Job Seeker Information

Are you in the market for Anchorage Alaska Jobs? The good news is that our northernmost state has plenty of work available for engineers.

It wasn’t always easy to attract quality engineers to work in Alaska, what with the state’s long winters and dark daylight hours and relative lack of creature comforts. Even though there are a lot of things not to like about Alaska on the face of it, Alaska experienced tremendous growth in the second half of the 20th century, with cities such as Anchorage growing by as much as 13 times, due largely to engineering feats such as the securing of a clean, reliable, unfrozen water supply, increasing amounts of well-paved roads, and the implementation of gravity sewers. Another major factor was the building of a huge natural gas pipeline from the Kenai fields, which gave the professional community working in Anchorage access to a clean, reliable, safe source of energy, making the dangerous yet ubiquitous floor stove obsolete. What did all of these projects have in common? They needed skilled engineers to be successfully carried out!

Engineers are in high demand in Alaska; the state’s environmental challenges ensure that there will always be engineering tasks to carry out. All one has to do is look at any industry-specific publication, Association web site, or engineering job board to determine that engineers and surveyors are always going to be in demand in America’s northernmost state. There are surely more Alaska engineering jobs available than there are people to fill them, as people in the industry are reporting an increase in the amount of firms trying to lure them away from positions they already hold to work in Alaska instead. This is a natural outcome of the fact that engineers are always needed no matter what the economic climate may be.

The outlook for Anchorage jobs is good for several reasons, the first being that an increasing amount of Federal money is being allocated for new projects in oil and gas acquisition there. Expansion of infrastructure, construction of utility pipelines and the desire to exploit new sources of oil and natural gas ensure that there will be many large-scale engineering projects going on in Alaska, and for quite a while as well. Among young people, engineering isn’t really seen as a “cool” or desirable profession, so as older veteran engineers retire, there are fewer college graduates coming in behind them to take their jobs.

Alaska has a very extreme climate, and along with that there are limited transportation networks and logistical infrastructure. All of Alaska’s’ difficult working conditions crystallize to forma need for increasingly ingenuous engineers- you won’t be working in a cube; instead, you’ll be out in the field on the cutting edge of design, earning the respect of those who understand the difficult challenges of working in Alaska.

Less than a decade ago, people who were enrolling in nursing school were being told that they were crazy. They were told that the job was brutal, and that there simply were no career nursing jobs out there for nurses straight out of the Registered Nurse training programs.

Shortly before the turn of the century, however, the situation began to change in reality, as people who had studied the practice of nursing had long suggested it might. All of a sudden, hospitals, nursing homes, and other places that depend on nurses to run realized that staff members who left the job were not being replaced by new people. The result was a shortage of nurses that continues to get worse each year. One of the biggest problems for the United States is that the shortage of nurses is not localized; it is a global problem. In order to ensure an adequate supply of nurses nationally competition must be faced far beyond regional considerations.

The benefit of the shortage, to nurses, will be an improved future work environment, as employers try to better conditions in order to attract quality candidates. However, in the short-term, it’s putting a lot of strain on everyone and may actually exacerbate the frustrations nurses may have, which may cause them to not only leave their jobs but also discourage others from becoming nurses.

In order to ensure that the current crisis in nursing does not continue much further into the future, the two areas of retention and recruitment need to be addressed. This article will take a look at some of the topics that come up among nurses when it comes to addressing these issues.

With up to 40% of the nursing workforce expected to retire over the next 10 years, it’s very important to keep the younger members of the profession happy, so that the current crisis in the field can be halted, and more people will become interested in a career nursing.

One of the biggest complaints that nurses have long had within the places that they work is that their chosen career path is regarded more as a job than a profession. This is especially true within the medical community, where doctors have traditionally been dismissive of the opinions of nurses, often giving nurses the feeling that they are but cogs to carry out the will of the machine. It has taken a massive depletion of the nursing work force to demonstrate to both other medical professionals and to the public in general that nurses are an integral part of any health care system, worth as much respect as doctors, respiratory technicians, or any other professionals. The public, as well, is increasingly aware of the vital role that nurses play in the area of medicine.

