Author: Erik

When to Take a Short Term Course in Nursing

A nursing career can be very interesting and fulfilling. The field of medicine is a branch in science that is very important to human existence. This field is also developing periodically and many new skill and knowledge are being discovered and applied. The demand for highly skilled professionals in this type industry is very high. Numerous medical and health institutions all over the world are seeking qualified employees to join their team.

One of the in-demand professionals in the field of medicine are nurses. They are the ones whom doctors rely on for taking care of patients. A student can take up two type of nursing courses in college. One is the full term four year course. And the other one is the short term Associate of Science in Nursing (ASN) course. Both courses can provide a student with the skill and formal education needed to practice a nursing career.  However, some people choose to earn a short term ASN course. If you’re undecided whether to take a full term or short term nursing course, this guide will help you determine if a short term course is ideal for you.

For Working Students
Taking a short term nursing course is ideal to students who are currently in a workforce. People who are working in an institution that is closely related to the medical field choose taking an ASN course to enhance their skill and qualifications. An ASN course offers students lesser time for earning a college degree in nursing.

Has a Family and is Busy Taking Care of Children
Young parents or single parents will still have an opportunity to earn a nursing degree without sacrificing quality time for their family. A student can earn a degree for his or her career without spending too much time for it. An ASN courses have lesser subjects which provide more time for parents to be with their children. If you can’t leave your small children behind for a long period of time then it would best to choose an ASN course.

Students Who Want to Cut Down on Cost
Earning a full term nursing degree is more expensive than a short term ASN degree. The subjects to be taken in a short term nursing course are fewer compared to a full term course.

How to Prepare and Pass a Credit by Exam

One of the popular means to gain college credits is thru taking credit by exam test. These type of examinations awards a student transferable credit to many colleges and universities. One widely used credit by exam test is the CLEP exam or College Level Examination Program test. Once a student passes this kind of exam he or she will be given college credit that can be used in his or her chosen college degree.

A person should be able to pass this kind of exam in order to acquire the college credits that he or she needs. These types of examinations can be challenging and passing it can be difficult. It’s appropriate to prepare in advance before taking the actual test. Preparing ahead of time will improve your chances of passing the exam and getting those transferable college credits. Here are some tips on how to prepare yourself for a credit by exam test.

Do Self Review
Conducting self-review and studying can prepare you for these type of exams. Create an outline of the subjects that will be included in these exams. This will help you identify which subjects you will be studying and reviewing. Use it to guide you on your self-review.

Join in a Tutorial Class
Fortunately, there are institutions that offer tutorial classes for CLEP exams. This can be a great help in achieving your goal of passing credit by exam tests and earning college credits. These Institutions often have effective tutorial programs that will ensure a passing grade. Enrolling in tutorial classes like this is the best preparation for a CLEP exam.

Acquire Review Materials
You can also buy review materials that will help you prepare for the credit by exam test. These review materials are often similar to the actual test material for the CLEP exam. However the questions in the review material is not the same as on the actual CLEP exam.

Three Effective Strategies To Improve Your Grade In College Subjects

The manner of education in college is quite different from high school. A lot of college professors give lessons to student in a different approach. Often time they just provide a list of reference where students can read lessons about the subject. College professors, most of the time impose personal research and study to students than an in depth teaching class. This is one of the major reasons why a student flunk to some college subjects like Anatomy & Physiology.

Some students would find it hard to adjust from a high school “spoon-feed” method of learning, to a highly independent college instruction strategy. Passing or getting a good grade in a college subject can be very difficult to an unadjusted student. It’s best that a college student adapt to a more independent teaching method. Here are other three effective strategies to help a student achieve a high grade in difficult college subjects:

Create a Habit to Study Your Lessons in Advance
Preparing for the next day’s lessons would be the wisest thing to do. Read and study the lessons in advance. Studying in advance will provide you more time to deeply learn the lesson. This will also allow you to coup up with the professor’s lesson for the next day.

Participate in Study Groups
Another effective way for learning lesson in difficult subjects like Psychology is thru conducting group studies. Students help each other in studying the lessons in the subject. They can share thoughts and ideas about a specific topic in the lesson to other students.

Tutorial Classes
You can also hire a highly knowledgeable individual that can help learn and study your lessons well. Hiring tutors can reinforce your learning about the lessons in Anatomy & Physiology or Psychology subjects. They can also provide you with an in-depth teaching method that you need in order to fully understand the lessons in difficult college subjects.

Fast Track College Degree: Earning College Credits Thru Examinations

Earning a college degree is very important for a professional career. An individual will gain an advantage if he or she has the educational qualification. However, in reality, the probability of earning a college degree can be very low. The cost for a formal educational in a university can be very expensive for an average income earner. Earning a college degree can consume a person’s time and financial resources.

