Back to School Basics!

It's time for school again?!!   

It’s hard to believe it’s that time of year again!  Back to school ads on television and in the newspaper are now common place and we will soon see school buses shuttling children back and forth to school once again. Getting prepared for the start of the school year often involves a to-do list that includes visits to the doctor, registering for school,and back to school shopping!  Making the adjustment to the school routine is a family affair, requiring cooperation from everyone.

Making a Smooth Transition to the School Routine

Bethany Hardy discusses the back to school transition in her article Back-to-School Time: Transition Your Family from Summer to School  offering some helpful hints about making a smooth transition from the summer to school routine that can lessen some of the stress that inevitably accompanies this time of year.  It is common that children may have feeling of nervousness mixed with excitement for the start of a new school year.  Eileen Kennedy-Moore, PhD discusses some of the common concerns children face at different ages and stages regarding the beginning of school and offers suggestions on how parents can help in her article discussing  Back-to-School Worries. Getting off to the right start is the key, and with some simple planning and preparation can make the transition to school easier for everyone involved!

Writing a Winning Resume and Cover Letter That Get’s You Noticed

Projected Growth in the Healthcare Industry

The healthcare is an industry that is continuing to expand.  According to the US Bureau of Labor and Statistics, “Industries and occupations related to health care, personal care and social assistance, and construction are projected to have the fastest job growth between 2010 and 2020”. Looking for a job in the healthcare field often involves searching online for job openings, filling out online applications and submitting a cover letter electronically.  It is more important than ever to design a resume that stands out and gets noticed, along with a cover letter that introduces you along with the skills and experience you can bring to your prospective employer. 

Resources for Resumes and Cover Letters

There are numerous resources available to assist and guide in the development of an effective resume.  http://www.dailywritingtips.com/resume-writing-tips/   has a comprehensive list of resume writing tips that would be useful to review before beginning to draft a resume.  Online sample resumes and cover letters offer ideas and provides examples.  Another great resource highlighting information specific to individuals pursuing careers in the healthcare field is http://healthcare.careercast.com

Experience and Education:  Two Key Ingredients for Success

Experience combined with education is crucial to preparing for success in the healthcare industry.  WeCareOnline provides online classes equipping individuals with the skills and experience, along with assistance in job placement for a variety of career goals in the heath care field, including Certified Nurse Aide,   Home Health Aide,  Mental Health Aide  and   Restorative Aide .  Visit WeCareOnline  for our full listing of courses.

The Importance of a Good Night's Rest

Without enough sleep, we all become tall two-year-olds. ~JoJo Jensen, Dirt Farmer Wisdom, 2002

Practically no one would dispute the need for seven to eight hours of sleep a night; the reality however, is that the majority of us getting far less sleep than our bodies require.  What is happening is our biological needs are at odds with our schedules and all the added diversions such as watching television into the late hours of the night, surfing the internet and maintaining our social media contacts.   

The restorative and regenerative processes that occur during the time we sleep are numerous and range from the relaxation of muscles, increased blood flow to muscles and tissues, the release of growth hormones and  increased efficiency of the immune system.  Sleep in America polls conducted over the last several years by the National Sleep Foundation  reveal that 20% of Americans report that they get less than 6 hours of sleep on average, and the number of Americans that report that they get 8 hours of more has decreased.  The Center for Disease control has taken notice of this national trend and has declared that 30% of U.S. workers are not getting nearly enough sleep and in fact sleep 6 or fewer hours a day.  In addition, lack of sleep impacts the ability to learn and retain information. The Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School has a website with information specific to sleep, learning and memory  http://healthysleep.med.harvard.edu/healthy/matters/benefits-of-sleep/learning-memory  The problem is clearly not of one of not understanding the need for adequate rest, but to prioritize it in our lives.

For more ideas on how to get to sleep, and to sleep well visit: http://tjhealth.com/how-to-sleep-well//

For more information on topics related to sleep, including its relation to aging, Alzheimer’s and Dementia visit the National Sleep Foundation http://www.sleepfoundation.org/articles/sleep-topics 

How to Help Your Employees Take Online Classes

Are you an administrator or supervisor in a long term care setting? Do you want to help your employees grow and succeed in their careers? Online classes from We Care Online are a fantastic, low cost, and fast way for anyone to boost their skills in the healthcare field. But what can you do to help your employees succeed with online learning?

Make a Study Space


Employees might have a computer at home, but with kids, pets, and other family members around, a home computer isn't always the best way to take an online class! Facilities, on the other hand, often have office space or other low-traffic areas that are better suited to learning. You can provide your employee with a desktop or laptop computer with internet an internet connection, and they'll be all set to learn.