A benefit of the current nursing shortage (if you can consider it a benefit) is that non-nurses are finally starting to realize how rigorous the training and testing processes for becoming an RN are. It takes just as long to become a nurse as it does to earn a B. A., B.S., or any other undergraduate degree!

Too often, nurses report that the conditions in their workplace are poor. This doesn’t apply to things necessary to doing a job (i.e. sick patient), but instead applies to things that are directly influenced by management policy such as nurse-to-patient ratio, hours of work, use (or lack of use) of support staff, and the condition of equipment.

A standard nurse’s schedule includes a combination of both day and night shifts. Clearly, it’s impossible to run a medical facility without nurses, so it isn’t as if the night shift can just be eliminated. However, some suggestions for parity include paying extra for nurses that work the night shift, or adding a third “swing shift” to the rotation so that the night shift is not as long as the day shift is.

Government spending increases on healthcare should help resolve some concerns including the concerns nurses have about support staff and equipment. Nursing is a job that includes quite a lot of lifting, so medical care facilities will need to invest in modern equipment to assist with this burden so that nurses can have longer careers. Many nurses also report that they are held responsible for performing duties that would traditionally fall to a receptionist or an orderly, and in order for them to stay focused on their nursing duties, care facilities will have to budget better so that nurses aren’t being needlessly overburdened.

The biggest short-term problem facing the industry is the nurse-to-patient ratio. Most facilities are unable to fill vacant positions, and so the ratio remains at a level that many nurses are uncomfortable with. However, efforts to address the issue properly still provide hope.

Recruiting of nurses is the second vital focus for the future of nursing. This milieu will see increasing attempts to train nurses properly, and increased efforts by medical providers to attract good nurses. Those that can’t offer sufficient training and enticements will soon find themselves without enough nurses to run their facilities!

It’s of no small concern that colleges and universities are not producing enough nursing graduates to fill the current demand, or even enough to replace those that are currently leaving the profession. A parallel concern is that of those who DO graduate nursing programs, ever increasing numbers are choosing to work at relatively lower levels of stress and higher levels of pay in institutions such as prisons and nursing homes.

In order to improve the patient to nurse ratio that is such a common complaint among nurses, it is vital to increase the number of students coming out of nursing schools across the country. Universities and colleges need to have the funding available to create these spaces. In addition, facilities and governments will have to offer programs such as student loan forgiveness programs in order to attract potential students to the profession.

Over the last 10 years, several “secondary industries” targeted towards nurses have come to the forefront. Industries such as travel nursing programs and nursing agencies hire their own nurses and then contract them out. These nurses generally make more money than those that choose more traditional employment and they have the added benefit of a constantly-changing workplace, often with all travel expenses paid. Healthcare organizations are going to have to take a long hard look at matching these kinds of benefits if they want to attract quality nursing personnel.

As far as the nursing profession goes, the long term future is bright. The current shortage allows a graduating nurse to virtually write his or her own ticket. In addition, the shortage is expected to grow worse, which has pushed the concerns of nurses into the public spotlight. In order to alleviate the shortage, governments and facilities will have no choice but to meet the concerns of nurses in order to keep them at their jobs.

Alternatively, the future of the nursing profession may lie within nursing agencies. Unless facilities and governments realize that the concerns of nurses need to be met at the ground level, new and established nurses alike will continue to gravitate towards the pay and flexibility that these agencies offer.

Armed with these facts, you should be able to make an informed decision about whether a career nursing is right for you. Happy job huntingLess than a decade ago, people who were enrolling in nursing school were being told that they were crazy. They were told that the job was brutal, and that there simply were no career nursing jobs out there for nurses straight out of the Registered Nurse training programs.Shortly before the turn of the century, however, the situation began to change in reality, as people who had studied the practice of nursing had long suggested it might. All of a sudden, hospitals, nursing homes, and other places that depend on nurses to run realized that staff members who left the job were not being replaced by new people. The result was a shortage of nurses that continues to get worse each year. One of the biggest problems for the United States is that the shortage of nurses is not localized; it is a global problem. In order to ensure an adequate supply of nurses nationally competition must be faced far beyond regional considerations.

The benefit of the shortage, to nurses, will be an improved future work environment, as employers try to better conditions in order to attract quality candidates. However, in the short-term, it’s putting a lot of strain on everyone and may actually exacerbate the frustrations nurses may have, which may cause them to not only leave their jobs but also discourage others from becoming nurses.

