This is an opportunity for an individual to change their career if they are interested in working as a nursing assistant.

If a healthcare provider offers you CNA training at no cost to you, they are like to require you to work for their facility for an agreed upon amount of time. It is not uncommon for them to ask you to work for them for at least one year.

You will receive excellent CNA training if you train in a continuing care community. The course will teach you the duties and responsibilities of a nursing assistant. You will learn about patient privacy rights and how to spot and report elder abuse. Your course will teach you some medical information. You will learn how to respond to an emergency situation.

There will be lecture and classroom portions of your CNA Training through a nursing home. You might also have some lab classes. Before you work with real patients, you might do some role playing with other students in order to practice procedures. You will probably also observe nurse and nursing assistants in action. Finally, you will get to work directly with some patients.

Most Nursing home CNA Training courses will last about somewhere between three and six weeks. You might find both full-time and part-time course opportunities in a nursing home setting. Of course, your training will last for a longer period of time if you are only studying a few hours each day.

You will be well prepared for the nursing certification exam upon completion of a nursing assistant training program at a nursing home. Once you have completed all your coursework, you will be able to take the examination. Your instructor will provide you with the details about when you will take your exam and how to prepare. You will also learn what you need to bring with you in order to take the test.

If you are not sure which nursing institutions in your area are offering nursing assistant training, you can contact a few directly. You can also contact the nursing aide registry in your area for information about nursing homes that offer CNA training. If an employer hires you to work as a nursing assistant and has state that they will provide you with all necessary training to become certified, they will provide you with the information you need.

You will be well on your way to a new career working as a nursing aide after completing nursing home CNA training.

Improving Staff Engagement at Your Site Will Improve Patient Outcomes and Your Bottom Line

It is an axiom of business that employee engagement produces many positive results, no matter what the setting-manufacturing or service. This is true for healthcare as well. Employee engagement produces a better product or service. In healthcare, engaged employees produce enhanced patient outcomes. When employees are engaged there is less turnover, which reduces training costs. Engaged employees are problem solvers. These are just a few of the many benefits from engaging employees.

How can management engage employees at healthcare sites? A recent study by Manpower's Right Management emphasized providing opportunities for advancement and opportunities for development. In a survey of a wide variety of organizations it found that in settings where employees felt that there were career opportunities for them, 54% were engaged. In settings where employees felt that there job was a dead end, only 9% were engaged. The same study also showed that employees who had career opportunities were likely to stay much longer than employees who did not think they had good career opportunities. For the former only 5% said they planned to leave their organization in less than one year. For the latter, 22% said they were likely to leave within a year.

Let me share an example of a primary care site which has engaged an employee through development. This site has found that the percent of collections from billed charges has drastically fallen from 75% to 60% in the past year. The practice administrator suspects that there may be several factors which have led to this, including poorer coding and physicians seeing fewer patients. Wanting to be objective, she decided to "go and see" what the real causes are. She talks to several of the staff to get their point of view. She reviews a recent external audit of billing and coding. She finds after a thorough analysis that the primary cause is coding; the percent of collections and reimbursement from first time coding has slipped. She talks to her coders and finds that the new codes are causing problems. With a team of physicians and coders she decides that the best strategy to solve this problem is provide online training to her coders. The coders in turn will instruct the physicians on how to better detail the patient visit so that the coding will be more accurate. This approach soon solves the problem. The coders believe that have played an important part in serving the practice and feel engaged.

Another way to engage employees is to provide them ways to identify and solve problems. The best healthcare sites do this by borrowing from the Lean model of Toyota. For simple problems, such as organizing a storage area that is continually disorganized, making it harder to find needed supplies, the administration has instructed the staff how to quickly form teams to provide simple solutions that can be carried out quickly and cheaply. Other sites, alternatively, may solve its simpler problems by having regular voluntary team meetings of staff in a work area, such as staff of a lab, in which problems are identified and solved in one setting.

For larger problems administration can assemble a team of those affected and use the kaizen approach that Toyota champions. This problem solving approach is carried out over a longer period and is based upon the Plan-Do-Check-Act approach. Before applying the PDCA though, the problem is thoroughly explored by "going and seeing." A detailed analysis of the problem is presented to the kaizen team and agreement is reached that this is the real problem. By doing so, a good solution is much easier to achieve.

An example of using this kaizen approach to engage employees in problem solving is found in a primary care setting that is implementing an electronic health record. Since EHR's are so complicated and multifunctional, it makes good sense to form an implementation team at a site, perhaps one with a leader who is an expert trained in Lean approaches and team building, a consultant if necessary, so implementation is less disruptive as new processes are created to fully make use of the EHR. Sites using such teams see a drop of only 3% or so in patient flow in the short term as implementation proceeds and income actually increases in a very short time. One site team decided to focus on using electronic prescribing features of EHR's first in order to realize benefits right away, both in safety and in freed up time. EHR's virtually eliminate the problems created by handwritten prescriptions-errors in dosing and drug names. This function freed up time for staff who were taking calls for refills and transmitting them to the physicians, time which could be better used for patient care. Interaction of drugs problems were also avoided.

