News for Medical Assistants: Lyme Disease Cases Spiking

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lyme symptom for medical assistants benefitIn an important piece of healthcare news in the Northeast (which is where many of our medical assistant trainees study, live and ultimately enter the workforce) was released this spring.  Centers for Disease Control and other agencies warn that as the warm weather arrives, the Northeast could see a record spike in Lyme Disease cases. They heavy snows of this last winter actually insulated the disease carrying Black Legged ticks (sometimes referred to as Deer ticks) from freezing to death in the cold.  The warm weather now promises an explosion in these ticks’ population.  This means far more instances of Lyme Disease on the horizon. Note that not all people infected with Lyme exhibit the red, bull’s eye patterned rash commonly associated with Lyme infection.  The normal symptoms mimic the flu and without the telltale rash, many are fooled into thinking they have the flu while Lyme progresses through the body.  Left untreated, Lyme can affect the eyes, cardiovascular system, kidneys and even call meningitis-like swelling of the brain and spinal cord.  Not fun stuff. A good medical assistant should know that a patient with lingering flu-like symptoms is potentially infected with Lyme.  Treated early with anti-biotics and anti-inflammatories, Lyme is cured.  Left to degenerate untreated, it can have dire consequences.  If you’re about to complete your medical assistant training with Allen School and enter a medical office, be armed with this knowledge!

Medical Assistant Job Seekers, Don’t Answer That Question!

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Nursing assistants don't need to answer these illegal questionsHave you ever run into a perfect stranger on the train or in the market who engaged you in conversation and then began to ask you uncomfortably personal questions?  Remember that uncomfortable feeling of having your personal life intruded upon?  Now imagine that in order to land that job as a medical assistant, you must answer similarly sensitive questions posed by your interviewer during the job-seeking process. “So tell me, are you married?” “Have you ever been arrested?” “Do you like to have a drink socially?  Have you ever used drugs?” “Tell me about the country you come from and your religious beliefs.” These are all questions that any person may be uncomfortable answering to a perfect stranger.  And what’s more, they are all questions it is illegal for a hiring manager to ask during a job interview.  Age, health, marital status, criminal background, religion, and more are strictly off-limits according to the law. Yet, you want the job; you NEED the job.  You jumped through all the hoops building resumes and cover letters, acing first and second phone interviews to arrive at the all-important, face-to-face interview.  You certainly don’t want to turn it into a “palm-to-face” interview after all these efforts.  So how to tactfully deflect these questions without damaging your chances?  The brilliant folks over at LifeHacker.com have built a list of these verboten questions and, more importantly, “How to React to Illegal Questions” with tact and aplomb. Be sure to read this piece before heading out for your next nursing assistant job interview.

Adblock Browser a Good Option for Medical Coding Online Students

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AdBlockPlus for better medical coding online studyIf you spend a good deal of time on the internet for work or as a student taking medical coding online classes, then you’re certainly no stranger to those annoying and sometimes idiotic pop up ads and videos that seem to launch at exactly the wrong moment.  You’re just about to articulate a critical thought for a term paper you’re writing when up pops an advertisement for chewing gum.  You know what I mean I’m sure. You probably are also aware of browser extensions such as ABP or AdBlock Plus which you can install on your Firefox browser to head the popups off before they can launch.  It is a tool that many net users are particularly fond of.  Well, today it was announced that AdBlock Plus has released its own ad-blocking browser built atop the Firefox browser you love so well.  Even better, they’re giving it away for free while it is still in beta (testing) to anyone who wishes to try it on for size. Here is a link to the LifeHacker.com article about the new AdBlocker browser and how to get your free download.  Say goodbye to all those tedious interruptions while you’re studying medical coding online with the Allen School and say hello to improved focus and productivity!  The time you save will be your own!