In order to ensure that the current crisis in nursing does not continue much further into the future, the two areas of retention and recruitment need to be addressed. This article will take a look at some of the topics that come up among nurses when it comes to addressing these issues.

With up to 40% of the nursing workforce expected to retire over the next 10 years, it’s very important to keep the younger members of the profession happy, so that the current crisis in the field can be halted, and more people will become interested in a career nursing.

One of the biggest complaints that nurses have long had within the places that they work is that their chosen career path is regarded more as a job than a profession. This is especially true within the medical community, where doctors have traditionally been dismissive of the opinions of nurses, often giving nurses the feeling that they are but cogs to carry out the will of the machine. It has taken a massive depletion of the nursing work force to demonstrate to both other medical professionals and to the public in general that nurses are an integral part of any health care system, worth as much respect as doctors, respiratory technicians, or any other professionals. The public, as well, is increasingly aware of the vital role that nurses play in the area of medicine.

A benefit of the current nursing shortage (if you can consider it a benefit) is that non-nurses are finally starting to realize how rigorous the training and testing processes for becoming an RN are. It takes just as long to become a nurse as it does to earn a B. A., B.S., or any other undergraduate degree!

Too often, nurses report that the conditions in their workplace are poor. This doesn’t apply to things necessary to doing a job (i.e. sick patient), but instead applies to things that are directly influenced by management policy such as nurse-to-patient ratio, hours of work, use (or lack of use) of support staff, and the condition of equipment.

A standard nurse’s schedule includes a combination of both day and night shifts. Clearly, it’s impossible to run a medical facility without nurses, so it isn’t as if the night shift can just be eliminated. However, some suggestions for parity include paying extra for nurses that work the night shift, or adding a third “swing shift” to the rotation so that the night shift is not as long as the day shift is.

Government spending increases on healthcare should help resolve some concerns including the concerns nurses have about support staff and equipment. Nursing is a job that includes quite a lot of lifting, so medical care facilities will need to invest in modern equipment to assist with this burden so that nurses can have longer careers. Many nurses also report that they are held responsible for performing duties that would traditionally fall to a receptionist or an orderly, and in order for them to stay focused on their nursing duties, care facilities will have to budget better so that nurses aren’t being needlessly overburdened.

The biggest short-term problem facing the industry is the nurse-to-patient ratio. Most facilities are unable to fill vacant positions, and so the ratio remains at a level that many nurses are uncomfortable with. However, efforts to address the issue properly still provide hope.

Recruiting of nurses is the second vital focus for the future of nursing. This milieu will see increasing attempts to train nurses properly, and increased efforts by medical providers to attract good nurses. Those that can’t offer sufficient training and enticements will soon find themselves without enough nurses to run their facilities!

It’s of no small concern that colleges and universities are not producing enough nursing graduates to fill the current demand, or even enough to replace those that are currently leaving the profession. A parallel concern is that of those who DO graduate nursing programs, ever increasing numbers are choosing to work at relatively lower levels of stress and higher levels of pay in institutions such as prisons and nursing homes.

In order to improve the patient to nurse ratio that is such a common complaint among nurses, it is vital to increase the number of students coming out of nursing schools across the country. Universities and colleges need to have the funding available to create these spaces. In addition, facilities and governments will have to offer programs such as student loan forgiveness programs in order to attract potential students to the profession.

Over the last 10 years, several “secondary industries” targeted towards nurses have come to the forefront. Industries such as travel nursing programs and nursing agencies hire their own nurses and then contract them out. These nurses generally make more money than those that choose more traditional employment and they have the added benefit of a constantly-changing workplace, often with all travel expenses paid. Healthcare organizations are going to have to take a long hard look at matching these kinds of benefits if they want to attract quality nursing personnel.

As far as the nursing profession goes, the long term future is bright. The current shortage allows a graduating nurse to virtually write his or her own ticket. In addition, the shortage is expected to grow worse, which has pushed the concerns of nurses into the public spotlight. In order to alleviate the shortage, governments and facilities will have no choice but to meet the concerns of nurses in order to keep them at their jobs.