Another example of positive results from engaged employees is my experience with the staff of Baylor Hospital in Dallas, Texas. My mother had to have a pacemaker inserted at Baylor to help with her ventricle electrical pulses. The nursing and support staff worked to make my mother as comfortable and anxiety free as possible. I was able to view this close-up as her room had a pull out bed and I stayed with her for two nights. The nurses were timely in their care and answered our questions with excellent detail. They demonstrated that the quality of her care was of utmost importance to them. They were obviously fully engaged. In fact, the Health Grades web site ranked them as providing excellent care overall.

I hope it is evident that engaged staff can provide superior quality for patients and dramatically improve the bottom line. Engaging staff by providing educational opportunities, by offering opportunities for advancement and by involving them in problem solving are just three ways to make good use of staff abilities. If such benefits are clear why aren't more healthcare sites making use of this approach? I believe one of the reasons lies in the inability of management to let go of the control they have, to trust in the abilities of their staff. I recall just such an occasion with one physician recently. The staff nurse was complaining to me that the office would run much more smoothly if the physician did not try to micromanage every detail and let the staff do its job.

As you can see staff engagement is a Win-Win for all, even though such a transition may be difficult for some management. Taking a gradual approach to integrating staff engagement as a policy at your site will be beneficial to staff, patients and management.

The Advantages Of Elderly Home Care

As your loved one grows much older, sooner or later they will come to a point when they're no longer able to live on their own. When signs that your aging parents need help become obvious, it's time to decide for their future.

Nursing home care is a common option. Although seniors receive round the clock coverage in nursing homes, they also know that is often the final place they will ever stay. Just the thought of leaving their homes depresses many seniors, and this can further deteriorate the condition of their health. This is why it is important to understand that not all seniors have to go to nursing homes. A nursing home may be a great option for seniors with serious dementia who might hurt themselves when left alone. However, majority of our seniors does not need such radical changes. Many seniors only need some help with the chores that they can no longer do on their own and have someone to visit them and make sure they're doing fine.

Elderly home care is a good option for senior loved ones who are not in need of round the clock monitoring and care. Perhaps your senior loved one is not ill but he is not able to do some tasks without the help of another person. Or maybe he is recovering from an illness or from an operation and only needs someone to help him with personal care, light nursing, medication and even some light mental or physical therapy.

Then nurses and other high level medical professionals will visit him only periodically based on how much care he needs, while still maintaining his freedom and independence in his own home. With elderly home care, your senior parent can stay in familiar surroundings which could be the best place for him to recover more quickly. Elderly people who are able to remain in their own home have more self-esteem. In contrast, those who are placed in nursing homes often feel depressed realizing that they can no longer do the things they used to do.

Studies show that elderly home care is the best option for the over-all well-being of seniors. When it comes to hiring elderly home care you have at least two options. Either you get a provider through an agency or you hire a provider directly. Both of them have their own pros and cons. Here's a detailed discussion of them.

Home Care Agency

The advantages to hiring an elderly home care provider through an agency is that the agency handles all the processes related to screening, hiring or firing, pay and taxes, which you need to do yourself once you choose to hire a caregiver on your own. Another advantage is that the agency can send a substitute anytime your care provider is sick. Also, agencies can provide workers with various skills to meet different needs.

Disadvantage to hiring a caregiver through an agency is that because several care givers are used it could be distressing or confusing for the care recipient. Other disadvantages are that your choices of workers are limited and it is usually more expensive than when hiring an individual directly.

Hiring Elderly Home Care Giver Directly

By hiring an elderly home caregiver directly, there is a greater chance of developing a strong one-on-one relationship between the care giver and the care recipient. Also, with this method you have the freedom to choose the person you think can best provide the needs required by your senior loved one. This is also often less expensive than hiring someone from an agency.

Disadvantages include not having to get a ready substitute anytime the home care worker can't be available and you have to directly handle the processes of screening, hiring or firing, pay and taxes.

Interviewing the Applicant

Should you decide the second option, here are some tips you need to keep in mind during the interview process:

A face-to-face interview with all job applicants is not necessary. You may screen them over the telephone. When doing the initial telephone interview, ask the applicants to give a full description of the job, including the number of hours and days they're available. It is also important that you ask the candidate's job history and whether or not she has some preferences. If a candidate sounds suitable for the job, schedule for a personal interview with him. Ask another family member or the care recipient himself, if possible, to participate in the interview. If you think a candidate has the qualities and skills that you require, ask him to sign a work contract for your mutual protection.