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The Importance of a Good Resume. 

When you are in the business of connecting employers and employees, the one topic that almost always comes up in conversation is resumes. Employers always say “I just don’t see it” or “why did they leave that off” or “tell me what isn’t on here” while candidates are always asking “what is important” or “how long should it be” or “is the format ok?” So because of this, we wanted to highlight the three most important (and most discussed) aspects of a senior care provider’s resume.

First and most importantly, double check all of your dates and titles and for goodness sake, use spell check. Attention to detail is very important in health care and missed dates or misspelled words do not convey a detailed oriented person. This may seem very basic but it is constant problem that occurs time and again and can be the difference in getting the position you always wanted. Additionally, dates are often cross-referenced in background checks, so it is important to be as accurate as possible.

Secondly, carefully delineate both your responsibilities and accomplishments for each position. Responsibilities should be simple overviews but still detailed enough to convey the full duty of the role. For instance, don’t just write “managed people” but instead write “managed 5 nursing staff members and 15 facility employees”. This gives a much better scope of the position. Likewise, accomplishments should be equally concise but thorough. Instead of limiting yourself to “increased census” instead try “increased census from 70% to 80% in year one and to 95% in year two”. And if you are one of those people that have a hard time verbalizing your accomplishments, then think about it as if you were your boss. What would they have been happy that you did? Did you increase sales or improve profit? Maybe you improved resident satisfaction? Perhaps you had an error free year with great compliance reports? These are all accomplishments that would make an impact for any employer and thus should be highlighted on your resume. These accomplishments are what make you special.

Finally, the length of a resume is always something that people seem to struggle with. After seeing thousands upon millions of resumes, it is our belief that a resume should be as long as it needs to be but no longer. So if you are four years out of college, one page will more than suffice. But if you have 30 years of experience and feel you need two pages to get all of your accomplishments listed then by all means use two pages. And although it is true that you can become much more succinct once you approach 10 or 15 years of experience on your resume, we do not encourage you to leave it off all together. Often times that depth of experience is useful to the role and it also shows your overall career path.

Now because you are a busy senior care provider and you always want to have your resume look as good as it possibly can, we encourage you to make updating your resume an annual affair. Not because you are necessarily looking for a new position, but because it is much easier to remember all of your responsibilities and accomplishment over the last year then it is from five years ago, especially the night before a very important interview. And if you keep these three simple guidelines in focus, writing your resume should be fun and satisfying experience that yields rewarding results.

by Katie Matlack

It’s women who are the more active gender on online social networks. Women are the healthcare decisionmakers in most families, too. Taken together, these two facts help explain why women–moms in particular–often are responsible for using the web to bring powerful stories from the grassroots level to the world, effecting real change in healthcare.

To learn more about the topic I spoke with Deb Levine, a pioneer when it comes to using the web as a tool for social change related to health information access and technology. She founded the award-winning online sexual health Q&A site Go Ask Alice, and recently won an award from the White House for her team’s design of an app used to help prevent dating violence at colleges and universities. Levine, a mother of two, observed that being a mom “informs all of [her] work and writing” and is “an overarching influence” on her.

“Women who are mothers are writing about sensitive issues,” she continued. “[They] are the people who, in bringing health issues to the forefront, are pushing healthcare reform and access while also bringing attention to important issues like maternal mortality.”

Below, I’ll discuss five moms doing important work to improve healthcare and the tools available in health for the wellness of themselves and their families–and ultimately, of all of us.

1) Deb Levine – Trustworthy health information access for young adults

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Levine built what’s known by many as the first major health Q&A site, Go Ask Alice; it was also named by Stanford University as the most accurate reproductive health info site on the Internet. The site’s success–it receives over 1.5 million hits per month–illustrates what Levine’s work showed us: that “topics considered to be shameful and embarrassing like sex are best discussed behind a screen–computer screen then, mobile phone and PDA today.” Today Levine directs a nonprofit, Internet Sexuality Information Services, and is organizing next month’s conference, Sex::Tech, on new media, youth, and sexual health.

2) Jodi Jacobson – Advocacy for public health and reproductive and sexual health & justice

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Visit RH Reality Check (RH stands for reproductive health) to get an idea of Jacobson’s impact. She’s the Editor-in-Chief there and writes regularly about news events that stand to impact reproductive health rights. For example, Jacobson was partially responsible for publicizing and drumming up outcry against the Susan G. Komen Foundation’s policy change in February that, were it not reversed, would have denied preventative health services to thousands of women. In addition to providing information directly to the masses on this site, Jacobsen frequently weighs in as an expert cited in mainstream publications including the Lancet and The Economist. She also founded and led the Center for Health and Gender Equity, an internationally-influential organization that produces cutting-edge research on international policies and programs.

3) Robin Strongin – Elimination of “gatekeepers” to drive disruptive change in the health sphere

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The name of the blog Strongin created sums it up: Disruptive Women in Health Care. The blog’s been around since 2008 and serves as a platform for “provocative ideas, thoughts, and solutions in health.” Strongin realized that the health sphere needed input and direction from some outsiders in order to advance the pace of change. Today bloggers post on her site about underreported issues such as the surprising shortage of primary care physicians or the need for better incentives for mobile health in the U.S. Thus, the blog serves to amplify the voices of its contributors through its coverage in mainstream media outlets such as CBS.

4) Penelope Trunk – Creation of dialogue around miscarriage and working women’s health issues

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Trunk writes a popular blog about “the intersection between work and life” and regularly posts Tweets shared on her site as well. When she inadvertently created an uproar by tweeting about her own miscarriage, however, her influence on society’s acceptance and understanding of health issues was made clear, too. Major outlets such as ABC, CNN and AOL covered the reactions to the tweet, serving to shed light on the misplaced shame that sometimes complicates understanding and support of health issues.

5) Mary Brune – Connecting moms to information about toxic environmental risks

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Brune’s work highlights important information that impacts infant health as well as environmental health conditions that touch us all. Her site, MOMS–which stands for “Making Our Milk Safe”–was founded to bring mothers together to collaborate for a healthier and safer environment for their children. It publicizes risks and protection measures on toxics, and has been featured in a PBS special on toxic toys.

Katie Matlack writes about health information technology and home health software for Software Advice. You can view the original article this story is based on here.

We understand that conversations about moving your parent or loved one into a senior living community can be difficult. We’re here to help make that conversation a little easier on you and your loved one by sharing some insightful how-to videos on talking to your loved one about a move to senior living.

Click the link below to watch our how-to video titled “How to Talk to your Parents About Moving to a Senior Living Facility” to help you take the next step in starting a dialogue with your loved one about their senior living options.

Talking to Your Parents About Senior Living