Alternatively, the future of the nursing profession may lie within nursing agencies. Unless facilities and governments realize that the concerns of nurses need to be met at the ground level, new and established nurses alike will continue to gravitate towards the pay and flexibility that these agencies offer.

Armed with these facts, you should be able to make an informed decision about whether a career nursing is right for you. Happy job hunting!

After one of the major job boards reported a major security leak in 2007, you may have become a little bit wary about putting your resume online, for fear that your contact information might be exploited for money-making purposes such as direct mail, email marketing, or identity theft.  There are measures you can take, however, to ensure that you’re not at risk when applying for jobs online at sites whose URLs end in jobs.com.

You could always just not put your resume on the Internet, right? Well sure, but that’s going to put you at a pretty big disadvantage, as a lot of recruiters use the Internet to find candidates, and if it’s not there, they can’t find you, which means that you will have to be a lot more proactive, monitoring many job boards before you find a position that matches your skill set.  It’s much easier if the recruiters can find you, and another advantage is that they might be able to tell you about unadvertised jobs.  If that’s the case, you want to be able to be easily found- so how can you assure you’re not opening yourself up to a ton of risk, and that your information will be safe?

A good rule of thumb is don’t post your resume anywhere that you’re not confident about.  Trust your instincts.  When you do decide to post your resume to a job board, make sure you read their privacy policy carefully.  They may resell your resume or access to it, and you need to make sure that their affiliate websites and clients also have privacy policies that you can live with.  You might even want to set up an employer account so that you can check the boards’ employer guidelines for searching resumes, too.  At the end of the day, the best way to get the information you need is to email or call the jobs.com board and request it- they want your resume, as it’s how they make money, so they will do their best to accommodate you in most cases.

Once you’ve decided which board(s) you trust enough to post your resume to, take proper precautions when applying to jobs and responding to email solicitations. Job boards work hard to ensure that only legitimate jobs are posted, however, it’s near impossible to catch every single one of those “spam” job postings that may get through the filters. What this means to you is that you must keep an eye out for fishy jobs and emails. The old adage is truer than ever on the Internet- if something is too good to be true, it probably is. Never, ever give out your social security number or bank account information. An employer should never ask for that information via email, and a job board will not ever ask you for that information either, as is stated in most of their Privacy Policies.

If you are unlucky enough to be a target of one of these phishing scams, or some other sort of deception, it’s in your, the job board, employer, and everyone that uses that site’s best interest to report it to the board as soon as possible and with as much information as possible.  You can also report strange-looking or sounding jobs, too- this will help cut down on the number of fake jobs posted to that board.  The more you can help the job boards, the better job they will be able to do of prevention in the future.

By knowing where your resume is posted, doing your due diligence in regards to security measures and keeping an eye out for fraud, you can help keep yourself and your personal information safe while conducting an online jobs.com search.

The security breach at a major online job board last year may have made you a little hesitant to put your resume into online databases for fear that your contact information will be used for money-making purposes such as direct mail or email marketing or even identity theft. However, there are security measures you can take that will make your search for internet jobs more secure.

There’s always the option of just not putting your resume on the Internet at all, but that’s going to saddle you with a pretty large disadvantage in that recruiters that use the internet to find candidates won’t be able to find you!  Instead, you will have to proactively monitor many different job boards, looking for companies that are looking for you.  It’s a lot easier to find candidates for a recruiter when they can search through online databases looking for skill sets that match yours and contacting you about unadvertised job openings.  If the case is that you want to be easy to find, you’ll have to post your resume, so how can you do that and ensure that the boards you post to are legitimate and have precautions in place to ensure the safety of your information?

Always make sure that you feel confident before you post a resume to a internet jobs website.  Read their privacy policy carefully, primarily to figure out where they may repost your resume, or who they may sell it to.  If they do redistribute it to other sites, do you trust those sites, as well?  The best way to get answers to these kinds of questions is to email or call the board directly.  You can even log in as an employer and research all their policies on resume searching.  These boards want your resume- it’s a large part of how they make money- so any one that’s any good will accommodate your requests without a problem.

