Like any business, healthcare deals with managing costs in their budget. There are numerous ways to proactively manage a healthcare business budget. Healthcare Managers can play a big role in keeping prices down. Keeping prices down benefits everyone
Learn more about becoming a Healthcare Manager by reviewing AICHP’s Healthcare Manager Certification program
The article, “How health care businesses can proactively manage their costs” by Jeffrey Stevenson discusses healthcare management of costs. He states,
“Cost control measures are likely to take a more prominent role among healthcare practitioners because of COVID-19-driven economic disruption. The pandemic has raised the stakes for physician-owners, some of whom have been joining multi-service organizations to reduce their administrative burdens and pursue new avenues of growth, to take a more hands on approach to driving down costs and ensure their businesses are being run profitably.”
Please also review AIHCP’s Healthcare Manager Certification and see if it meets your academic and professional goals. The program is online and independent study. Qualified professionals can earn a four year certification.
Creating a new paradigm in life is difficult. We are trapped and stuck in the routine mud of life. Many people are held back by beliefs and values that may no longer fit their life style. Others may be unhappy and incapable of change. Stress will continue to eat at the soul of individuals who are unable to change. Grief, depression, stress, anxiety and unfulfilled ideals will force a person to a early grave. It is imperative, if unhappy and overly stressed, to find one’s values for a better life and incorporate positive changes.
Stress can sidetrack life goals. If stress is dictating your life, it is time to re-evaluate your values and work towards a new life paradigm. Please also review AICHP’s Stress Management Consulting Program
Any first step to change is a commitment to that change. It involves writing down one’s values and beliefs and creating a true mission statement of one’s life and where they wish to go in life. Sometimes to better understand oneself, one can meditate upon what others would say about oneself. A co-worker and what they think of your work ethic, your strengths and weaknesses, as well as family and friends. What do you think your image is outside your own sometimes biased self? What is your diet, your exercise habits, your strengths, weaknesses and overall values?
Understanding this is critical in applying the needed changes to one’s life and reducing stress. One needs to work on this change, find obstacles and stressors to it and implement better coping strategies and plans to become what your goal may be. One should choose one thing at a time in this process. Choose one weakness or vice, or stressor and work on it.
J. B. Cunningham in his “The Stress Management Sourcebook” looks at ways to free oneself from the mud of life and overcome stress. He lists 8 primary principles to create a new paradigm and find better meaning in life and reduce stress.
The first principle is “changing the dragon within you”. Cunningham alludes to first developing a positive spin on things. A positive disposition that replaces negative values. This new way of outlook is critical the creation of a new paradigm. It returns to the old adage of making lemon aide when life gives one lemons.
The second principle is controlling your organization. Whether the job is menial or meaningful, find deeper meaning within an organization. While this is more difficult with some jobs and may require new career moves, it still can be utilized temporarily. Look to learn new things, promote goals within oneself and reach those goals. This can be applied to a job, or merely everyday life at home. Home, school or work can apply.
Third, Cunningham addresses the importance of establishing winning relationships. Relationships and how we deal with other people are key elements in what our life is will be like. It is critical to avoid negative relationships and reduce the toxicity they produce in one’s life. It is important to find better support systems as well as be able to communicate and share life’s successes and failures.
Life can overtake one and make it feel one has no control. One needs to take control of one’s stressors and create a new paradigm
The fourth principle is enriching one’s job, career, or schooling. Learning and gaining experience is a valuable thing no matter the situation.
The fifth principle is controlling one’s life’s trials and tribulations. One can fall and not get up or learn from past failures. Avoiding failures and not learning from them can keep one in a pit of despair and loss. One must be able to cope better with stress and deal with the issues at hand.
Principle six deals with our diet. Diet is a key factor in stress and health. Better diets and eating habits can prevent stress and help the body become more immune to disease and illness. Fats, salts, and sugars can destroy the body over time. Combined with stress, they can tear the body down. It is critical to find time to create a better diet and a better healthy paradigm to reduce stress and be more healthy.
Principle seven deals with another part of healthy life style and that is exercise. Exercise can reduce stress. However, it is important to not create routines that one cannot keep. It is also important not to create regiments that are unhealthy on the body. Some individuals cannot endure heavy exercise while others can. So the proper exercise for the particular person is critical for their own health and stress reduction. Like diets, exercise can quickly fade when one attempts to do too much.
The final principle is interior health and deals with spirituality and meditation. Meditation and prayer is important to overcoming stress. It allows the mind to reset and opens one up to higher truths beyond the stress filled temporal ones. Meditation not only clears the mind but also pushes one towards higher values that help make the everyday life have meaning. One can also apply other alternative techniques such as self hypnosis or other spiritual methods to better understand oneself. This is all critical in stress management.
