Thursday 8 October 2015

Role of Soft Skills in Healthcare Industry

Print Friendly and PDF
Most of us are of the notion that careers in the healthcare industry are all about hard skills. You have advanced knowledge, skills and well-trained hands; and you are there soaring high on your career graph. Yes, this is true. Unless, you are well-trained and become capable of rendering proper care to patients, you do not even earn your practicing license.

However, there exists a slight extension to this. And this extension is what is known as “ soft skills.” While we are all trying hard to keep track of all advents taking place in this industry, little do we do to inculcate interpersonal skills within us.

Now, a person with good interpersonal skills can have a better rapport with other individuals. He/She is always in a better position to explain fresh ideas and opinions. They are blessed, not only to make communication; however, they can make it extensively effective to their context. Ultimately, they are the ones who are easily approachable.

Any professional in the healthcare Industry requires to deal with a wide variety of individuals each day. Patients approach them with different issues to seek solutions or help. So, when this profession demands workers to be in constant communication with other individuals, paying less heed to soft skills is damaging. Therefore, the following section throws some light on soft skills required for a career in the healthcare industry.

Communication:

The ability to communicate with others as well as expressing your own opinions in a group is of utmost importance for professionals in this industry. Now, if we are talking about doctors, then how do they decide on treatment procedures?

Patients meet doctors to discuss their physical ailments. During this discussion, doctors communicate with patients to draw out exact and accurate information from them. This communication carried out needs to be directed in such a manner that patients feel comfortable as well as confident with physicians in discussing problems.

If doctors fail in this initial step, they may miss out some essential piece of information. There can be various other soft skills required by doctors that are discussed here. However, this is one of the most important of those.

The importance of good communication, also holds true for other healthcare professionals. Deciding on any treatment procedure involves different healthcare professionals to discuss their studies and reports on particular cases. So, if professionals are not in a position to explain their opinions in an easy, crisp and clear approach, the entire treatment process gets delayed.

Further, explaining procedures to other healthcare professionals is not the end of the task. Professionals need to explain the same to patients and their relatives. And here they need to break down complex procedures to simple language that can be easily perceived by people who have no relevant knowledge of this field. Thus, strong, effective and easy to understand communication techniques are just indispensable for healthcare professionals.

Being compassionate:

There are times when things are not that smooth as we expect them to be. Sometimes, despite our endeavors we do not reach the goals. This scenario is very common in the healthcare industry. Professionals try their best to improve a patient's condition, and yet they receive no significant results. Cases worsen when patients lose their lives.

Although, these play a setback to professionals as well, they do need to rise above these and provide emotional support to families of patients. Sometimes it is their efficiency that becomes questionable. And still, these professionals need to keep calm and explain practical aspects of scenarios.

Displaying optimism and confidence:

Suffering individuals and their families are already distressed and have a low morale. It is one of the duties of healthcare professionals to revive lost hope within them. It is said that a person who is confident about his/her recovery, has a quicker response to treatment procedures. Therefore, if professionals want to enhance their skills, slight attention to winning the confidence of their patients is also crucial.  

These were a few essential soft skills required by professionals in the healthcare industry. Hope you can now apprehend the importance of possessing both hard as well soft skills to make a career in this industry.

Tuesday 12 August 2014

3 Different Resume Types For Nursing Jobs

Print Friendly and PDF

Picking up a profession will depend on the type of education you have taken during your academic years. However, there are many who keep changing their profession regardless of their education and experience for some reason, or the other. This type of practice people follows to survive has, on the other hand, has generated three different types of resumes. Whether you are right into the nursing profession from the beginning, or trying to make a career change, here are the three different types of resumes you will be using from.

Chronological Resume

This is the most popular one and widely used in the job market. When using this type, you will start from describing your current job first, and then the immediate next one. This way, the job that you start at the beginning of your career will be the end in the list. Besides, the type of sections you have to add are: Summary of Qualification, Skills, Experience, Education and Reference. While there is no rule about which section should come first, it is still better to follow the order they are given here.

In the Summary section, you will include key nursing skills and years of experience you have. The description should provide a snapshot of your overall credentials for the job. The only change in this type of resume is the description of your experience, which has to start with the current job first. Each on your accomplishment in the respective job should be precise and true. Overall, the information in the experience section should portray a clear picture of the kind of work you have done and can do for the new employer. After the experience comes the 'Education section.' Under this category, you will list the name of the nursing degree, the college/university you graduated from, the year of passing, and the city and state you received the degree in. Last section will be the Reference. Do add at least two names since it increases the probability of selection.

