Eligible applicants must:

• Be at least 17 years of age at the time of application
• Have a high school diploma or its equivalent if enrolling in an EMT-I, EMT-P or PS course
• Be able to speak, write and read English
• Hold a current course completion card in CPR if enrolling in an EMT-B, EMT-I, EMT-P or PS course
• Be currently certified, as a minimum, as an EMT-B, if enrolling in an EMT-I, EMT-P, or PS course

Funds will be awarded to applicants to assist with expenses associated with initial EMS education and training. Allowable expenses include course tuition, training program fees, books and course supplies, and testing and certification fees. Applicants may apply for up to $4,500.

Applications will be accepted now through the closing deadline of June 1, 2010, or until all program funding has been awarded. Applicants are encouraged to apply early.

In April 2009, Manhattan Research stated that 64% of physicians are currently using smartphones and the number of physicians using iPhones more than doubled in the last year.

Smartphones apps not all fun and games; physicians finding real uses

HealthLeaders Media recently interviewed Dr. Michelle Eads, a primary care physician who routinely reaches for her smartphone before writing a prescription. Dr. Eads relies on Epocrates, a comprehensive drug and disease reference application, to quickly decide what the safest medication options are by looking up drug interactions, side effect profiles, adverse reactions and contraindications.

In addition to the numerous applications available for health care professionals, companies like Think Safe, an Iowa-based company, offers apps for the general public that will verbally coach users through assisting with severe allergic reactions or emergencies requiring CPR.

Here’s a look at some of the more popular medical applications available:

• Epocrates: A drug reference containing information on more than 3,300 drugs, including dosing, adverse reactions, pricing, and pictures.
• Skyscape Medical Resources: Comprehensive drug information, clinical information, medical calculator and up-to-the-minute medical alerts by specialty
• EyeChart: A mobile Snellen eye chart that can provide useful screens for rough visual acuity.
• MedCalc: A collection of clinical calculators including Body Mass Index (BMI), I.V. drip rates, ABG interpretation and pregnancy wheel.
• Speed Bones Lite: Free version of Speed Bones MD that tests your speed and challenges your memory of the human anatomy.
• Taber’s Medical Dictionary: Includes more than 60,000 terms, 1,000 photos and 600 Patient Care Statements.
• Davis’s Drug Guide for Nurses: Includes nearly 5,000 trade and generic drugs, the most common natural and herbal products, as well as monographs of indications, side effects and interactions.
• Eponyms (for students): Short descriptions of medical eponyms, such as Rovsing’s sign and Virchow’s node.
• uHear: A mobile hearing loss screening test that lets you test hearing to determine if it is in normal range.
• Pocket First Aid & CPR: The latest up-to-date information from the American Heart Association on first aid and CPR procedures. Also allows user to enter personal medical information including allergies, medications and emergency contacts.
• Police Scanner: For people who love to listen in to police scanner frequencies. Allows users to select from nearby streams or from feeds around the world. Great for “On Call” volunteer fire fighters, news crews, and emergency responders.

What kind of phone/mobile device are you using? Are you using any apps on your phone to assist you in your work? What are your favorite apps?

[Photo via johanl on Flickr]

1. Job outlook
2. Average job satisfaction
3. Difficulty of the required training
4. Prestige
5. Pay

As jobs such as investment bankers and editors dropped off the 2009 list, health care careers remained strong, comprising one-third of all careers listed.

Physical therapists restore, maintain and promote overall fitness and health

Physical therapists are valuable members of a health care team and provide services that help restore function, improve mobility, relieve pain, and prevent or limit permanent physical disabilities of patients suffering from injuries or disease. They restore, maintain, and promote overall fitness and health.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment is expected to increase much faster than average and job opportunities should be good, particularly in hospital, rehabilitation and orthopedic settings. A March 2009 Washington Post article emphasized that careers in health care, specifically physical therapy, continue to grow despite the country’s employment crisis.

Hear from a physical therapist in Iowa

A few weeks ago we had the chance to speak with a physical therapist at Cass County Memorial Hospital about how he got started and the most rewarding part of his job.

Take a look to see what it’s like working as a physical therapist in an Iowa hospital.

Faster employment growth, excellent opportunities

On a national level, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has predicted faster than average employment growth and excellent job opportunities. The Iowa Hospital Association has consistently ranked the Clinical Laboratory Scientist as one of the greatest hiring needs in Iowa hospitals.

Allen College launching new CLS program

Starting this fall, Allen College will implement a new clinical laboratory science (CLS) program. CLS graduates will receive the Bachelor of Health Sciences degree.  Students planning to seek admission to the program must complete all general education requirements at an accredited college or university before enrolling in the health sciences program at Allen College.

Hear from a medical lab technician in Iowa

Recently we had the chance to speak with a medical laboratory technician at Cass County Memorial Hospital about how she got started and the most rewarding part of her job.

Take a look to see what it’s like working as a medical lab tech in an Iowa hospital.

With the assistance of a grant from the Genesis Health Services Foundation, the Genesis Adventures in Nursing Summer Camp (GAIN) will be held for the first time this July.

Getting an early start in health care

This camp will reach out to young people who may someday be interested in a health care career. Campers will tour the hospital, observe a mock trauma in the emergency department, visit an operating room and learn first aid and CPR.

Campers will also learn the basic anatomy and physiology of the heart and brain and will learn about health assessment.

Ensuring an adequate supply of nurses is essential to any health care delivery system. Genesis is doing its part by creating an exciting summer adventure that will allow campers to explore the many options a career in nursing can provide.

• Medical education in the United States has become specialized, centralized and urban.
• Many practitioners emerge from medical programs with a staggering amount of debt and go on to practice in urban areas, where they often receive a higher salary.

