Seminar in West Haven, CT Rescheduled

Tonight's seminar at Marathon Healthcare Center of West Haven, 310 Terrace Avenue, West Haven, Connecticut, has been rescheduled. We will post the date and time as soon as they are available. Thank you for your interest!If you have any questions regarding this event, please contactDwayne Silva at 203-932-2247.

Free Seminar in West Haven, Connecticut

On Wednesday, April 30th, 2008
at 6:30 PM,

Marathon Healthcare Center
of West Haven
310 Terrace Avenue, West Haven, Connecticut

Will Be Hosting a Free Seminar
Presented by Vitas Innovative Hospice
on
Recent Developments in
End-Of-Life Care
Power of Attorney
Advance Directives
Conservatorship
Living Wills

All are Welcome To Attend this Free Seminar!
Please RSVP to Dwayne Silva
(203) 932-2247

Refreshments Will Be Provided

We Look Forward to Seeing You There!

Attitude

ATTITUDE

by: Charles Swindoll

The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude... I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our attitudes.

X-Ray Technician

From www.medical-career-training.com

Also known as Radiologic Technicians or Radiographers, X-ray technicians are responsible for conducting imaging procedures specified by a patient’s physician. They prepare patients for filming and operate x-ray imaging machinery. Precision is essential, as the X-ray Technician must position the radiologic equipment at the correct range and angle to obtain the best picture for purposes of diagnosis. This process requires extensive knowledge of both anatomy and imaging technology. Some Radiologic Technicians are trained to utilize even more advanced equipment such as MRIs (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) and CTs (Computerized Tomography), and others may perform complex tests like flouroscopies.

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Travel Assignments centered on your lifestyle...

Axis Healthcare Staffing helps qualified healthcare professionals in all areas of nursing to find the perfect travel assignments for their way of life. We offer exclusive top paying positions in choice locations across the U.S. from AK, FL, NM, AZ, OH, TN and
over 40 other states!

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Medical Records Specialist

What is a Medical Records Specialist?

Each time a patient receives a health care service, a record is maintained of the intervention & treatment outcome. A medical records specialist organizes all of this documentation for future use. Many medical practices see a large amount of patients. This creates a vast amount of documentation that someone familiar with various filing techniques must maintain. A medical records specialist is well acquainted with many aspects of a medical practice, especially medical records.

Medical practices follow laws and guidelines for proper documentation, maintenance and usage of medical records. A medical records specialist is responsible for knowing these laws and guidelines and assisting others, such as physicians, in observing them.

Brighton College Online Training

Through a Nurse's Eyes

Almost every veteran I know is extremely stoic when it comes to his or her health. Suffering in silence, and not seeking medical help are common threads that any healthcare provider recognizes in this population. Blood pressure rises and stay up, fevers burn, pee stings, stomachs ache, and sores fester, and the tough vet says “I’ll be fine” until a fed-up spouse, child, or paramedic shouts “Enough!” and carts the veteran off to the emergency room.

I was fortunate (though I thought at the beginning unfortunate) enough at the age of 22 to be caring for one such health-procrastinator. He was a crotchety old WWII soldier, in the hospital with a ruptured appendix. His surgery to remove the “damaged equipment” was successful, but afterward the incision itself became badly infected, and the old guy was not a happy camper.

Mr. B. was mean and nasty to all of his caregivers, which wasn’t what actually bothered me the day that I found him on my daily assignment. I was okay with awful behavior and shouting, but totally grossed out by infected wounds. They look disgusting with all kinds of pus-filled discharge, brown, yellow, orange, and green; and smell even worse. If you’ve ever left lunch meat in a box outside for three days in August, you know what I mean.

I gathered my courage and steeled myself when it came time to change Mr. B.’s bandage. Knocking on the door, I pasted a smile on my face as I stepped into the room, only to be shouted at by my patient. Mr. B. cursed at me, ranted, raved, and pretty much let it be known that he felt I was a worthless, useless piece of crap.

Instead of running from the room with tears in my eyes, which many nurses would do, I met my difficult patient’s eyes and said matter-of-factly, “Mr. B., it’s time for me to change your dressing.” After calling me several more choice names, Mr. B. slowly drew down the sheet to expose his sore belly. I gulped as I looked at the pus-soaked gauze on the right side of his stomach, and felt my own stomach turn in response.

Sensing my hesitation, the old soldier again began his litany of insults, coming up with names for me and all of my family members I had never even heard before. I blocked them out as I washed my hands, prepared my supplies, and reached out to remove the dirty dressing from Mr. B.’s incision.

Once Mr. B. realized I wasn’t going to react to his constant stream of verbal abuse, he quieted down, lying in the bed with an angry scowl on his face. I wondered why this man was so sour, and thought to myself that maybe the infection was actually his personality seeping out through the wound. Meanwhile, I took off his old dressing and wanted to puke. Underneath was a disgusting mess of foul tissue, a gaping, festering, stinking sore on this poor man’s belly.

Choking down my gorge, I shifted my focus to Mr. B. himself. “That must hurt.” I said, and he looked away and just grunted. On his stomach, the green pus oozed like old pea soup from the depths of his wound as I cleaned it- gross! “I used to have six-pack abs” muttered Mr. B. as he watched. As he said it, his stomach muscles pushed out even more drainage- sick! I felt like I was really going to lose it, embarrass myself and humiliate Mr. B.

“How did you get those six pack abs- not by drinking too many six packs, huh? Did you do it to pick up dames? I bet your wife loved them!” I responded with a smile as I began the nasty job of packing the open wound with sterile gauze soaked in saline.

Mr. B. met my eyes and said “Nobody here has ever cared to talk to me about anything other than my sickness- they all seem to think that I am just a patient and not a person. Thank you.” We went on to have a very personal, fun conversation during the rest of the bandage change. Mr. B. turned out to be a very intelligent, humorous man who was able to keep my mind occupied as I went about the unpleasant task of caring for his festering wound.