Ultimately, reducing stress and creating a new paradigm involves one taking an active and direct part in changing one’s life. It allows one to play an important part in one’s future. The reduction of stress is dependent upon one’s willingness to overcome the fear of change and the anxiety that goes with it.
One can take control of one’s life and find new meaning if they are face change. Please also review AIHCP’s Stress Management Consulting Program and see if it meets your academic and professional needs.
If you would like to learn more about Stress Management or would like to become certified as a Stress Management Consultant, then please review the program and see if it matches your academic and professional goals. The Stress Management Consulting Program is independent study and online. After completing the core courses, qualified professionals can apply for the four year certification.
Integrative Holistic Specialists utilize multiple alternative and complimentary treatments for ailments. Light Therapy is another type of treatment that is utilized for a variety of ailments.
Light therapy uses a lamp, often in a light box that emits light in high doses to help treat various types of depression, insomnia and sometimes even jet lag. This type of light therapy should not be confused with UV Light therapy, a more concentrated UV ray used to help treat various skin conditions such as Psoriasis and acne. UV Light, if used in high doses, and on the wrong type of condition, can cause serious skin inflammation and in some cases internal problems. You should always talk to your doctor before undergoing any type of light therapy.
Learn more about becoming a Holistic and Integrative Healthcare Specialist by reviewing AIHCP’s program and see if it meets your professional goals
Light Therapy can be used for many ailments listed below:
Unseasonal Depression
Insomnia
New night shift work Schedule
Dementia
Severe jet lag
Depression during Pregnancy or Breast Feeding
Any other condition – as recommended by your doctor
Light therapy boxes are almost never covered by insurance. However, your doctor can usually give you some recommendations of where to buy them online or in retail stores that won’t create too much of a burden on your wallet. Be sure you purchase a box that has the options and features you are looking for. There are many varieties. It is recommended that you do thorough research before purchasing your light therapy box, bulb or lamp.
Even though a complete cure for depression, SAD, or even insomnia is almost never reported with this treatment, there are many health benefits that can come from consistent use of light therapy. Number one being the reduction of prescription medications. When using a light therapy box, it is important to not just rest the light on your skin, but to have it indirectly facing into your eyes. Those who aim it on their skin alone may receive some benefits, but, the benefits are greatly heightened when aimed indirectly into the eyes. Be careful not to look directly into the light – doing so may cause retinal damage.
Despite potential risks and precautions – talked about in greater detail in the next section – the light therapy box is a great way to reduce your mental stress, improve your mood, and elevate your energy levels naturally – especially during fall and winter months – when the sun shines the least. Those who practice safe and healthy light therapy techniques – which include safe duration of time (15 min – 2 hrs. a day), timing of light therapy practices (early morning) and proper intensity (see doctor for guidelines), usually see a reduction in medication usage.
Unfortunately, as with nearly every health care therapy there are some risks and precautions you should be aware of before starting or participating in ongoing light therapy treatment. Patients with SLE (Systemic Lupus Erythematosus) or other conditions where the skin may be sensitive to light or anyone who takes antibiotics or natural supplements that increase sensitivity to light, are counselled not to take part in this type of therapy. Additionally, anyone with a history of skin cancer or eye sensitivity should not use light therapy. If you have any questions about whether or not you should use this type of therapy for your condition, please visit your doctor before starting on treatment, as stated above.
Be aware that many of the side-effects that can be experienced are short lived and mild in severity, but, they should never be ignored. The following is a short list of some of the side-effects that may be experienced during light therapy:
Eyestrain
Headaches
Vomiting (Nausea)
Irritability
Agitation
Mania, euphoria, hyperactivity or agitation associated with bipolar disorder
It is important to understand the benefits and possible risks with any treatment. This is why it is important work with doctors and other healthcare professionals whenever utilizing a certain therapy. Integrative Holistic Specialists are trained in both conventional and complimentary medicines and can best guide one through the best options regarding Light Therapy
If you are interested in learning more about becoming certified in Holistic Nursing or becoming a Integrative Holistic Specialist, then please review the program and see if it meets your academic and professional goals.
There are a number of different leadership styles that you can use to keep your team working towards you goal. Most of the time, individuals have their own best leadership styles, though sometimes different styles are required to work with different teams or in different circumstances. This article will discuss some popular leadership styles as well as what kinds of people, teams, and situations they fit best.