Study Buddies

Online classes can be a little lonely sometimes, especially for really social people. The best way to address this is to arrange for your employees to take classes together. They can do the reading and online portions on their own, but have each other for study support and more in-depth learning beyond the computer lessons. Another perk of this is that the employees can work together to apply their newly learned skills. It's not only fun, but a great boost to employee morale.

All of We Care Online's classes have a discussion board in which students can discuss lessons and share their on-the-job experiences, but being able to apply their learning with co-workers is very rewarding, too.

Flexible Schedules

While most of our classes take less than a month to complete, they do require several hours of reading and study work. If you can give your employee some extra schedule flexibility for the length of the class, it can really help their learning experience. Being able to come in to work a little early to use a spare computer, or having an extra 15 minutes of lunch hour to study can make a huge difference. The short-term time lost in employee productivity will be more than made up for once your employee comes to work with a whole new set of skills and knowledge. Investing in continued education is great for your facility and for employee retention and morale.

See the full list of classes at We Care Online and help your employees accelerate their careers today!

What is Your Work or Living Space Saying?

We've all heard the saying, "a picture is worth a thousand words," but sometimes the places we work and live and say just as much. In long term care settings, you're trained to be courteous and attentive to your residents' needs, but how much thought do you give to what the building itself might be communicating? We all know how important body language can be to communication, but it's not often that we think about what the living and work areas of a building might say. Long Term Living magazine addressed this issue in a recent article, and it gives you a lot to think about.

Wall colors, the arrangement of furniture, an things like whether or not people are behind a counter really do matter. You can't influence the layout of a building once it's built, but there any many things you can do to the inside spaces to make them as welcoming and home-like as possible.

For example, "In traditional nursing homes, the design of the nurses’ station, break room, dining room, lobby, conference room and residents’ rooms all have influence on communication and language because their designs signal who will speak there, what types of language to use in each, when it is appropriate to talk in each space and who is invited to do so. Therefore, one significant way to change language in nursing homes is to redesign spaces so that elders have more opportunities to converse in private in more places with people of their choosing—friends, family and staff, or to be alone if they wish."

Read more here: http://www.ltlmagazine.com/article/spaces-and-interpersonal-communication

Safety in a Home Health Care Setting

A few years ago, an extensive study was done to evaluate safety risks to home health care workers. Over two years, workers were surveyed to determine the safety issues they faced on the job. According to the report, the most common risks were, "cockroaches, cigarette smoke, vermin, irritating chemicals, and peeling paint. The following conditions were also described: clutter, temperature extremes, unsanitary and unsafe conditions in the home, neighborhood violence/crime, and aggressive pets. Two percent of respondents reported the presence of guns in the home. Additionally, 12 percent of HHCWs reported signs of abuse of their clients."  You can read the full report here: http://www.ahrq.gov/downloads/pub/advances2/vol1/Advances-Gershon_88.pdf


What can you do?  



Be smart. Evaluate the home or your worksite for risks and see if there are any simple steps you can take to reduce risks. For example, if you see newspapers or magazines stacked close to a heat source like a hot water heater, there's a fire risk. You can work with your client to relocate or throw out the clutter.

When it comes to sanitation, remember your training and do whatever you can, within the scope of your job, to maintain a clean work environment and to follow hygenic practices. As a home care worker, you are usually working with individuals with restricted mobility. Assisting with a load of laundry, or cleaning out a sink of dishes not only helps your client, but it makes the work environment that much more sanitary. When it comes to needles and waste materials, remember what you were taught about sanitary practices and avoid things like accidental needlesticks.

There are always things you can't control, like the neighborhood your client lives in, but if aggressive pets or confrontational family members are involved, you can try to make adjustments. Maybe you can change your hours to a time when the problematic family members aren't around, or you can request that the client put the aggressive pet outside or in another room when you're working. These are things you can discuss and coordinate between your supervisor and the client, too. You are an employee, but you don't have to put up with unsafe working conditions if there are things that can be changed.

Coffee Cuts Depression Risk?

Photo by @Doug88888

According to the Huffington Post, a Harvard Nurse's Health Study that looked at caffeine's effect on depression in over 50,000 women who worked in healthcare showed that women who consumed two to three cups of caffeinated coffee per day were 15 percent less likely to develop depression compared to those who drank one cup. Women who drank at least four cups per day had a 20 percent lower risk of depression.


See the full article here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/27/coffee-cuts-depression-women_n_982122.html


If coffee's not your cup of tea, you can always get a caffeine fix from, well, tea! Some black teas have almost as much caffeine as coffee, and green teas, while lower in caffeine, are known to have antioxidants and other health benefits. As with all things, moderation is key. Reducing stress, eating healthy, and getting in some regular upbeat exercise are your best bets for keeping yourself mentally and physically healthy!