<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss version="0.92">
<channel>
	<title>All Allied Health Schools Blog</title>
	<link>http://www.allalliedhealthschools.com/blog</link>
	<description>Your guide to allied health education, careers and more</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Wed, 16 May 2012 21:00:46 +0000</lastBuildDate>
	<docs>http://backend.userland.com/rss092</docs>
	<language>en</language>
	<!-- generator="WordPress/3.3.2" -->

	<item>
		<title>Renewed focus in pharmacy tech coursework: preventing medication errors</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Pharmacy technicians and their supervising pharmacists fill out as many as 3 billion prescriptions in the U.S. every year, according to the Federal Drug Administration. As hard as they work to avoid mistakes, even the best doctors and pharmacy professionals are human. Mistakes do happen. If you&#8217;re thinking about pursuing pharmacy technician certification, you might be wondering how seriously the profession views its role in the push to keep medication errors to a minimum. The answer: very, very seriously. &#8220;I cannot think of a priority that would rank higher … patient safety must come first,&#8221; Mike Johnston, chairman and CEO of the National Pharmacy Technician Association (NPTA), said in an email interview. Believe it or not, four common reasons for medication errors that were listed in the Code of Ethics of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, written in 1848, remain problems today, according to the text of an NPTA continuing education course titled &#8220;Medication Errors Update: How Can the Pharmacy Technician Help?&#8221; Poor handwriting of prescribing physicians Improper use and misinterpretation of abbreviations and selection of wrong drugs Poor working environment conditions that make it easy to lose concentration while selecting and dispensing medications Poor training of pharmacy staff and lack of follow-through by... ]]></description>
		<link>http://www.allalliedhealthschools.com/blog/2012/pharmacy-tech-coursework-preventing-medication-errors/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>15 smart health care blogs and websites</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Here&#8217;s a compilation of some of the best blogs and websites that will help keep you up-to-date on health care topics—and possibly keep you a step ahead of your peers when you enroll in a health-care program. The Journal of the American Academy of Physician Assistants&#8217; blog is a worthy read by itself, and also links to a collection of additional blogs written by PAs. Health News Review—From the University of Minnesota, a weekly roundup of the best- and lowest-quality media coverage of health topics. PubMed is one of the most comprehensive medical sites on the web, with links to medical journal articles, online books and clinical trial information. It&#8217;s a bit tricky to get started with—don&#8217;t skip the quick-start guide or tutorials—but it&#8217;s worth the effort. It also features a mobile version. Health Informatics Forum bills itself as &#8220;a social network for health informatics professionals and students.&#8221; The Student Doctor Network—A compilation of expert articles and forums created by aspiring medical students. Health Blog—The Wall Street Journal&#8217;s blog on health and the business of health. Shots is the health blog from National Public Radio which features breaking news, health policy coverage, and the occasional gross-out story, such as the... ]]></description>
		<link>http://www.allalliedhealthschools.com/blog/2012/15-helpful-health-care-blogs/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>5 tips for online discussion board success</title>
		<description><![CDATA[If you&#8217;re new to online learning, you&#8217;ll quickly find it&#8217;s essential to know the ins and outs of using the educational software, in particular, the discussion board feature. If you don&#8217;t, you might alienate yourself from fellow classmates, irritate your professor, or worse—miss an important assignment. As I&#8217;ve worked on my master&#8217;s degree online, I&#8217;ve encountered several discussion-board snafus committed by fellow students, and made some goofs myself. To save yourself from facing the same fate, check out the following tips. They&#8217;re based on Blackboard, one of the more popular discussion-board programs used in online courses across the country. 1. Don&#8217;t skip the tutorial. If you can use a smart phone, you can probably master 90 percent of Blackboard in a snap. But beware the other 10 percent. Watching  the short video tutorial is truly a smart use of your time. Skip it, and you run the risk of being in the dark on some key guidelines. Like that Blackboard really, truly needs to be run in &#8220;Compatibility Mode&#8221; if run on the Google Chrome browser, or you may think you accidentally signed up for Greek 101. 2. Beware the collapsed thread. Blackboard&#8217;s layout is pretty clean, but it&#8217;s too... ]]></description>
		<link>http://www.allalliedhealthschools.com/blog/2012/online-discussion-blackboard-help/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>5 fastest-growing health careers (and what they pay)</title>
