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.

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.

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

In this article I’ll discuss three reasons why I think that, if you participate in Google+, the newest social network, you can improve the chances your name will come up when prospective patients search for something you’ve written about.

First, participating in Google+ gives doctors an advantage because content you share on Google+ has an “edge” against other stories. That’s right–Google (the search engine) likes stories that’ve gotten shared or +1’d on Google+ better.

For example, if a doctor writes a post about back pain and shares it via Google+, Google will favor this post in search results for topics related to back pain over comparable results not linked to a Google+ user. That’s important–because the higher up your content appears in search results, the more likely it is someone will visit your site.

Second, benefits of participating in Google+ grow as your network grows. Fellow blogger and search marketing expert Brian Whalley elaborates on what this means:

“[As you build up] a large following on Google+, content you’ve shared with your followers will also show up in those followers’ relevant Google.com searches, keeping your business top of mind and increasing its visibility among existing followers across multiple channels.”

Third, Google+ helps you stand out in search results because of the social data (such as your headshot, a link to your Google+ profile, and/or the number of people who have +1’d your article) included along with your content as another perk of participating. Social data will make people trust your content and make a searcher more likely to click it.

You might’ve read recent articles pooh-pooh’ing Google+ because there “isn’t a lot to do on it” or because people spend (waste?) less time on it than on its competitors. These articles miss the point: which is that when you use Google+, you enhance your visibility every time someone searches on Google.com. On Google+ you’re rewarded for doing your own thing.

Who cares if your patients don’t use Google+? They definitely use Google–and that’s where the results of your engagement on Google+ will show up. Establishing yourself as a trusted medical expert is only going to become more important over time. The cost of care is rising and patients even today often don’t view distance as a deal breaker if it means better treatment at lower cost. Where will patients head to find the best care out there?

More than likely, to the Web.

Katie Matlack is the Medical Market Analyst at Software Advice. She writes about healthcare marketing and health IT, including electronic health records. For a 5-step guide to getting started on Google+ today, plus a more in-depth discussion of the perks of Google+ and more resources to help you get started, please visit the original article on the Software Advice blog.

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I had noticed that this CNA practices reciprocal caregiving. She often prepares herself for her patient visits by wearing bright colors and very pleasing make-up.  She is walking proof of the fact that colors carry their own vibrations. Bright colors can wake up the brain and stimulate brain activity. They help dementia patients who have been sidelined in wheelchairs break out of the “inactivity coma.”

A playful game can also help two people get in touch with each other’s energy and movement. “The Finger Dance” created by Arthur Hull, the Father of the Drum Circle, in “Drum Circle Spirit: Facilitating Human Potential through Rhythm” can be added to hand massages and music sessions.

“May I have this dance?” I ask.  Martin’s blue eyes brighten. He is laughing aloud when I stand in front of him and lightly touch his index finger to my index finger dancing with him. He leads then suddenly fakes exhaustion by collapsing his head and shoulders and dropping his hands into his lap with a loud sigh. Soon he is alert and ready for more. He turns to Sarah seated beside him in a wheelchair to continue finger dancing with a new partner. 

To finger dance with a partner: Touch your partner’s index finger with your index finger and make casual paths in the air while the person’s finger follows yours. Take turns, leading and following. Close your eyes and finger dance.

You may be meeting an elder for the first time as a dependent human being. The value of hospice home care is that the caregivers go to meet people in the context of their whole lifetime and life style. There are usually pictures of loved ones, food and drinks offered and shared – significant clues about the whole spectrum of a person’s existence. Some caregivers say they are walking on hallowed ground when they get to care for people in their own traditions at home outside the clinical setting. Look for clues that help you relate and communicate – stories, hobbies and reminiscences about both the living and those who have gone before us. You can do something for yourself and others.

By Julia Soto Lebentritt. Owner of Spontaneous Care Communications and Reciprocal Caregiving Trainings, and author of As Long as You Sing, I’ll Dance: The bond not the burden – the blessing not the burn-out of caregiving to be published in May 2012. She is a Bereavement Facilitator at the Community Hospice and can be contacted at lullabologist@aol.com

We are so excited to tell you we reached 40,000 registered members!

Thanks to you NSLPN.com has become one of the go-to destinations for senior care jobs, news and information.  We are humbled and amazed at the support from our clients and members.

While this is by no means the definitive list, I’ve done some research on the women who ARE making their mark in HIT. I list five to know below. They’ve been included both for their individual accomplishments and for the attention I think that’s due in the areas of health IT where they’re active.

Regina Holliday – The Patient Advocate

Regina uses art to lobby for attention to be paid to patients; she became a patient advocate after witnessing her late husband’s struggle to receive appropriate care for kidney cancer. She paints at big-time medical conventions, reminding attendees that Meaningful Use (MU) requirements of new electronic medical records programs–oft discussed today in the context of government payouts–were created with the intent to improve patient care and save lives. And she reminds us that electronic health records (EHRs) should be clear and transparent. Why does an artist get top billing in a piece on information technology? Because her point–the that the goal of the technology is to make it easier for people to be and stay well–is, well, pretty important.

Judith Faulkner – The Veteran

More than three decades ago Judith Faulkner started a small company, Epic, that has today grown into the provider of the EHR software for most of the largest hospitals in the US. Epic is also the system used by Kaiser Permanente, the biggest care provider in the country that’s not an arm of the government. And it’s in the running to be the solution used by the Veteran’s Administration (VA). Given that Faulkner is staunchly against an effort to have all EHRs move towards becoming interoperable with one another, this last fact has some folks mighty alarmed. Faulkner is still involved in any major company decision and drives the company’s unique corporate culture, and she’s got a seat on President Obama’s Health IT Policy Committee that’ll be making recommendations on “development and adoption of a nationwide health information infrastructure, including standards for the exchange of patient medical information.”