Once you’ve decided which board(s) you trust enough to post your resume to, take proper precautions when applying to jobs and responding to email solicitations. Job boards work hard to ensure that only legitimate jobs are posted, however, it’s near impossible to catch every single one of those “spam” job postings that may get through the filters. What this means to you is that you must keep an eye out for fishy jobs and emails. The old adage is truer than ever on the Internet- if something is too good to be true, it probably is. Never, ever give out your social security number or bank account information. An employer should never ask for that information via email, and a job board will not ever ask you for that information either, as is stated in most of their Privacy Policies.

If you do get a scam or “phishing” type of email and are able to deduce from what job board the sender got your information, it’s in everyone’s best interest for you to let the job board know as soon as possible, and give them as much information about said scam and the person who contacted you as possible.  You can also report fraudulent looking job postings.  The more aware the job boards are of potential rip-offs, the better job they can do to prevent them in the future.

By knowing what internet jobs sites ere your resume is posted on, doing your due diligence in regards to security measures and keeping an eye out for fraud, you can help keep yourself and your personal information safe while conducting an online job search.

Hi, and welcome to what will probably be many articles about careers in the healthcare industry.  This article is designed to give you an overview of the basics of the somewhat embattled US healthcare system.  This is not an exhaustive review of the entire industry, but it should give someone who is considering health care jobs a leg up.

In the US, a diverse selection of individuals and legal entities pay for health care- patients are offered both inpatient and outpatient services by charitable, commercial, or governmental entities.  The healthcare system is funded by a mix of public and private funding, with the government picking up about 45% of the total annual cost.

Medicine is practiced in a variety of facilities throughout the United States.  Obviously, there are for-profit hospitals, operated by private corporations, and there are also nonprofit hospitals, which are usually operated by the government or nonprofit or religions organizations.  Hospitals provide a small amount of outpatient care in emergency rooms and specialty clinics but are run primarily to provide inpatient care.

The law uses a “fee for service” business model when it comes to healthcare similar to other service industries, meaning that the patient must pay out-of-pocket, in full, for all medical treatment rendered.  If a patient has insurance, they will pay a set monthly premium that will help pay most of the cost of medical treatment, however, a deductible (a minimum part of the total cost) is usually paid up front.  Alternatively, the patient may have to pay a “co-payment”- a small part of the cost of every procedure.,

Most health care coverage provided through a person’s work is provided through managed care organizations which pay much lower prices for medical services than an individual would if they paid out of pocket.  The thing that makes managed care different from traditional insurance is that the health plan organization has contracts with specific health care providers, as the managed care organization is able to bring their numbers to bear to negotiate price reductions.

There are many individuals that are not covered by private insurance, but are covered by government programs such as Medicaid (which provides care to the poor), Medicare (which provides care for the elderly and disabled), or the Veterans Administration (which provides care to veterans, their families and survivors).  In 2006, Medicaid provided coverage for 38 million Americans while Medicare did the same for about 40 million.  Another 11 million people are eligible for coverage but are not enrolled in any kind of government program.

The number of physicians accepting Medicaid has decreased over the past decade due to high administrative costs and low levels of reimbursement.  Another program, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program was created in 1997 to provide coverage for children in families that earn too much to qualify for Medicaid yet can’t afford to buy health insurance- however, this program is already losing funding in may states.

As you move forward in your career, only you can decide if the health care industry is right for you.  Be vigilant, don’t get discouraged- and you will find the health care jobs you’re looking for in no time at all!

Less than a decade ago, people who were enrolling in nursing school were being told that they were crazy, and that career nursing jobs were not viable. They were told that the job was brutal, and that there simply were no jobs out there for nurses straight out of the Registered Nurse training programs.Not any more! For a long time, people who studied the healthcare industry said that there might be a reversal of fortune, and there has been. Gradually, care providers such as nursing homes and hospitals, who depended on nurses to operate, came to realize that as nurses left their jobs they were becoming more and more difficult to replace. This has led to a severe shortage in the number of nurses available in the US- and the situation is getting worse. The shortage of qualified nurses is a global problem, meaning that health care providers have to compete on a world-wide scale to fill nursing positions.

What the nursing shortage should amount to, in the long run, is a much more improved working environment for nurses in the future. In the short term, however, this shortage is proving to be difficult to overcome and may actually contribute to the frustrations many nurses feel which cause them not only to leave their jobs but also to discourage others from taking up the profession.