Better Off Being a Certified Nurse Assistant

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Certified Nurse Assistant is a Good JobSo what do soliders, firefighters, head cooks, mail carriers, corrections officers, newspaper reporters, lumberjacks, broadcasters, photojournalists and taxi drivers have in common?  They are all on the Forbes list of worst jobs for 2015.  Unfortunately, this blogger has held several of these positions and can verify the validity of them being on a list of worst jobs (former head cook, newspaper reporter and taxi driver here). The Forbes list arrived at the conclusion that these jobs were worst using a scoring method that takes into consideration the “degree of competitiveness and the amount of public contact (both viewed as negatives), physical demands including crawling, stooping and bending and work conditions like toxic fumes and noise. In addition they look at stressors like the amount of travel the job requires, deadlines, and physical risks including whether the workers’ or their colleagues’ lives are put at risk on the job.” Did you happen to notice what jobs were not on this list of crappy jobs?  That’s right!  There was no room on this list for the certified nurse assistant.  Neither was there space for the medical billing and coding professional nor the medical office assistant.  In fact, no medical industry jobs made the list at all.  Add this to the list of reasons why you should consider certified nurse assistant as a solid potential field of employment.  Then call the Allen School for details on how to get started. Lastly, let me make clear that being a soldier, firefighter, mail carrier and every other job on Forbes’s list is honorable.  All contributions to society through the efforts of honest labor are commendable and all jobs have positives and negatives.  

Medical Assistants! See Where the Jobs Are (or Aren’t)

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pushpinsFinishing your medical assistant training courses at Allen School is exciting for many reasons.  But more than any other reason, it is exciting because it allows you to write your own ticket with respect to where you’d like to pursue your career.  As part of a field in great demand (medical), medical assistants are needed pretty much everywhere around the country.  For every graduate that will remain local to the Northeast upon completing their new degree, there is another who is ready to pick up and move to a new city to begin a new life and career.  But where is the best place to live? There are certainly many criteria to address when selecting a new place to live.  But as we know, going where employment is plentiful is among the most influential.  If you’re interested in a change, dig into this excellent information about the top 5 best job markets and the bottom 5 worst. Culled from an annual survey of more than 18,000 hiring managers in companies coast to coast (survey produced by leading staffing organization, Manpower) here are the five US cities with the best “net employment outlook” for the upcoming quarter.  The top 5 cities according to the Manpower report are: 5.  Seattle, WA 4.  Milwaukee, WI 3.  Grand Rapids, MI 2.  Jacksonville, FL 1.  Boise, ID On the other hand, the bottom 5 cities are: 5.  Wichita, KA 4.  Birmingham, AL (tied with) Baton Rouge, LA 3.  El Paso, TX 2.  Youngstown, OH 1.   Oklamhoma City, OK Read the details of the report at this Forbes magazine article on the Manpower survey and its results.  Then get to planning your next move as a medical assistant!

Online Medical Coding Classes, Use MORE Google

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Google tricks for online medical coding studentsWe already know that those who take online medical coding classes are typically more computer savvy than their classical, on-campus student counterparts.  After all, these folks spend a lot of time online engaged in study of medical billing and coding.  They also tend to favor other online activities such as online banking, social media and online job hunting.  Of course, the majority of online denizens or “netizens” couldn’t survive the day without all the amazing things they can accomplish with Google.  Gmail, GoogleMaps, GoogleEarth, GoogleDrive and even Youtube (a Google equity) are all eminently useful to someone who does business, studies or anything else online. But there are a bunch of Google features which are not nearly as well-known as the services listed above.  These less-popular Google features are no less useful and will probably come as a surprise to even the most savvy netizen.  Taken from an article for BGR News by Zach Epstein, here are five great Google Tricks you’ll wonder how you ever lived without. Google Convert – Traveling to England over Summer vacation?  Want to know up-to-the-minute currency exchange rates but don’t want to download another app onto your smartphone?  Simply type, “$500 in GBP” to find out how many Great Britain Pounds you’ll get for $500 US. Google Calculate – Don’t bother messing around with finding that calculator app on your phone.  Want to figure out how many hours you’re not wasting commuting to and from class by studying online medical coding for example?  Say your commute would be 2.3 hours round trip, four days per week.  And let’s say you’d be taking a 22 week course of study.  Simply type into Google, “2.3 times 4 times 22” and let Google do the math. Google Time Zones – Prospecting for a medical billing and coding job in the the Northwest for post-graduation?  Maybe in Oregon?  Don’t want to miss your phone interview by getting the time zones confused?  Simply tell Google, “What time is it in Portland Oregon?” Read Zach Epstein’s full piece for some more Googly goodness.  Share this info with your other friends studying online medical coding!