During the rest of his stay at the hospital, Mr. B requested that I perform his wound care whenever I was working, even when he was not on my assignment. I found out later on that the reason he requested me was that I was able to keep his mind occupied during the bandage change, and even though it was not pleasant for him, at least he was able to have a diverting conversation. I laughed to myself when I learned this, since he was doing exactly the same thing for me!

Eventually, through excellent nursing care, (emphasize care,) Mr. B’s infection cleared and his wound healed. I like to think that he learned from me that it is okay to admit when you are not well, and to allow someone to help you. I learned a more valuable lesson from him, though, which is that if you are open, even to a cranky, grouchy jerk, and try to see that jerk for the person he really is, he may be able to touch you in a way that helps to see you through some extremely awful circumstances.

Physician Assistant

Healthcare Careers

Health care will generate 3 million new wage and salary jobs between 2006 and 2016, more than any other industry. Seven of the twenty fastest growing occupations are health care related. Job opportunities should be good in all employment settings.

Employment change. Wage and salary employment in the health care industry is projected to increase 22 percent through 2016, compared with 11 percent for all industries combined (table 3). Employment growth is expected to account for about 3 million new wage and salary jobs—20 percent of all wage and salary jobs added to the economy over the 2006-16 period. Projected rates of employment growth for the various segments of the industry range from 13 percent in hospitals, the largest and slowest growing industry segment, to 55 percent in the much smaller home health care services.

Table 3. Employment in health care by industry segment, 2006 and projected change, 2006-16
(Employment in thousands)

Industry segment	2006 Employment	2006-16 Percent change
Health services, total	13,621	21.7
Hospitals, public and private	5,438	13.0
Nursing and residential care facilities	2,901	23.7
Offices of physicians	2,154	24.8
Home health care services	867	55.4
Offices of dentists	784	22.4
Offices of other health practitioners	571	28.3
Outpatient care centers	489	24.3
Other ambulatory health care services	216	32.3
Medical and diagnostic laboratories	202	16.8

Employment in health care will continue to grow for several reasons. The number of people in older age groups, with much greater than average health care needs, will grow faster than the total population between 2006 and 2016; as a result, the demand for health care will increase. Employment in home health care and nursing and residential care should increase rapidly as life expectancies rise, and as aging children are less able to care for their parents and rely more on long-term care facilities. Advances in medical technology will continue to improve the survival rate of severely ill and injured patients, who will then need extensive therapy and care. New technologies will make it possible to identify and treat conditions that were previously not treatable. Medical group practices and integrated health systems will become larger and more complex, increasing the need for office and administrative support workers. Industry growth also will occur as a result of the shift from inpatient to less expensive outpatient and home health care because of improvements in diagnostic tests and surgical procedures, along with patients� desires to be treated at home.

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Health care jobs help area colleges expand

From Press of Atlantic City:

By DIANE D'AMICO Education Writer, 609-272-7241

David Courtney is scrubbing his way to a new career, one finger at a time.

"You scrub your nails with a brush 30 times, then everything else 20 times," the soaped-up North Wildwood resident explained as he and classmates prepped in their surgical technician class at Atlantic Cape Community College's new Health Professions Institute in Atlantic City. "It's very precise, but you really feel very clean when you're done."

A licensed practical nurse, Courtney jumped at the chance to train to work in an operating room. The full-time 11-month program offers classroom and clinical experience.

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Speech Therapy

Nursing shortage forcing hospitals to find new ways to fill staff vacancies

Wilton Villager

By JILL BODACH
jbodach@wiltonvillager.com
NORWALK — With the current nursing shortage predicted to worsen over the next decade and peak at the same time thousands of baby boomers are aging, care hospitals across the country are required to find new ways to fill staff vacancies.
No longer can hospitals rely solely on U.S.- trained nurses to fill the slots that will be left due to retirement and other absences. Experts estimate that by 2012 the nation will need 1 million new or replacement nurses.

Norwalk Hospital is part of a national trend to hire foreign-educated nurses to fill vacancies in U.S. hospitals. Over the last four years approximately 60 nurses, primarily from India, have been hired by Norwalk Hospital, said Jan Mola, executive director of ambulatory and emergency nursing services.
"International recruitment is not our primary recruitment but that is a significant number of nurses, so it's a pretty big deal," Mola.
Recruitment can take up to two years, due mostly to the immigration process which can take as many as eight months to complete in some cases, said Mary Nolan, vice president of nursing at Norwalk Hospital.

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Online Pharmacists Refresher Course

The Pharmacists Referesher Course is designed for pharmacists who wish to return to community practice after an absence for three or more years. The course has 3 modules, all of which are approved for ACPE continuing education credits (home study).
The course assists pharmacists to reenter the profession and receive updated information concerning new drug entities, new medical therapies that are affected by drug usage, new working conditions, new patient care services, computerization, demands of third party payers and new state and federal regulations.
The first two modules are offered as web courses through Charter Oak State College. The third module is an experiential externship centered around core competencies.
Those who participate in all three modules will earn a certificate from Charter Oak State College. Those taking Mods 1 and 2 for personal enrichment will earn ACPE credits through the CPA.
For more information, please visit the Connecticut Pharamcists Association Website or

email CPA (members@ctpharmacists.org)

or call (860) 563-4619.

Massachusetts National Nurses Day Celebration

National Nurses Day Celebration & Rally
May 6, 2008
Featuring Speeches By Patti LaBelle & Suzanne Gordon
Boston's Hynes Convention Center 10 a.m. - 12 noon
Rally For Safe Patient Limits State House Steps 1 p.m. - 2 p.m.

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