Are You An Autocrat? Autocratic leadership means that you’re the boss and you let everyone know about it. Autocratic leaders call all of the shots and aren’t usually receptive to recommendations or complaints from other people, specifically their team members. Autocratic leadership, of course, only knows when you know what you’re doing. It can also work if your team doesn’t know what they’re doing. Say for example, you’re running a new department in your company, or working with interns. Chances are your leadership is more valuable in these instances than listening to your team. Of course, as your team begins to develop their skills, backing away from an autocratic style can help you to gain insights on how best to help your team, rather than just bossing them around.
What type of leadership style do you employ? Please also review AIHCP’s Healthcare Manager Program
Are You A Democratic Leader? Democratic leadership is more or less the opposite of autocratic leadership. Democratic leadership involves working closely with your team to determine what they think is best rather than making all major decisions yourself.
Democratic leadership works best if you are taking over a leadership position in a new company, or if you are comfortable with leading but may not be familiar with the exact nature of your goal. Democratic leadership can also be the way to go if you are a “leader” because it is easier for one person to pass on all of the deliverables and give all of the updates, but you don’t really have any more experience or authority than other team members. Democratic leadership can slow things down, however, so sometimes it can be important to make “executive decisions” to move things along.
Is Laissez-faire Right For You? Laissez-faire leadership means that, as the leader, you basically do nothing. You delegate tasks to others and then let them call the shots. Laissez-faire leadership can be particularly effective if your team is very large or if your leadership position is pretty high up the chain. Of course, in order to engage in laissez-faire leadership, your team needs to be able to get on without you. If your team needs to be led by the hand everywhere, you’re probably better off using a more authoritative leadership style.
Is There A Place For Bureaucratic Leadership? Bureaucratic leadership is similar to laissez-faire leadership in that it involves delegation of tasks to smaller committees within the larger team. This system of government is often derided for the time that it can take to perform certain tasks, but as a leadership style it can be surprisingly effective. As a result, the limits of bureaucratic leadership are similar to the limits on laissez-faire leadership – you need to have a large team and you need to have quite a bit of authority within your organization.
Your team needs to have fewer experts on your team, however, as the experts can be made the leaders of their own smaller teams. This method is most effective if the activities carried on by your team are very similar from day to day. Changing circumstances have a way of throwing off bureaucratic systems.
This article has only scratched the surface on the number of leadership styles that you can read about. Some might say that there is one leadership style for each leader. Still, finding out which leadership you like best can help you discover which leadership method you can use the most effectively. Of course, you should also consider your team and your situation when settling on a leadership style.
Leadership is critical to management. Your type of leadership will play important roles in how your department functions. As a healthcare professional it is critical that one utilizes the best leadership qualities to meet the needs of a healthcare department. If you are looking into leadership, please review AIHCP’s Healthcare Manager Program and see if it matches your academic and professional goals.
ADHD while it has its main objective symptoms is still evolving on the subjective scale. People react differently to symptoms and as time goes on how they view and deal with ADHD evolves as well. Individuals learn to cope or better handle situations and in some cases different symptoms leave or new ones emerge.
As life evolves, so can ADHD Please also review AIHCP’s ADHD Consulting Program and see if it meets your academic and professional goals
The article, “How My Understanding of ADHD Has Evolved Over Time” from the ADHD Editorial Board of “Additude” looks at how people have evoled with ADHD. The article states,
This ADHD Awareness Month, we’re recognizing our ever-expanding understanding of what ADHD is (and isn’t). To celebrate this ADHD [R]evolution, we asked ADDitude readers: “How has your understanding of ADHD evolved over time? What do you know now that you wish you’d known at the time of your own or your child’s diagnosis?”
Miscarriages are a forgotten grief for many parents. The loss of the child is seen not as a child in some cases but only as what if. The reality of the what if and the fear of not having a child incurs a reality of a loss but also a loss of potentials. Many barren families suffer multiple miscarriages and suffer horrible grief over the loss and inability to have a child born. Unfortunately, there is no grave, there is no funeral and there is no way to express the loss formally.
Miscarriages are sometimes the forgotten grief by society. Please also review AIHCP’s Grief Counseling Certification Program
The article, “WHAT FOUR MISCARRIAGES TAUGHT ME ABOUT GRIEF AND FAITH” by Rebecca Abbot looks at his type of disenfranchised loss. She states,
“Miscarriage has been – and is often still – considered a taboo subject. “One of the reasons why miscarriage and fertility issues in general are taboo or still have stigma around them is because anything related to fertility just feels very intimate and deeply personal,” Adriel explains. “It’s involving the body, our hearts, our dreams. It’s involving our minds, our preconceived ideas of the role of women and men and family, and how we imagine our lives.”