		<description><![CDATA[If you&#8217;re thinking about a career in health care and you want to make sure the field you choose is growing, we have good news for you: Health care tops the latest projections for job growth from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Baby boomers are aging, medical technologies are advancing and there&#8217;s an increasing focus on preventive care – all factors that are driving the need for highly-skilled health care workers. There&#8217;s another demographic that&#8217;s fueling job growth for the fastest-growing profession in allied health: pets. Yes, pets – for many of us, their health is as important as any human member of our family. That&#8217;s one of the main reasons why veterinary technologists and technicians are expected to enjoy more growth in job opportunities than any other health field over the next several years. Here&#8217;s a look at the five fastest-growing health professions, based on the government&#8217;s 2010-20 projections:* 1. Veterinary technologists and technicians – Most work in clinics or emergency care centers, assisting veterinarians with virtually every aspect of diagnosing and treating animals—from X-rays, lab tests and dental procedures to surgery, spaying and neutering and specialized nursing care. Job growth: 52% Median annual salary: $29,710 2. Diagnostic... ]]></description>
		<link>http://www.allalliedhealthschools.com/blog/2012/5-fastest-growing-health-careers/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Health informatics 101: What sets it apart from other health care tech degrees?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[From hospitals and insurance companies to clinics and nursing homes, the health care industry as a whole is working feverishly to modernize how they track patients and the care those patients receive. If you&#8217;re a tech whiz, there&#8217;s an emerging field of study that combines information technology, clinical practice and business management you may want to consider. It&#8217;s called health informatics, and it&#8217;s all about how technology can improve the way health data are collected, stored, processed and communicated. Right now, health informatics programs are far outnumbered by related programs that have been around longer, such as health information technology or health information management. Those tend to focus more on ground-level, day-to-day management of patient and health systems data. Here&#8217;s a breakdown of some other key differences, as described by All Allied Health Schools programs and Oregon Institute of Technology, which touts its new health informatics program as the first of its kind in Oregon: Health information technology Typical degree: Associate degree, which typically takes two years or less to complete Common courses: Basic medical terminology, introduction to health services and information systems, health insurance and reimbursement Jobs you might get: Health record technician, clinical coder, data analyst, patient information coordinator or clinical... ]]></description>
		<link>http://www.allalliedhealthschools.com/blog/2012/health-informatics-101/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Obama, Jimmy Fallon slow jam about student loans</title>
		<description><![CDATA[President Obama has been making heated calls on Congress to prevent interest rates on federally-subsidized Stafford student loans from doubling this summer. This week, he cooled it down a notch in a &#8220;Slow Jam the News&#8221; segment on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Obama – or the Barackness Monster, as Fallon called him – kept his tone serious during the five-minute jam. &#8220;On July 1 of this year, the interest rate on Stafford student loans – the same loans that many of you use to pay for college – are set to double. That means some hard-working students will be paying about $1,000 extra just to get their education. So I called on Congress to prevent this from happening. What we said is simple: Now is not the time to make school more expensive for young people.&#8221; Fallon hammed it up with some seriously silly lines. Our favorite: &#8220;The Pell Grant is a beautiful thing but with college gettin&#8217; more expensive, is it enough to satisfy all of your collegiate needs? Aw, Pell no!!!&#8221; Fallon&#8217;s smooth-voiced backup singer from The Roots, Tariq Trotter (also known as Black Thought), had some solid lyrics, too: &#8220;If Congress doesn&#8217;t act, it&#8217;s the students... ]]></description>
		<link>http://www.allalliedhealthschools.com/blog/2012/obamas-student-loan-slow-jam-with-jimmy-fallon/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>6 tips to save money (and your sanity) when buying textbooks</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Last year, I found myself back in the classroom after several years in the workforce, taking science classes to prepare for veterinary school. I quickly discovered I wasn&#8217;t ready for the mind-boggling buying options and jaw-dropping textbook prices I encountered at the college bookstore. My confusion usually begins once I register online for classes and am given a way to look up required texts. The textbook&#8217;s full title and 9- or 13-digit ISBN number (International Standard Book Number, usually listed by the bar code) may or may not be noted. Two or more identical-seeming options may be marked as &#8220;required.&#8221; There might be a long list of recommended titles in addition to what appears to be the main textbook. There are abbreviations and acronyms that are tough to decode. Here are my hard-won textbook buying tips, so you can avoid the issues I&#8217;ve encountered: #1 Customized editions Both colleges I have attended in the last year put school-specific editions of more widely used textbooks on their required book lists. One was a chemistry text containing only the relevant chapters for the quarter—about a third of the full textbook. That was better for my back and my budget, but my options... ]]></description>
