December 31, 2013

We Care Online's December Tuition Reimbursement Winner

M. Torres-Hernandez
It's a great end to 2013 for M. Torres-Hernandez! She is the lucky winner of We Care Online's CNA Tuition Reimbursement drawing for December. She'll be getting a check from us soon.  You could be next!

Students registered for a Nurse Aide course will automatically be placed in a monthly drawing to win reimbursement of their course tuition. The monthly drawings will choose one student in Kansas and one student in South Dakota to win a reimbursement.

If you want to know how to get in on this Click Here for more information.
Or go to our website Click Here.

Remember, before you can win, you have to register for a Nurse Aide course - See our course catalog Click Here.

Interviewing for that Healthcare Position? Be Ready.


Regardless of your experience or credentials, it’s important to prepare for the interview when applying for a job in the healthcare industry. Whether conducted in person or on the phone, the interview provides an ideal opportunity to present your qualifications, show how you can make a contribution, and learn more about the immediate position and the organization itself.


Being ready for an interview when the opportunity presents itself, might be one of the most vital and crucial moments of your professional life. But you will need to do some homework in order to accomplish those interview goals. The first step is to review your experience, education and training to see which elements might be most important to a recruiter. And since the interviewer will have already seen your resume, you should be prepared to expand on the key points.

Let’s start with the basics “tell us about yourself” this is one of the simplest and greatest opportunities for you to break the ice and show what you are all about. Usually this question is given to you.

For More and the Original Blog.

Learn what it takes to become a certified nurse assistant.

December 26, 2013

Marketers Zero in on Adult Child in Senior Living Sales

Senior living marketers are zeroing in on prospects’ children as a strategy to counteract delayed transitions into senior housing communities, noting a correlation between adult child involvement and quicker move-ins.

“Adult children getting more and more involved than they ever have at the residential level,” said Krista DiGeorge, regional marketing director at Asbury, a not-for-profit senior living organization, during a session at the 2013 LeadingAge Annual Meeting and Expo. “They’re realizing the impact on them to have Mom and Dad at home.”

With many seniors delaying a move, more adult children are serving as caregivers, Cathy Ritter, vice president of Marketing and Communications at Asbury, said during the session. But many of those adult children are in the “sandwich generation”—caring for elderly parents while still raising their own family—and they’re concerned about their parents’ safety.

For More and the Original Article.

Facilities: Now you can post your job openings here! Use WeCareOnline's Forum to reach our present and past students.

December 24, 2013

5 Ways You May be Unintentionally Holding Back Your Career

Ever feel like you must have accidentally skipped that class on how to navigate and grow your career
You wonder who really need to know that will either give you the right guidance, insights or referrals.  You want to be seen for your true capabilities, but can’t seem to figure out how.  You have at least one co-worker who is constantly critical and makes you tense.
Problem is, you didn’t skip any class.  It didn’t exist!

So you forged through these challenges, making mistakes, missteps, and having downright painful experiences.  You’ve made some progress but you still don’t feel confident handling situations and how to truly put yourself in the driver’s seat of your career.

For More and the Original Blog.

Like to learn what it takes to be a restorative aide?

December 19, 2013

Home Health Job Market Dominates Services

More than half of the approximately 8.4 million Americans who receive paid long-term care were using home health services, according to a first-of-its-kind report on senior care services and users.

The nation’s 12,200 home health agencies served about 4.7 million patients in 2011, the latest year when data was available, says the National Study of Long-Term Care Providers, conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics.

The report collected data from around 58,500 paid, regulated long-term care services providers in 2012 split into five categories—nursing homes, assisted living communities, home health agencies, hospice agencies, and adult day services centers—and includes information on provider capacity, staffing level, and services provided, along with a national profile of long-term care users.

More than 8 million Americans received services from 4,800 adult day services centers, 12,200 home health agencies, 3,700 hospices, 15,700 nursing homes, and 22,200 assisted living and residential care communities.

Of those, home health agencies served the largest population, followed by nursing homes with nearly 1.4 million residents and the more than 1.2 million patients who received hospice services.

For More and the Original Article.

Like to learn more about becoming a home health aide?

December 17, 2013

How to Make a Glove Christmas Tree

Nurses and nurse aides are creative individuals. You have to be to do the job. There’s no nurse around that hasn’t had to get creative to dress a wound properly, manage time effectively, or appease a seemingly inconsolable patient. Creativity is just the name of the game in nursing. Unfortunately, working holidays is also a big part of the nursing game. One holiday that many nurses find particularly difficult to work is on Christmas. So many nurses miss the time with their families and familiar traditions.