In order to ensure that the current crisis in nursing does not continue much further into the future, the two areas of retention and recruitment need to be addressed. This article will take a look at some of the topics that come up among nurses when it comes to addressing these issues.

Making sure that nurses are happy within their current jobs so that they stay in the profession is vital to stabilize the crisis. With anywhere from 25-40% of nurses are expected to retire over the next ten years, ensuring that younger members of the work force stay at their jobs is more important than ever.

The general public is coming to the realization that nurses play just as important a role in the healthcare system as doctors and other medical professionals do, and the industry is starting to realize it, as well. Many nurses complain that they are not accorded the level of respect they deserve, as nursing is seen as less of a “profession” and more of a “job”. Physicians are often guilty of this, making nurses feel as if they are simply there to mechanically carry out the doctor’s orders, and nothing more. As the system loses more and more nurses, it will become more and more important to grant those remaining the appropriate level of respect.

Nurses are often short on respect, but the current nursing shortage is changing that. After all, the amount of education required to become a nurse is the same as that required to earn a B.A., M.A., or earn any other undergraduate degree!

Too often, nurses report that the conditions in their workplace are poor. This doesn’t apply to things necessary to doing a job (i.e. sick patient), but instead applies to things that are directly influenced by management policy such as nurse-to-patient ratio, hours of work, use (or lack of use) of support staff, and the condition of equipment.

A standard nurse’s schedule includes a combination of both day and night shifts. Clearly, it’s impossible to run a medical facility without nurses, so it isn’t as if the night shift can just be eliminated. However, some suggestions for parity include paying extra for nurses that work the night shift, or adding a third “swing shift” to the rotation so that the night shift is not as long as the day shift is.

Continued increases in the budget of the United States government in the area of health care are tagged to help resolve, among other things, the concerns of nurses both with support staff and with equipment. The job of a nurse involves quite a lot of lifting, so it is incredibly important if any nurses are going to make it through to retirement that the equipment available in the hospital eases their burden in this area. Many nurses find that they are also doing duties that are traditionally thought of as the responsibilities of receptionists and orderlies, and in order for nurses to attend to their nursing duties, sooner or later facilities will have to streamline funds so that these support levels are taken care of by staff other than nurses.

The biggest short-term problem facing the industry is the nurse-to-patient ratio. Most facilities are unable to fill vacant positions, and so the ratio remains at a level that many nurses are uncomfortable with. However, efforts to address the issue properly still provide hope.

It’s going to be vital to recruit nurses heavily, as well. There will be marked attempts to train more nurses, as well as healthcare organizations making deals to attract nurses to work for them. If medical providers don’t start paying attention, they will soon find themselves without any nurses to run their facilities!

One of the biggest concerns is that the output of nurses from universities and colleges does not match the number of nurses that are leaving. In addition, many graduating nurses are not going to work in traditional areas such as hospitals, instead choosing the lower levels of stress and the higher levels of pay available at other facilities, such as jails and nursing homes.

In order to improve the patient to nurse ratio that is such a common complaint among nurses, it is vital to increase the number of students coming out of nursing schools across the country. Universities and colleges need to have the funding available to create these spaces. In addition, facilities and governments will have to offer programs such as student loan forgiveness programs in order to attract potential students to the profession.

The last decade has seen a massive growth in secondary industries targeted towards nurses. These industries include nursing agencies and travel nursing programs which hire their own nurses and then contract them out to facilities in need. These nurses are generally higher paid than their counterparts in the facilities they are contracted out to. In addition, they get to change their place of work frequently, often with all travel expenses paid. Facilities are going to need to take a look at this practice and determine if they are willing to offer the kind of wages and benefits that these nurses are receiving if they ever hope to have a stable work force.

As far as the nursing profession goes, the long term future is bright. The current shortage allows a graduating nurse to virtually write his or her own ticket. In addition, the shortage is expected to grow worse, which has pushed the concerns of nurses into the public spotlight. In order to alleviate the shortage, governments and facilities will have no choice but to meet the concerns of nurses in order to keep them at their jobs.