		<link>http://www.allalliedhealthschools.com/blog/2012/6-tips-for-buying-textbooks/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>A tale of 2 physician assistants: Part 2</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Donna Kentley had wanted to be a nurse since she was a girl. In college, her plans changed when she met a physician assistant while working at a teaching hospital in Boston. She became intrigued with the profession and later changed her major from nursing to biology, then started trying to figure out whether PA studies or medical school would be the better fit for her. As she weighed the pros and cons of each, she worried that the work demands she&#8217;d face as a doctor might swallow up her personal and family life. &#8220;I liked the idea of having a life versus going into a profession where you had to be on call, never be home,&#8221; she said. That&#8217;s when she started leaning toward a career as a physician assistant. After graduating from college, she worked as a medical assistant for a couple years, then went to school and got her PA degree. She started out in primary care, and now she&#8217;s an oncology PA for a Group Health center in Seattle&#8217;s Capitol Hill neighborhood and in the nonprofit cooperative&#8217;s Bellevue clinic. Here are highlights from our conversation about her career: What piqued your interest in oncology? Right from the beginning,... ]]></description>
		<link>http://www.allalliedhealthschools.com/blog/2012/tale-of-2-physician-assistants-part-2/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>A tale of 2 physician assistants: Part I</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Jon Lowe&#8217;s health care career started out in the Army, when he stitched up wounded soldiers as a paramedic. When he got out of the service, he spent several years working as a licensed practical nurse, then got his physician assistant degree. He spent much of the past 25 years in urgent care centers and emergency rooms, before transitioning to family practice several years ago. Today, he&#8217;s part of a primary care team that focuses mostly on geriatric and internal medicine at the Redmond campus of Group Health Cooperative. The Seattle nonprofit, a medical care and insurance coverage provider, has won numerous awards for high-quality, cost-effective care—all things that Lowe says make Group Health a great place to work. Here are some highlights from our conversation about his career: What&#8217;s your schedule and how much do you make? Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 5:30 or 6 p.m. [Lowe declined to disclose his salary, and Group Health said it does not release any information about salary ranges. The American Academy of Physician Assistants' 2010 salary survey says the median annual salary for primary care PAs is $85,000.] What drew you to the physician assistant profession? When I finished with the military, I assumed... ]]></description>
		<link>http://www.allalliedhealthschools.com/blog/2012/qa-primary-care-physician-assistant/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Will physician assistants fill the primary care gap—or widen it?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Physician assistants are poised for much faster-than-average job growth over the next several years. How fast? The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts 30 percent job growth for PAs from 2010 to 2020—more than twice the average for all occupations. Why? With more doctors going into specialty care, the need for primary care providers will continue to grow, and the government predicts that physician assistants will take center stage in filling that gap. But get this: Many PAs—just like the MDs who supervise them—also are opting to specialize instead of pursuing primary care. Primary care vs. specialty care In 2000, nearly half of all physician assistants practiced in primary care. By 2009, despite a rise in the number of primary care PAs, the percentage had fallen to around one-third, according to a 2010 report by a research panel of the American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA). Specialty care tends to pay significantly more than primary care, based in part on a fee-for-service care system that pays health care providers based on all the tests and labs and procedures they do. It&#8217;s a tricky problem that lies at the heart of skyrocketing health care costs and politically charged efforts to overhaul our... ]]></description>
		<link>http://www.allalliedhealthschools.com/blog/2012/physician-assistants-fill-primary-care-gap/</link>
			</item>
</channel>
</rss>