A chronological nursing resume is useful for those candidates who had been and wanted to be in the healthcare profession for a longer time. View some samples on www.bestsampleresume.com for reference.

Functional Resume

If you are returning into the nursing profession after a long gap, or making a career change, a functional resume is the best to use. The main purpose of the functional resume is to highlight your skills and experience. While going through such types of resumes, the employers want to know how your previous experience and skills would be useful for the career you are seeking. 

This type is also useful for new graduates or entering into the nursing field for the first time. The only drawback of this type of resume is that it is not easily scanned by an applicant tracking system (ATS).

Combination Resume

A combination resume combines the essential elements of chronological and functional resumes. It is a kind of mixture of the latter two. Your experience and skill-sets will be listed first in this type followed by work history in reverse sequential order. The order of your work history will be: job title/position, company name with city and state, and the employment dates. As you have already created a Skill section at the beginning, you can skip information in the experience section since employers will see your professional expertise only.

These are the three types of resumes you need to know for your nursing profession. Whether you are new to this field, changing career, or are experienced, any of these types of resume will help you in get the job.

Thursday 25 October 2012

Why I am CNA

Print Friendly and PDF

Hello friends, I am Martin B. Headen. I am working as a CNA for a couple of years now. I have completed my CNA certification from American Red Cross Society. Currently I am living in Boston. The main reason behind writing this blog is to inform the readers about the caregiver jobs and the experience it offers to the professionals.

My intention is to provide true and relevant information to people who aspire to land up in this profession. Apart from my profession, I am interested in writing, traveling, interacting with new people, etc.

I have noticed that people working as a CNA, Registered Nurse, and Licensed Practice Nurse usually choose one of these professions following the footsteps of one of their family member who is in the same profession. However, my case is different as none of my family member is into this profession. It was my passion to work in the health-care industry that landed me into this job.

I can recall the time when I was in school where I had this feeling of serving the needy people to the best of my knowledge and efforts. However, I could not pursue a professional course that would land me into the job of a doctor or physician. Still, I opted for a CNA certification course offered by the American Red Cross Society.

This job has helped me to follow my passion to provide health-care to the patients I come across daily. So far, it has been a very pleasant experience and I feel that I was born to be a CNA rather than anyone else in my life.

I also like to help out people who want to pursue this profession as it is a rewarding experience for me see more and more people joining the health-care industry as a CNA.

Wednesday 8 August 2012

Information about CNA Programs in Michigan

Print Friendly and PDF

Working as a CNA (Certified Nursing Assistant) in Michigan may prove beneficial as the certified nurse aides working in this state are paid more than the average salary paid to a CNAs in the United State.
The certified nursing aides can earn around $31,000 per annum.The nursing-career aspirants can start their career as certified nurse aide then easily move ahead the career path through certifications and by gaining work experience [see cnacertifiednursingassistant].

Eligibility
The candidate should be of 18 years of age to work as a certified nursing aide in this state. The candidate must have completed high school diploma or General Educational Development. The candidate must clear the criminal background check and medical checkup.

Training program
To become a certified nursing aide in Michigan, the candidate has to complete minimum 75 hours of training. In this state, the clinical sessions are for 16 hours. It is compulsory for the practicing nursing assistants in this state to undertake the 12 credits of education annually. These credit points are provided by the employer to the nursing assistants.

Free CNA programs
The nursing-career aspirants can apply for free nursing training program through the Red Cross. The Red Cross provides free training to those candidates, who are interested in becoming nursing assistants and agree to work with Red Cross after the completion of training program. The aspirants can even get free training from hospitals that provide free nursing training program, on the basis of a deal that the nursing aide works later with the hospital for six to eight months after the completion of training.

The candidates aspiring to become certified nurse aide can opt for CNA programs in Michigan, as the nursing aide in this state are well paid and expect a better future growth in this field.

Monday 11 June 2012

Things A Person Should Know About American Red Cross CNA Training

Print Friendly and PDF

American Red Cross is famous for providing the best training classes; thereby producing the best certified nursing assistant in order to deliver the services to the hospitals or nursing homes. Red Cross has been providing certified nursing assistant training for the last 20 years in almost 36 cities of United States of America. The main aim of providing CNA programs is to develop the skills that can prove to be effective while serving the patients.

