Preparing for the Dante’s Credit by Examination DSST Exam

To prepare for the Dante’s Credit by Examination, you must first visit your admission department to discuss the credit awarding policy. Here they will clarify some things you want to know and be able to provide you with their advice. The DSST is an example of a Credit by Examination program allowing students to gain credit by passing the exam.

Through the DSST exam, the schools will be able to award credit to a student when he meets the necessary requirements and the passing rate of the exam. The passing rate is usually determined by the school itself, but it must be established and recommended by the national committee of college faculty. The American Council on Education (ACE) is the institution that approves and provides their recommended passing score. They are also responsible in determining how much credit the student is allowed to receive.

It is advisable to inquire first about your school’s program in DSST to make sure you are prepared and illegible to take the examination. You must also know the passing rate. There are schools that have a higher requirement with their passing rate, not following the ACE’s suggested passing score.

Actual preparation for the DSST exam includes taking practice exams. Through these practice exams, you will be able to assess yourself on how well you are in the subject and how much more you need to study and practice. Practice exams will also help you get used to the exam and makes you quicker in understanding questions.

Make sure you have chosen the best practice test offered by a school or online service. Through these exams, the students will be able to save time and money while accelerating graduation completion, allowing them to take another step closer to the profession you want to achieve.

Nursing Home Quality

Many reports have published information on the quality of care administered by nursing homes. This includes data on resident and family satisfaction and care outcomes. Information regarding a nursing home must be reviewed if you know that a family member needs nursing home care. Of course, we need to be sure that the facility is secure and the services they offer are above standard. You can also visit nursing homes yourself to check it or ask friends and family for their thoughts and experiences.

There are agencies that monitor and check nursing homes regularly. The Office of Facilities Regulation examines nursing homes to guarantee that they follow state and federal standards. You can contact them to learn more about a facility’s inspection results and recommendations.

The Healthcare Quality Reporting Program issues reports comparing the quality of care provided by different nursing homes in the state. Use the reports to learn about the outcomes that resident at different nursing homes experience and how often they get health conditions that good care may prevent.

Learn what residents and families say about their experiences with nursing homes by viewing satisfaction survey results. You may have heard horror stories about the quality of nursing home care. However, there are good nursing homes as well as bad ones. The nursing home should be hygienic and well maintained. A bad smell may indicate the staff is too busy to help residents to the bathroom or to change clothes. Rooms and public areas should be comfortable. The dining room and kitchen should be clean, and the food should be hot and appetizing or else their patients will lose weight due to lack of appetite.

Another thing, find out how the nursing home complies with the state and federal government regulations such as patient/staff ratio and training. Notice how staff members treat residents. Your choice will be a big factor to the health of your family member. Make sure you make the right decision and to continually monitor their program.

Patient Care Quality

Many view quality health care as the overarching umbrella under which patient safety resides.  Quality patient care, dedication to patient satisfaction and rigorous attention to patient safety are the best services a healthcare institution can offer. Because we believe that people can make better decisions about their healthcare if they have accurate information, there is an organization that made a commitment to report publicly how hospitals rank on a range of quality standards and benchmarks.

Maintaining and improving the quality of the Nation’s health care system is an important part of keeping patients safe. The aim of every healthcare institution must be to improve patient safety and health care quality in many areas of health care, reduce health care-associated infections and the adverse drug events

Patient or consumer centered care is health care that is respectful of, and responsive to, the preferences, needs and values of patients and consumers. Different definitions and terminology have been used to describe the concepts in this area, but key principles of patient centered approaches. Treating patients, consumers, care providers and families with dignity and respect is a must in a quality care.

The participation of the patient and family is encouraged in the decision making in every decision about healthcare. Communicating and sharing information with patients, consumers, and families is also a must.

The collaboration with patients, consumers, carers, families and health professionals in program and policy development and in health service design, delivery and evaluation is highly needed to upgrade the services of the institution.