Good Nursing Assistants Deserve Raises

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penny pinchingOne of the arguments we make in favor of nursing assistant training is based on the fact that the healthcare field in general is projected to remain one of the best fields for employment opportunity.  The ongoing retirement of the Boomer generation alone will continue to ensure demand remains high for professionals in all facets of medicine.  From nursing assistants, to medical coding pros to registered nurses etc.  Because the demand is so high for workers in this field, it stands to reason that high-performing professional nursing assistants will be treated well when it comes to periodic pay raises. After all, a good employee in a competitive field is worth paying extra to keep on the job. However, it is natural for employers to seek to keep costs low and profit margins high wherever and how ever possible.  That is why sometimes, even if a raise is well-deserved, an employer will seek ways to deny said raise.  In trying to lessen the sting of being passed over for a salary bump, employers often use some strategies to deliver their denial of your raise request. Have you heard any of these:
  • It’s not in the budget
  • You’ve not been here long enough
  • You’re paid the market rate
The Huffington Post calls these reasons for denying your raise “lies” and has a post discussing the 5 Lies Employers Use to Not Give a Raise.  It includes and explains the three examples above and discusses two more common excuses (we prefer the term excuses to “lies”).  Learn why employers use them and how to counteract these arguments.  After all, a good nursing assistant is worth paying more to retain.

Solidarity With Our Fellow Americans in Baltimore

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baltimoreBaltimore is a great city for medicine.  The famed John Hopkins and the National Institute of Health both call Baltimore home.  Yet, right now, the people of the City of Baltimore are hurting as evidenced by the civil unrest witnessed there in recent days after the death of Freddie Gray.  Unfortunately, the pain they are enduring and acting out upon is not something we can cure as medical professionals. The upheaval and raw, emotional anger witnessed in Baltimore this week is of the same strain seen recently in protests in Ferguson, MO after the shooting of Michael Brown; in our home town of New York City after the death of Eric Garner and in many other cities around the nation.  It is a pain borne of poverty, oppression and desperation. As the Reverend Martin Luther King said, “A riot is the language of the unheard”.  From all of us at the Allen School Blog, we wish to convey our solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Baltimore – of every race and ethnicity.  We hear your pain and outrage.  We share in the ardent desire to help ease the suffering of iniquity and to raise up the standard for every American so that desperation and anger such as we’ve witnessed in recent days should never be the experience of any one of our countrymen.  

New Disease Alert for Nursing Assistant Trainees

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Powassan-virusAs a nursing assistant trainee, it pays to stay informed about any advances in medical technology.  It also pays to stay informed about the advance of new and emerging illnesses so that you may be prepared to recognize them should a sick patient present the symptoms while in your care once you’ve completed studies and landed a job as a certified nursing assistant.  That is why whenever we read about an emerging threat to public health, we here at the Allen School Blog try to report to you on it. Today’s report is on an emerging threat here in the Northeast, home region of the Allen School.  Sure, we already all know about Lyme disease, its symptoms and how it is transmitted by being bitten by deer ticks.  Well, the new Powassan (po-AH-sen) virus is also transmitted by the same black-legged deer tick as Lyme disease.  However, unlike Lyme which requires the tick to have fed until fully engorged (about 24 hours) before the infection occurs, Powassan can be transmitted in as little as 15 minutes of being bitten.  Also, unlike Lyme which is a bacterial infection treatable by anti-biotics, Powassan is a virus and there is no cure. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) says, “With the more benign forms of the disease, [the symptoms] are very much nonspecific — you might have a fever, some headache, some vomiting, confusion,”  According to Yahoo Health, “as the virus affects the brain more, you may get more confused, memory loss, seizures, and you can even die from it if you develop encephalitis, which is an infection of the brain.” While this vague description of the symptoms may be precious little to go on with respect to rendering diagnosis, it is enough just to know about the existence of the ailment.  Powassan is not new.  However, it has been emerging in much greater numbers in the last few years in the Northeast.  So it is worth keeping tabs on for nursing assistants and the doctors they work with.

Medical Billing Courses Online at your Fingertips – Literally!

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Thirty years ago, it would have been considered “futuristic” to consider what is today an accepted reality.  Taking medical billing classes online using the internet-enabled virtual classroom seems perfectly normal to us today.  Yet, it is easy to forget just how radical and innovative this capability is and how much technology has transformed the way we do nearly everything – from work to shopping to studying medical billing courses and more! Well, if you’re a student taking medical billing courses online, then you’re probably temperamentally well-suited to perhaps adopt this nifty new piece of tech-magic!  Grad students at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed a miniaturized trackpad (like the ones on laptops) that you can affix to your thumbnail.  It literally puts a wide range of activities right on your fingertip.  The video below explains what it is and how it works.  Think of the multi-tasking potential this nifty little piece of wearable technology will deliver! Contact the Allen School today! We are enrolling now and cannot wait for you to become part of the Allen School family. Visit www.allenschool.edu to learn more.