 American Red Cross also provides online CNA program that is helpful for those who wanted to pursue their career as a certified nursing assistant. The best part of the online CNA program is the flexibility in its timing and the cost too. The registration process for online program is same as that of the traditional one, and it also provides you all the documents online and you can also clear your doubts via video conferencing. 

The minimum qualification to apply for Red Cross CNA program is the age limit of 18 years and above and the candidate should possess a high school diploma degree. The CNA training programs in American Red Cross includes keeping the records of the patient's development in an effective manner, checking body temperature, pulse rate and blood pressure at regular intervals of time, maintaining the proper hygiene of the patients and most importantly providing mental support that helps a lot in the recovery process. In nut shell, these are some of the important and essential things about American Red Cross CNA that should be known beforehand.

Wednesday 23 May 2012

Do We Have Red Cross CNA Program Online?

Print Friendly and PDF


Red cross CNA classes is considered to be one of the best training for a certified nursing assistant. It is regarded as the best institute in the world and it has around the world due to its quality of education as well as live training that helps to strengthen the skills to a great extent. Red Cross is providing CNA training for the last 20 years and is offering its education in 36 cities of USA. 
Red cross cna programs mainly includes measuring the basic signs such as body temperature, pulse rate and blood pressure, maintaining proper hygiene, feeding the patients, maintaining the records of the patient's development, and helping the patients with their basic normal activities such as bathing, combing, brushing and dressing. The minimum qualification for Red Cross CNA program is 18 years of age, high school diploma from any reputed organization and clean background i.e. not involved in serious crime. 

The Red Cross also offers online CNA programs, as the process of registration is similar to that of conventional methods. You need to enroll for the CNA courses by filling up the forms with the correct information by providing all the necessary details as per the instruction in the form. A unique registration number will be generated along with the user id and password that will help you to download the course materials and get the updates as well. It is essential that you should possess certain skills such as good interpersonal skills, excellent learner, highly dedicated and calm for becoming a professional certified nursing assistant. The best part of online CNA programs is the flexibility in timings. 

Any CNA training program teaches you all the skills required for a certified nursing assistant. Once you have attained the CNA certification from the Red Cross, it becomes easy to get a job in any of the reputed medical organization, since the accreditation of this institute is very high and renowned throughout the world. Therefore, the Red Cross is considered o produce the best CNA's with excellent nursing skills. Make sure that you have gathered all the required information from authentic websites related to certified nursing assistant programs offered by Red Cross.

Wednesday 18 April 2012

Benefits of Choosing CNA as a Career

Print Friendly and PDF



CNA (Certified Nursing Assistant) is a person who is responsible for taking care of the overall development of the patient's health and hygiene. In general, they are responsible for fulfilling the basic needs of the patient such as medication, feeding, exercises, bathing, dressing etc. The best part of this job is that it gives mental satisfaction to the certified nursing assistant as well as provides mental support to the patient that helps a lot in curing them.

 Before going further into the details of choosing a career in CNA, it is important that you should know what a CNA is and how to choose a career in CNA. 
 
The main benefit of choosing a career as a CNA is that it does not fall into the recession period, like the other jobs do. Almost every medical institute or hospital requires a cna for performing the basic functions. The minimum eligibility qualification for a cna is a high school diploma and the candidate must be more than 18 years of age. CNA programs is categorized into several sections such as a six month to 1 year diploma course, associate cna for 2 years, bachelor's in cna for 4 years, master's in cna for 2 years and finally doctors in cna for 2-5 years. After the 2nd level i.e. the associate level, you will be given the position of a RN (Registered Nurse) and after completing bachelor's degree you will be given the position of the manager. One of the greatest advantages of choosing certified nursing assistant as a career is that this course can be completed in short duration of time and you can apply for the job after the completion of first level only.
There are free CNA programs or courses that are available online so that you can refer to it for further details. In a nut shell, CNA is a wonderful career to pursue, required you have interest in this field and also have some of the qualities like calm and composes, ability to work in a team, and excellent interpersonal skills. The work of a cna may differ from one place to another; but the basic duties are the same. So if you want to pursue your career in this field, then it is important that you should research well and gather the required information before moving on further.