Patient or consumer centered care is increasingly being recognized as a dimension of high quality health care in its own right and there is strong evidence that a patient centered focus can lead to improvements in health care quality and outcomes by increasing safety, cost effectiveness and patient, family and staff satisfaction.

Internationally, healthcare services use a range of strategies to promote patient centered care and partnerships with patients and their families. A range of organizations provide frameworks and tools to help implement these strategies.

 

College Degree through Credit by Examination

Undergraduate students can acquire a degree by getting credit by examination without formally enrolling in a certain school for the course. But first, a student must be eligible to take the exam. The student must visit the office of the registrar to complete the Academic Requirements Committee petition. Next is to gain the approval of the faculty and department to schedule your examination. It is similar to the CLEP program which can be an option for a student who wants credits. These are standardized test process first established by the Department of Defense. A similar option is offered at Excelsior College, Thomas Edison State College and a handful of other schools as well as other Online Programs that offer their own exams which enrolled students and others can take for credit.

These options are very popular among students who want to bypass the standard course by passing the exam and just pay around $ 100; allowing the students to save hundreds or thousands of dollars which they can use on their other needs. Though it’s a practical way to earn credit, there’s no assurance that you will pass the exam. It will test your knowledge about certain subjects, so you must be prepared and be well equipped before taking the exam.

Other credit by exam programs are only accepted by specific schools, not all. CLEP is the only widely accepted program by universities. Make sure that the program you are taking is accepted by the university you are planning to enroll. These exams can only be suitable for certain types of students. There are students who prefer having formal classes, for they learn more if they interact with the professors and classmates. It’s advisable to think well and consider your abilities and knowledge about the subjects before applying for the exam.

Fundamentals of Nursing Course

Nurses play a big role in the Healthcare industry. In fact, they are the most dominant in terms of their numbers. They are advocates of wellness, decision maker and an aid to the patients’ recovery. The nursing learning process will help students apply principles of biological, physical, as well as social sciences.  Basic elements of health, nutrition, pharmacology and disease will be presented among students.  Basic concepts of nursing are introduced and basic nursing skills are taught and practiced in the nursing lab.

The Fundamentals of Nursing course will provide lessons to students to give them ideas and perspective about the nursing history, current issues and updates of nursing as well as its history. Basic skills and values will also be taught to students such as therapeutic communication, nursing diagnosis, infection control, ethics and legal issues, basic physical assessment and competent care. There are laboratory exposures which trains the students in taking vitals, using gadgets and apparatuses, even teaching you how to put-up an NG tube.

Dealing with pressure and stress will also be part of the course. The nursing profession will require enough patience and sufficient skills to deal with different clinical conditions and settings. Stress will always be a part of the job and learning to deal with it will be important for the nurse to endure the job. Different schools offer different approaches in teaching their students the fundamentals of nursing. This may also depend on how their professors or nursing educators build the teaching program. These instructors must be highly qualified and trained to pass on the learning and skills to the students. Choosing a program or school that matches the needs of the student is vital in building his future as a nurse or nursing educator. It will also all depend on the student on how he applies his learning to his profession.

Anatomy and Physiology Online Course

There are schools that offer courses which could be a part of a degree or certificate program. The Anatomy and Physiology course is required for a healthcare profession degree. The online course offers an interactive learning system that allows the students to learn the subject using the internet. The course may include several subjects such as chemistry, skeletal, muscular, nervous, endocrine systems as well as the study of the tissues. The course may take several weeks or months.

anatomy-physiologyThis online course will be based on the student’s availability but will follow a certain timeline of course to make the program as formal as possible. Students with little or no preceding knowledge of anatomy & physiology are welcome. The content of the course is presented according to body systems. The students will learn through a series of multiple drills, games, puzzles and tests to strengthen learning and check their knowledge of anatomy & physiology.

At the end of the course, the students will be able to distinguish terms related to the human body’s anatomy and demonstrate the anatomical position of the components of a cell as well as explain each function. They will also learn to explain the anatomic terms, the major cavities of the body and the major constituents in the blood and lymph systems, the digestive system and relate them to the aspects of digestion.