Yet, a working student who is eager to pursue a college degree can find the right solution to these problems. A person can adapt strategies and methods to lessen the time and money consumed for a college degree. A very popular method of decreasing the time-spent for a college education is thru earning credits by taking examination.

Three Popular Credit by Exam Types

There are 3 top credit by examination testing programs in America. These type of test provide transferable credits to hundreds of universities and colleges all over the country. The CLEP and DSST test are the most widely used examination programs that grants a person 60 transferable college credits. Some schools and university also offer their own sets of credit by exam testing program.

Dantes Credit by examination program was originated by United States Department of Defense. Also known as the Defense Activity for Non-Traditional Education Support (Dantes) program, is an extensive series of examinations to assess a person’s knowledge to 38 college subjects. The Dantes Exam is comparable to the final examinations given in these 38 undergraduate college courses.

Earning credit thru examination program will cut the time spent in attending classes. These type of examination programs grant a student to earn college credits without attending regular classes. People who want to save time and money for earning credits in regular courses can adapt to this type of method.

Everything you need to know about Credit by examination

Credit by Examination grants students to have credits towards earning an associate, bachelor’s degree in college. Students take specific type of examinations that are needed in their chosen field of study. These type examinations test a student’s knowledge about the particular subject of choice. Testing sites all around America sponsor Advanced Placement (AP) exams and the College Level Examination Program or CLEP that are conducted several times within the year.

A lot of college schools accepts the credits earned by the Credit by Examination program as transfer credits. Many adult students opt to take Advanced Placement Courses such as a credit by exam to save time in earning a four-year degree. A lot students earn a maximum of 40 credits included in a degree program through this type of testing.

Who is qualified to take these type of examination?

Adult student employees often take this type of exam. High school students can also take this test and earn college credit to prepare them from general education requirements that can be transferred to many colleges and universities around the country. Individuals who are not currently enrolled in any school has also the chance to take this kind of exam. This is a great opportunity for people to make up the credits lost while he or she was not enrolled.

How can person benefit from a credit by exam?

One noticeable advantage of these Advanced Placement Courses is it allows students to saves thousands of dollars from earning a college degree. It also save a student time to finish a degree program. These type examinations also aid adult post graduate students who have already earned a degree with their career growth. They can get continuous educational credits for a graduate degree that are often times basic requirement in position appraisal and employment promotions.

Hospice care Updates: News, Trends and latest facts

Hospice Care has been a very popular option for families with members who are at the end of their life. In the U.S. and U.K., the hospice care industry has been growing progressively in the last ten years. This provided employment opportunity to healthcare professionals and chance to get a less expensive professional patient care to very sick dying people.

Here is a quick update about the latest news, developments and new facts from this field in healthcare.

UK recent study about Hospice care

A recently conducted study by the National Institute for Health Research showed that the fatality rates in hospice care incurred a steady increase from 17,400 in 1993 to 26,000 in 2012.  The Study also showed that 3.4% of all death in England came from hospice death. In relation, the figure doubled in 2012 showing 6% from hospice death. This was the first study to use the whole population of 223 adult inpatient hospice facilities in England. The study showed and figuratively defined hospice deaths changed from the year 1993 to 2012. The study also showed that majority of hospice death were cancer related cases. The study also found that a lot of people who died under hospice care are from prosperous areas than poverty-stricken areas in the UK.

Advance Hospice improves patient care but increases Medicare costs based on study

A new study in the New England journal of medicine investigates the impact of Medicare’s increase in hospice benefits in hospice facilities from 2004 to 2009. The research conducted concluded an improvement in the quality of hospice care administered and found an increased to Medicare costs of $6,761 in every patient. The research also validated that Hospice cases increased from 27.6 percent patients in 2004 to 39.8 percent in 2009. The study also showed a significant increase in the average length of time in a hospice or senior care from 72.1 days in 2004 to 92.6 days in 2009.

Top Three Characteristics of High Quality Nursing Schools

Choosing the ideal school to earn your nursing degree is very important. The type of nursing school plays an important role in developing professional skills and knowledge needed to practice a nursing career. These Nursing Schools are the foundation of a person’s nursing ability to provide healthcare service to patients. On top of that, a lot of medical institutions opt to employ nurses that came from respected and prestigious nursing schools.

You should be able to distinguish well which school to consider. Among the many nursing school offering nursing degree choose a school that have these qualities. This will be your quick guide in choosing the best nursing school in your area.

Highly qualified faculty members

The school’s Teachers and instructors are the front liners towards molding you to an efficient and well knowledgeable nurse. Some nursing schools have more qualified sets of faculty members compared to other. Choose a school that have high-credential faculty members on their list. A good indicator is membership in the National League for Nursing.