Many non violent situations can get out of hand when police arrive. Crisis situations that may need professional guidance usually are greeted first by the police instead. This can lead to escalation and in the case of today’s current environment, a call for reform. One reform that has been reviewed is utilizing crisis professionals to deal with non violent calls.
First responders need more crisis counseling training when dealing with non violent calls. Please also review AIHCP’s Crisis Intervention Counseling Program
The article, “People in behavioral crisis often see police first The first line of response for someone undergoing a mental health crisis is public safety” by Joe Gamm looks at the reality that police are usually the first response to crisis. He states,
“Missouri has become a leader in efforts to equip law enforcement agencies to respond to someone undergoing a crisis. In 2013 and 2014, then-Gov. Jay Nixon created a strategic Strengthening Mental Health Initiative to help communities identify and care for Missourians with mental illness. Efforts of the initiative began to connect Community Health Centers with local law enforcement agencies through use of mental health liaisons — mental health professionals who work directly with law enforcement to provide services when needed. The initiative also emphasized the need to provide training so the agencies could create their own regional CIT.”
Training officers for crisis intervention and helping them be able to de-escalate non violent situations is critical for future police reforms. Certain calls need different approaches. They need different equipment and different training. This can reduce deaths of citizens in behavioral crisis at the hands of the police.
Mourning loved ones is natural and dogs are no different. Losing dogs are painful. Life can be a series of dogs and each dog has a special place and time in our heart. It does not get easier losing a loved one. Some individuals may only have one dog their whole life because they are two heart broken. How we mourn our dogs is important. It is important to understand that it is natural and fine to miss our dogs and cry over them.
Humans can deeply mourn the loss of their dog. Please also review AIHCP’s Pet Loss Grief Support Training Program and see if it meets your needs
The article, “Mourning Our Dogs The death of a much-loved dog is sometimes followed by regrets and self-doubt.” by Scott Janssen looks at how we can better mourn our dogs. He states,
“When we lose a canine companion, self-critical thoughts and feelings may become a part of our grief. We may disproportionally focus on our perceived failures and imperfections rather than view our actions as those of someone doing her or his best to stand by a canine loved one during painful circumstances. This is known as “moral pain,” and fortunately, there are things we can do to relieve it.”
Like any loss, we can grieve and feel guilty over a loss. Losing a dog can be no different. Please also review AIHCP’s Pet Loss Grief Counseling Program
While the Five Stages of Grief are an excellent look at how individuals deal with death and loss, they may not apply to every individual. In fact, individuals grieve through different stages and face grief different ways. This is not to discredit the stages proposed by Kubler Ross but more so to address to grief counselors, that it is not always the way.
Grief is not always tucked away into neat steps and processes. Please also review AIHCP’s Grief Counseling Certification and see if it meets your goals
The article, “Five Things You Should Know About the ‘Five Stages of Grief’” by Eleanor Haley from the site “Whats Your Grief” reviews how one should understand the stages. She states,
“The five stages of grief are not absolute truth. Like all theory, it’s based on a hypothesis (an educated guess). There is a bit of research to support the theory, but there is also a bit of research to contradict the theory. In reality, other grief models may fit your experience exponentially better than the ‘Kubler-Ross Model’.”
While Kubler Ross theory and stages are valuable, one must understand they are not always linear as well as many steps are repeated. One should not dismiss it in grief and loss but one should also be free to wander from it when needed. Please also review AIHCP’s Grief Counseling Certification and see if it meets your needs and goals.
Heart surgery is a very risky surgery. Not all heart surgeries are successful due to the risky and dangerous nature of it but some errors are preventable and fall outside the standard of risk. Healthcare providers have the obligation to supply care and professionalism from the surgery preparation to checkups following heart surgery. When they fail to adhere to standards of practice, and injury results, it is important to seek reparations.
Legal Nurses can help in cases regarding heart surgery malpractice. Please review AIHCP’s Legal Nurse Consulting Certification Program and see if it meets your goals
The article, “What Are My Legal Options Regarding Heart Surgery Malpractice?” from South Florida Reporter looks at some of the problems that can point towards a possible malpractice case after heart surgery. The article states,
“There are various types of errors that can take place during heart surgery. Concerning heart surgeries, most errors take place in Balloon Angioplasties. A Balloon Angioplasty is a way to correct several heart problems such as heart attacks and artery diseases. Next most erroneous, complications arise from Cardiac Ablations. Heart surgery errors can also arise from the incorrect diagnosis of a heart problem and during other surgeries, such as Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery.”
To learn more, click here to review the entire article
Please also review AIHCP’s Legal Nurse Consultant Certification. The program aims to train nurses in the field of legal nurse consulting to help aid attorneys in malpractice cases, whether in defense of the physician or on behalf of the patient.