When the student completes the course, they will receive a certificate of completion for 9.5 Continuing Education Units (CEUs). Whatever online course you take, make sure that it is authorized by the International Association of Continuing Education and Training. They must be following its guidelines. This will ensure the quality of the course even when it’s done online.

History of the Advance Placement Programs

The Advance Placement Program has become the leading educational excellence in the secondary schools in the United States. The program offers rough curricula and assessment to high school students. The AP result will be the basis for college courses, if you fail the courses you prefer, you will end up taking the course that don’t require a higher grade. This year alone, almost 2 million students have taken the exam, showing how necessary it is for college hopefuls.

The program started in 1955, its original intent was to provide students the opportunity to take college-level coursework and earn college credit while still in high school. Originally, AP was used almost exclusively for purposes of college credit and placement, as different from admissions.

There is a wide gap between secondary and higher education in the early part of the twentieth century. In two studies supported by the Ford Foundation, educators endorsed that secondary schools and colleges should work together to elude repetition in course work at the high school and college levels. The recommendation aims to motivate students to work at the height of their capabilities and to advance their skills as quickly as possible.

In the 1960s, the College Board activated a long-term pledge to teacher development. There was a good result as secondary school teachers had improved through the program. The number of schools that included AP to their advanced academic offerings had increased between 1970 and 1980. Over the years, the access to AP was expanded by the College Board by introducing Pre-AP Initiatives and AP Vertical Teams to aid students, targeting more the students in mid grade. The preparation for the AP at the moment has been advanced and has been in an utmost importance in most schools. Learning the history of the advance placement programs could make you understand its importance.

 

Patient Care Technician

There are many exciting opportunities right now in the healthcare field. More and more healthcare professionals are needed every year due to an increasing aged population that need care, the number of retirees from the healthcare profession, and the upgrade of the healthcare industry which requires more professionals with specific training. One of the most exciting professions is the patient care technician, which is in high demand right now. It is a well-respected profession and can lead you to a great career path.

There are specific responsibilities a PCT plays, and help patients in so many different ways. One of their main roles is to aid patients in performing activities that they are not able to do on their own. These regular activities will include tasks such as bathing, dressing, motion exercises, etc. It is indeed very stressful to visit a hospital, both on the patient and their family. It is the job of the Patient Care Technician to ease the stress by assisting them the best they can.

The training for PCTs includes many different activities that occur in medical services. This includes checking the vital signs of the patients and collecting specimens. The PCTs are also well oriented with the use of diagnostic equipment. Like nurses, they will be managing the patient’s medical records and charts. During the physical exam, the patient care technician will be assisting the physician.

It takes a lot of determination, of course to be a PCT, like any other healthcare profession. To be able to get a job in this field, you need to find patient care technician schools to complete your required course. You will learn about the duties of a health care technician in a more detailed manner. You will be more oriented in how to deal with your patient and how to have great patience. Proper communication will be learned during the course, which will be very helpful in the future.

Healthcare Management vs. Healthcare Administration

Healthcare institutions require managers with the skills, knowledge, and practical experience necessary to keep with the ever growing needs for healthcare and maintenance. Healthcare today is among the largest and fastest-growing industries in the United States. The Healthcare Management concentration develops the managerial skills needed to work in today’s synchronized, complex healthcare field.

Definitions of healthcare management and healthcare administration can be easily confused. Many people, of course, cannot help but use the two phrases interchangeably. Mainly, the difference between administration and management is much similar to the difference between sales and marketing. In sales and marketing, they are used to generate revenue for a company, but they achieve that task in two different ways. It’s is the same with healthcare management and administration. The sales is the face of a company that has the personal contact with clients and marketing attempts to expand the corporate client base through advertising and other physical means. While marketing is much more involved in demographics than sales would be, the sales department is much more focused in increasing the revenue numbers than marketing.

Likewise, healthcare administration is responsible in running the healthcare organization. Administration deals more with functionality of a facility, while healthcare management deals more with staffing and direct patient care.