But there’s no reason to let working holiday’s completely bum you out. There are plenty of ways you can spruce up your work setting and making even create a few new holiday traditions, like perhaps a glove Christmas tree.

Picking Good Gloves

If you’re making this at work, you are likely going to use what they’ve got in stock. There are so many different kinds of gloves and some of them lend themselves better to this process than others. For example, I found that latex gloves are the only ones I could find on the shelf that would blow up like a balloon. Vinyl gloves would blow up, but not very large, and it was a real challenge to tie a knock in the cuff to hold he air in.

For more instructions and original article.

Check out the classes we have at WeCareOnline: http://wecareonlineclasses.com/

December 12, 2013

Survival Tactics for Older Job Seekers

Age discrimination is a major reason older workers are struggling. In a 2013 survey by the AARP, 64 percent of adults 45 to 74 years old said they had seen some form of age discrimination, and 20 percent said they had been passed up for a job because of it. Proving you’ve been discriminated against is extremely difficult. “It becomes a lot of ‘he said/she said’ accusations,” says Gene Burnard, publisher of SeniorJobBank.org, a job search site for seniors. Worse, litigants may find themselves blacklisted from future jobs if prospective employers find out they filed a suit.

Rather than fight age discrimination, most seniors have no choice but to try and overcome it. The first hurdle is getting an interview when your resume may indicate you’ve been around the block a few times. Burnard recommends including only the years at your most recent jobs and placing more emphasis on skills than tenure. “Nobody’s interested in what you’ve done, but what you can do for them,” he says.

For more and original article.

Interested in becoming a Health Unit Coordinator?

December 10, 2013

Celebrating the Holidays in an Interfaith Family

You grew up with memories of Santa Claus and Christmas trees, but your spouse spent the holidays lighting a menorah and playing dreidel. If yours is one of the thousands of interfaith families in the United States or elsewhere, chances are you've either tried to find ways to incorporate the best of both traditions into your own family or agreed as a family to choose one faith and follow its traditions.

The holidays tend to bring the religious choices you've made into sharp focus. As a result, some interfaith families find December especially stressful, while others have discovered ways to make it a joyous time. Even families with religious differences that are not exactly "interfaith" — a Catholic / Protestant couple, for example — find themselves dealing with thorny issues about what to do during holidays.


For the rest of this article.

Learn what it takes to be a restorative aide.

December 5, 2013

Safety Tips for Home Health Care Workers

Home nurses and aides are exposed to many of the dangers that hospital workers face -- from tuberculosis to needlestick injuries -- but are working in completely uncontrolled environments, Rhonda Berlin Jarrell, RN, a former home nurse who now works as an injury prevention consultant in Alexandria, Virginia says. As a result, nearly one in 20 home health workers has a job-related illness or injury every year -- a rate approaching that for construction workers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

House calls
Back strain is by far the most common injury among home health workers. In 2007, among the 55,440 reported injuries that resulted in nurses, psychiatric and home health aides having to miss work, more than 21,000 involved back injuries. The risks are particularly high for health aides who have to lift patients from their beds, chairs, toilets, and bathtubs. Moving patients around in their home can be a challenge, and not just because of stairs and clutter, Jarrell says. Many patients don't have the equipment -- such as lifts and adjustable beds -- that can ease the burden on caregivers. And home workers, unlike hospital staff, can't just call a coworker down the hall for help with a particularly heavy load.

Home aides and nurses can protect their backs by encouraging patients and their family members to invest in lifts and adjustable beds. Even more important, Jarrell says, workers should learn the proper body mechanics for lifting, preferably through annual training sessions.

For more and original article

Learn what it takes to be a Home Health Aide.

December 3, 2013

Clever Christmas Party Ideas for Senior Living

12 Days of Christmas

Find clever ways to incorporate everything from a partridge in a pear tree to twelve drummers drumming. This may include displaying topiary trees with candy pears, serving three (roast) french hens, hanging five golden wreaths to represent the rings and dressing up your tables to look like giant drums.

Have an Aussie Christmas

Break away from the white Christmas and celebrate the season the way they do downunder - on a scorching summer's day.

Use an inflatable children's pool filled with ice to hold your drinks, and decorate a gum tree rather than the traditional evergreen. Put on a barbecue, meatpies or some freshly grilled fish, crack a few ginger ales and break out the ausse slang, mate. Decorations could include Australian flora and fauna, shells and white sand and sandals.


For more ideas and original article.

Know someone interested in becoming an Activity Director?