More doctors is not the answer

Simply increasing medical school slots is not the answer. According to the Robert Graham Center: Policy Studies in Family Medicine and Primary Care, “Sizeable growth of the physician workforce in the last two decades has not resolved the maldistribution of physicians.”  On March 24, 2009 — House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry A. Waxman said that a congressional overhaul of the health care system must not only provide for universal coverage but also for more primary care doctors and nurses to ensure that an insurance card actually gives the holder access to treatment.

Physicians need to be rooted in the rural community

In a joint 2008 statement, the American Academy of Family Physicians and the National Rural Health Association stated that medical education anchored in rural places, nourished and funded through significant federal, state and local community support, and meaningfully connected to both regional academic institutions and local physicians in practice has great potential to address both present and future needs for physicians who provide care to rural populations.

DMU launches program to combat rural physician shortage with incentives

Concerned about the growing physician shortage in rural Iowa, Des Moines University (DMU) has embarked upon a “grow your own” program.  DMU and its Area Health Education Center have created the Rural Iowa Provider Education (RIPE) Program.

The RIPE Program provides specialized education, training and tools to better prepare students for service in rural, underserved areas of Iowa.  Because one of the known barriers for students choosing a rural medical practice is the tuition debt load from medical school, DMU has made an on-going commitment to annually provide the equivalent of six full tuition scholarships to students enrolled in the Rural Medicine Educational Pathway. In return, graduates agree to maintain a fulltime primary care medical practice in an approved Iowa community for a period of four years.

Are plans like DMU’s RIPE the answer to the shortage of physicians in rural areas? Are there other concerns or issues at hand? How would you bring more physicians into rural areas?

You can find more information about the RIPE Program on DMU’s website.

The history of Leapfrog

In 2000, a number of large employers and public purchasers founded the Leapfrog Group in an attempt to persuade hospitals to adopt practices thought to improve the quality and safety of medical care. The Leapfrog Group initially recommended three hospital patient safety practices, or “leaps”:

• Computerized physician order entry.
• Staffing of intensive care units by trained intensivist physicians.
• Evidence-based referrals for high-mortality surgeries.

Unfortunately, these leaps primarily targeted urban hospitals. In Iowa, this would equate to 18 percent of the 117 community hospitals. To quote the Leapfrog Group, “Computer physician order entry and ICU physician staffing are still considered a stretch for rural hospitals because of the staffing and resource constraints involved in fully complying with them.”  This may lead one to question why Leapfrog  set forth benchmarks that hospitals would be unable to achieve.

The Leapfrog Safe Practices Survey and response from JAMA

In 2004, Leapfrog adopted a fourth initiative, the Safe Practices Survey. Leapfrog said this would allow all hospitals to report efforts toward implementing the National Quality Forum’s Safe Practices for Better Healthcare.

Fast forward five years to a study just published in the April 1 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association. That study showed hospitals that ranked highly on the Leapfrog Group’s Safe Practices Survey had about the same inpatient mortality rates as facilities with lower rankings.

In a written response, the Leapfrog Group said that the study addresses only one of several elements of the hospital survey, adding that the data used in the comparison “limits the conclusions that can be generalized from the study.”

The Leapfrog Group adds that although the process and structure measures in the Safe Practices Survey are “perfectly sensible…clearly we cannot assume that structural and process improvements automatically lead to the outcomes we desire.”  This explanation from Leapfrog echoes Albert Einstein, who said, “Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.”

Iowa hospitals continue to receive high marks

In study after study, Iowa hospitals continue to rank at the top of the leader board for quality patient care. Part of this success can be attributed to the ongoing work of the Iowa Healthcare Collaborative, a provider-led nonprofit organization designed to promote rapid cycle clinical performance improvement. IHC’s initiatives facilitate engagement, the sharing of data and the rapid deployment of best practices. IHC highlights success stories and reports on clinical performance information in its 2008 Iowa Report. The IHC Board has also affirmed its position that Iowa hospitals not report to the Leapfrog Group.

Questions?

Do you have questions about the Leapfrog Group survey or IHA’s position on this issue? Please leave a comment and a member of IHA’s staff would be happy to respond.

Hospitals need reliable ways to measure foundational skills to ensure they are hiring the most qualified, trainable candidates. ACT, a  not-for-profit organization that provides assessment services in the areas of workforce and education, has two products that fit the bill for hospitals: WorkKeys and the National Career Readiness Certificate.

WorkKeys

WorkKeys offers both cognitive skills assessments and personal skills measures, enabling employers to assess the full potential of applicants.

Mercy Iowa City incorporates the WorkKeys assessment into their application process.  Applicants are assessed on applied mathematics, reading for information and locating information. Results are then compared to the skills level needed for the position.

Since implementing the WorkKeys assessment into the pre-hire process, Mercy has experienced a decrease in employee turnover, gains in productivity and improved staff morale.

National Career Readiness Certificate

The National Career Readiness Certificate (CRC) verifies to employers an individual has essential core employability skills in reading, math and locating information.

ACT has researched over 16,000 occupations and these three skills are highly important to the majority of jobs in the workplace. Sixteen states have already implemented a statewide Career Readiness Certificate program and Iowa is among 19 other states in the process of doing so, according to the National Organization for Career Credentialing.

Iowa Health – Des Moines is the first organization in Central Iowa to join the Career Readiness Certificate Employer Consortium of organizations recognizing the Career Readiness Certificate. According to Sue Allyn, Iowa Health – Des Moines, Vice President for Human Resources, “It is one more assurance that a person is skilled and ready for our workplace.”

What Works Well at your Hospital?

These tools are just two examples of how hospitals can continue to ensure they are hiring the most qualified candidates into their workforce.

What is working well in the hiring process at your hospital? Are you using another tool to help screen for the best job candidates?

Share your tactics in the comments below.