Alternatively, the future of the nursing profession may lie within nursing agencies. Unless facilities and governments realize that the concerns of nurses need to be met at the ground level, new and established nurses alike will continue to gravitate towards the pay and flexibility that these agencies offer.
That should be enough to sink your teeth in to. It’s a great time to be a nurse- you’re in very high demand- and it’s likely to only get better.

Hi and welcome to what will probably be many articles about careers in the healthcare industry.  This article is designed to give you an overview of the basics of the somewhat embattled US healthcare system.  This is not an exhaustive review of the entire industry, but it should give someone who is considering healthcare jobs a leg up.

In the US, a diverse selection of individuals and legal entities pay for health care- patients are offered both inpatient and outpatient services by charitable, commercial, or governmental entities.  The healthcare system is funded by a mix of public and private funding, with the government picking up about 45% of the total annual cost.

Medicine is practiced in a variety of facilities throughout the United States.  Obviously, there are for-profit hospitals, operated by private corporations, and there are also nonprofit hospitals, which are usually operated by the government or nonprofit or religions organizations.  Hospitals provide a small amount of outpatient care in emergency rooms and specialty clinics but are run primarily to provide inpatient care.

The law uses a “fee for service” business model when it comes to healthcare similar to other service industries, meaning that the patient must pay out-of-pocket, in full, for all medical treatment rendered.  If a patient has insurance, they will pay a set monthly premium that will help pay most of the cost of medical treatment, however, a deductible (a minimum part of the total cost) is usually paid up front.  Alternatively, the patient may have to pay a “co-payment”- a small part of the cost of every procedure.,

Most health care coverage provided through a person’s work is provided through managed care organizations which pay much lower prices for medical services than an individual would if they paid out of pocket.  The thing that makes managed care different from traditional insurance is that the health plan organization has contracts with specific health care providers, as the managed care organization is able to bring their numbers to bear to negotiate price reductions.

There are many individuals that are not covered by private insurance, but are covered by government programs such as Medicaid (which provides care to the poor), Medicare (which provides care for the elderly and disabled), or the Veterans Administration (which provides care to veterans, their families and survivors).  In 2006, Medicaid provided coverage for 38 million Americans while Medicare did the same for about 40 million.  Another 11 million people are eligible for coverage but are not enrolled in any kind of government program.

The number of physicians accepting Medicaid has decreased over the past decade due to high administrative costs and low levels of reimbursement.  Another program, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program was created in 1997 to provide coverage for children in families that earn too much to qualify for Medicaid yet can’t afford to buy health insurance- however, this program is already losing funding in may states.    

As you move forward in your career, only you can decide if the health care industry is right for you.  Be vigilant, don’t get discouraged- and you will find the healthcare jobs you’re looking for in no time at all!

Hi everybody! Today, I will be taking some time to speak to the person looking for a part-time job.  This is a bit of a departure from what is usually a more career-oriented column but I feel this information is valuable as well.  Conducting an online job search for a part time job is done in the same manner as conducting an online job search for a full time job!  The same rules apply- make sure there is some way for the employer to contact you that isn’t on line, for example- use a cell phone, voice mail or answering machine to help stay in touch when email isn’t available.  If you’re also pounding the pavement- walking into physical work locations to ask about employment opportunities, you should be prepared for an immediate interview and/or offer of employment! You may also find other opportunities at national job boards such as Go Jobs.com.

There are niche boards on the Internet that specialize in part-time work, and the big national board also have search engines that will allow a job seeker to search only for part-time positions.  The nice thing about using these boards is that you can usually complete the whole application on-line, from the comfort of your home.  Some of the larger retailers, such as JC Penney and Target, have special sections – ending in jobs.com- on their websites, just for part-time hourly workers.

Most online applications for part-time work are the same as those for full-time jobs- they will require contact information, education, and employment history, as well as salary information and your availability. Some of these applications will also ask for references.

Make sure that you diversify your job search by using other resources such as classified sites like Craigslist, and the print edition of the newspaper.  Make sure you stay vigilant of your surroundings, you never know when the coffee shop on the corner will put out a Help Wanted sign.  Alternatively, you may want to approach the manager of such an establishment directly and ask if there are any unadvertised employment opportunities available. 

Remember, there is help out there too- make sure to utilize free or inexpensive services that provide job search assistance such as your high school guidance office, college student employment office and state Department of Labor offices, as well as your local public library.