Accreditation

You may want to belong to an educational institution that have earn the proper accreditation in the field of nursing.  Accreditation Bodies like The Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing (ACEN), The Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE), The Council on Accreditation of Nurse Anesthesia Educational Programs (COA) and the National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission (NLNAC).

Nursing Board Exam Passing Rate

An effective nursing education program may be measured on the number of nursing board passers a school have produced. It’s preferable that you choose a nursing school that has a high rate of board passers in five consecutive years. Schools that have high percentage of passing rate often maintain high quality of education. You want to have this kind of quality nursing education to mold you to a highly qualified nursing professional.

Great Reasons To Take Distance Education

Education is an important qualifications needed to practice a specific career. Although earning your formal education requires personal efforts, some education programs permit students to be not physically around during classes. This kind of educational programs are often referred to as Distance education or e-learning. This kind of education is not new yet the popularity if this type of program reach its peak in the recent years because of the development of modern technologies particularly the internet.

The number of institutions offering distance learning education today has risen. More and more students earn their formal education thru schools that offer distance education. There are a lot of reason why some individuals choose this kind of educational program. Here are the top reasons why many students consider mode of education.

Flexibility of time

People who don’t have the luxury of time are more likely to take distance education programs. Enrolling in this kind of education allows a student to learn and study lessons within their time availability. They won’t have to adjust to pre-chosen and fixed class schedules. Most people that are currently employed take this educational opportunity to improve their qualification on a particular job position. Busy working people have the chance to earn advance subjects in Psychology and mathematics right in the comfort of their home.

Allows a person to study in their own comfort zone

Students with very low self-esteem and are afraid to be in a school community will be given a chance to get a formal education and get a career.  People also have a higher chance to excel in academics if they are within their comfort zones. Students can focus on learning and studying their lesson when they are in their most preferred environment.   Distance education grants people an opportunity to get a formal education from their location without spending time and resources for traveling.

High-paying Institutions to practice a LPN career

The healthcare industry offers a big employment opportunity to professionals who have a background in nursing. An individual can choose a variation of nursing careers depending on the type of nursing degree he or she has earned. There are two nursing degree a person can earn in a nursing school. One is the BSN degree which would consume four years of tertiary education. The other one is the less-time consuming vocational nursing program. For some people who don’t have the time to earn a full-four year course nursing degree, taking a short nursing vocational course is very advantageous.

Taking the short-cut towards a nursing career is convenient and less strenuous. The only thing you need to do is apply and pass a nursing licensure exam. Now, if all goes well you will be able to practice a career as a Licensed Practical Nurse. Although you are now qualified to apply in any company, you want to be employed to a healthcare institution that can provide you a highly competitive salary.

Here are the top Healthcare Institutions that offer high compensations to LVN:

Hospitals, Clinics and Government health centers

LPN are qualified to employ all types of Hospital. The starting salary for LPNs and RNs is often similar, but an RN will generally make $20k-$26k more. Bigger hospitals offer higher compensation compared to smaller ones. You may want also to include in your decision which type of hospital you will be working with. Government hospitals can offer long term nursing career for you. While private hospital and clinics can provide better nursing experience opportunity for your career.

Nursing homes and Assisted Living Centers

These kind of Institutions can also offer you a lucrative nursing career. Assisted living centers and nursing homes employ a lot of LPN and RN to administer the duty of Senior Care and assisting people with disabilities and other medical conditions.

Paramedic Training Schools

A person who wants to be a paramedic must finish either a certification or a 2-year associate degree in paramedic technology. These programs are usually available at junior college and at technical schools. Typically, states have tight specifications regarding the training of paramedics, such as the number of credit hours needed to finish the training program.

The first step to choosing a paramedic school is to obtain a record of state-approved, associate’s degree and certification programs in paramedic technology. A record of accepted programs in paramedic technology can be acquired from the state in which a potential paramedic plans to work. Paramedic training degree and accreditation provide learners with a thorough background in anatomy and physiology, pre-hospital care and cardiac life support.

Students should also ensure that their system of choice includes a significant healthcare component and enables graduate students to take the National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians (NREMT) examination. The healthcare experience includes working at medical centers and for emergency vehicle services that are associated with the community universities offering the paramedic technology training.

Clinical shifts are usually offered in the summer between the first and second years of registration. During the training, learners learn to deal with traumatic situations by managing their initial psychological responses to healthcare emergency situations. An obvious benefit to finishing a certification program in paramedic technology is the short amount of time to finish the degree program. Duration can range from one year to a year and a half. However, learners who finish an associate’s degree in paramedic technology have also finished all general education specifications, making it simpler to transfer to a 4-year school. Possible profession options include paramedic supervisor and administrative director and operations manager, says the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Often, a paramedic will choose to continue his or her studies and engage in a profession in nursing or another allied health area.