Susannah Fox – The Researcher

She’s responsible for studying what goes on at the crossroads of technology, health and the interwebs, as the Researcher on Health and Health Care for the Pew Internet Project. So Susannah Fox brings us some mighty interesting data about the habits of Americans when it comes to how many of us look online for health information (59 percent), what specific kinds of health information we seek (specific diseases or conditions, treatments or procedures, and doctors or other health professionals), and who we seek it from (increasingly, from other people who might have conditions similar to ours). Fox blogs regularly on e-Patients.net [http://e-patients.net//] and is helping researchers understand the habits of patients so that health IT can better meet those needs.

Halle Tecco – The Connecter

The company she co-founded has yet to celebrate its second birthday. Yet Tecco’s Rock Health –an accelerator “powering the future of the digital health ecosystem” by providing capital and mentorship to health startups–has funding from giants like Microsoft and Quest Diagnostics, and two of its “graduates” have secured additional funding from other investors. Tecco was chosen because of the power of her idea: that innovators could put tools and systems out there that could rejuvenate healthcare, make it not “just okay” but make it really rock. She was also chosen because she shows you don’t need to have gone to medical school to make a big impact in medicine: Tecco’s background is in tech and business.

Amy Sheng – The Inventor

Sheng also co-created CellScope, Inc., with Erik Douglas, less than two years ago. CellScope uses optical attachments to transform smartphones into diagnostic-quality imaging systems. In the right hands, this technology has the potential to transform lives: in the developing world it can be used in village clinics, while here in the US consumers can use the CellScope to access expert diagnosis and advice. Sheng’s work demonstrates the great potential for telehealth solutions to break down the barriers separating developing countries from high quality health care.

Have I left anyone important off the list? Please email me at katie@softwareadvice.com with your suggestions and feedback. I sincerely appreciate it!

Katie Matlack is the Medical Analyst for Software Advice. She writes regularly about emr companies and health IT on the Software Advice blog.

The iPhone and iPad are changing the world of medical devices as we know it.

Thanks to their familiar interface, Web connectivity, and powerful processing capabilities, with the right app and plug-in these iOS devices can work as super smart medical devices that make sharing as easy as the push of a touchscreen button. Consumers can now access increasingly high-quality medical devices, making it easy to be more actively engaged in their own health. And home and rural care givers can benefit from the portability and versatility of iPad and iPhone based devices.

Below I’ll discuss three examples of powerful iOS medical devices I’ve found that already exist.

1) The Withings Blood Pressure Monitor

French company Withings developed this blood pressure monitor that features an app and a cuff that fits most average-sized people. Accurate data on your blood pressure can help you monitor hypertension, which can lead to serious consequences for your heart, brain and kidney. The Withings monitor can even work with an iPod Touch, and runs at $129. You can use the device to share your data with your doctor.

2) ECEM Pulse Oximeter

This device isn’t yet available to the masses, but given its utility I imagine it will be soon. It features a small clip that attaches to your fingertip. The clip beams a light through your fingertip to a receiver on the opposite side; the amount of light received is used to determine how much oxygen is saturated in your blood. Developed by the Electrical and Computer Engineering in Medicine research group together with the Pediatric Anesthesia Research Team at the University of British Columbia, it was originally created to help make anesthesia care safer in the developing world, but can also be useful to patients with heart of lung problems such as emphysema.

3) iBGStar Glucose Meter

From Sanofi-Aventis comes this glucose meter app and plug-in. The glucose meter is a well-known device to anyone with diabetes. Today, diabetics test blood sugar with needles and a clunky kit; the iBGStar offers a small add-on to the iPhone that’s said to give better, more accurate results. Plus, getting your data on your iPhone means you can share it easily, and you can get reminders on your iPhone when it’s time for another check.

For more discussion of the benefits of these iPhone and iPad based devices, plus commentary on two more devices not discussed here and commentary from an expert on medical devices, visit the Software Advice blog for the original article.

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Katie Matlack
Medical Software Analyst
Software Advice

The iPad has been heralded as a gamechanger in a number of sectors. What will its impact be in home health? Pretty significant, I think. That prediction is based on the way the device empowers home health care workers to streamline logistics, and get more done. Below, I’ve identified three concrete ways the iPad is poised be a big hit within home health below (I’ve expanded further in a longer post on my blog at Software Advice, too).  

1. It can replace costly equipment. The iPad has a ton of processing power. And developers can easily build new apps. Given those two factors, the device is impressively extensible. Think about blood pressure cuffs that can plug into an iPad, or disposable EKG electrodes that do the same. Will home caregivers soon just carry a kit of electrodes, cuffs and sensors around? I imagine that day is not far off. After all, a company called Square has already built a credit card reader add-on for an iPhone.

2. It facilitates EHR adoption in home health. Though EHRs have been available for the home health specialty for some time, it’s never been simple for home health care givers to access these programs on the go… until now. The touchscreen is intuitive and offers an efficient way for caregivers to capture hundreds of data elements. Furthermore, a growing portion of the population is already familiar with how to use an iPhone and the iOS. This could decrease the levels of apprehension home health care givers have about using a tablet device.

3. It can transform logistics. As I wrote in my original article,

Home health workers can use existing iPad apps from gas station locators and mileage counters to the built-in camera to help them save time and be more efficient. For example, caregivers could use the camera to snap photos of receipts for expenses reports. Sharing information in real time is now as easy as a home health care team using a shared calendar. Some home health software programs have scheduling features built in, too.

For more discussion on how I think the iPad will transform home health, including a discussion of how the device might be used for accountability purposes in the future, please check out my recent blog post. If you have any comments, please feel free to send me an email at katie@softwareadvice.com I’d really appreciate the feedback! Thanks for reading.