You should make sure that everyone you know knows you are looking for a job- your social and professional network can help you find unadvertised jobs- networking is very important because it works!

Hello, welcome to my little corner of the web! Today, I’m featuring an article about the general state of the healthcare industry in the United States.  This is not a top-to-bottom review of the entire industry, but it will give you an overview, and should give anyone looking for jobs in nursing a head start on the rest of the pack!

In the US, a diverse selection of individuals and legal entities pay for health care- patients are offered both inpatient and outpatient services by charitable, commercial, or governmental entities.  The healthcare system is funded by a mix of public and private funding, with the government picking up about 45% of the total annual cost.

There is also a huge market in the US for medical devices, medicines and medical research and development.    Most spending on medical R and D is privately funded; however, non-profit organizations and the government provide some funding as well.  Most medical research and development for direct medical application is conducted in commercial labs, and most general research is funded by the government (for example, the National Institute of Mental Health) or by universities.,

Almost 60% of Americans receive health care coverage from their employer, although that number is declining in the tough economy.  Workers have to pay about 16% of their own single coverage costs and about 28% of the cost of healthcare for their families.  Additionally, they must also pay for deductibles and co-payments.  However, employer contributions to healthcare are not taxable as income- this is a 150 billion dollar annual tax subsidy provided by the government.

Managed Care organizations include HMOs (Health Maintenance Organizations) and PPOs (Preferred Provider Organizations. A PPO general has a higher cost than an HMO, but a PPO allows the patient to choose where they receive their care, while with an HMO they are constrained to “in-network” providers.  The PPO has been the dominant of the two, over the past decade, and it is common today for a physician or hospital to have contracts with a dozen or more health plans, each with different referral networks, contracts with different diagnostic facilities, and different practice guidelines.,

There are many individuals that are not covered by private insurance, but are covered by government programs such as Medicaid (which provides care to the poor), Medicare (which provides care for the elderly and disabled), or the Veterans Administration (which provides care to veterans, their families and survivors).  In 2006, Medicaid provided coverage for 38 million Americans while Medicare did the same for about 40 million.  Another 11 million people are eligible for coverage but are not enrolled in any kind of government program.

The number of physicians accepting Medicaid has decreased over the past decade due to high administrative costs and low levels of reimbursement.  Another program, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program was created in 1997 to provide coverage for children in families that earn too much to qualify for Medicaid yet can’t afford to buy health insurance- however, this program is already losing funding in may states.

As you move forward in your career, only you can decide if the health care industry is right for you.  Be vigilant, don’t get discouraged- and you will find all those perfect jobs in nursing you’re looking for in no time at all!

Lots of people ask me for basic information about Internet jobs and online job searching.

Finding jobs, especially internet jobs online requires basic knowledge of how to surf the Internet.

There are literally hundreds of thousands of job boards and job sites. There are geographically specific job boards, niche job boards by industry, or job function, boards focused on part-time jobs and even religious based sites.

Finding the specific job boards isn’t difficult.

A quick search on Google for “Job boards”, or “Jobs”, will bring back more than enough career centers.

There are Industry specific job boards, such as Accounting, management, purchasing, and even sales job boards. Many of these job boards are relatively smaller, compared to big job boards, so there are advantages to using these sites.

When searching for jobs online, it’s important to remember to be efficient with your time. Chances are there will be a lot of job board results, and hopefully, many of these will be tailored specifically to the type of search that you are performing.

One of the benefits of an online job search is the ability to create job agents. These are simple “reminders” that usually send you email when jobs meeting your criteria come up. One thing to note is that it’s important to test your job search criteria. For instance, if you add too many search criteria, you may get limited, or no results. If you create too broad of criteria, you get a lot of jobs that aren’t relevant.

Posting a resume online is also unique to online job searching. This is a great feature, but can also be a little cumbersome. For instance, most big employers want you to post your resume on their corporate website. Well this isn’t that difficult, it’s just time consuming.  Follow my advice and you’ll be finding internet jobs in no time!

Be sure to continue the process of building up a social network, because while you might spend a significant time looking for Internet Jobs, statistics still show that 65% of people are still hired through referrals.