RedNova is reporting that Julie Wheldon from the UK’s Daily Mail is the second senior national journalist in a month to quit for a healthcare PR job. Wheldon will join Manning Selvage & Lee as media relations director within its London health team.

I’ve got experience of working in the healthcare advertising/PR field myself and the financial draw is immense. In fact, it’s why a lot of people have nicknamed the industry ‘Wealthcare’. No joke.

You may have noticed that it’s been a few days since I posted something new here at healthcare.wurk.net. After a difficult assessment of my available time, I’ve decided that I’m not able to continue writing healthcare.wurk.net. Maybe in a few months, I’ll be able to resume, but right now, you can come visit me at my other healthcare blogs: Genetics and Health and A Hearty Life. Thank you to all the readers. I hope you’ll stay in touch!

Good luck on your job search. May you find a healthcare career that enriches your life and brings you much riches.

If nurses and other staff are not treated with dignity, what hope do they have in treating patients with dignity?

~Dr. Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury

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quotes, healthcare, health care, jobs, career, work, healthcare workers

How long did it take you to find your last job?

Benjamin Tomkins of the TechSearch Business/Finance/Careers Blog writes that 69 percent of college seniors expect to find a job within three months of graduation. Many will be working in healthcare where we know the demand is great. But, half of these soon-to-be college grads also think they’ll be earning at least $50,000 a year. Reality obviously hasn’t hit yet.

Even at my alma mater, few were earning that amount at graduation. Maybe the ones who went into management consulting or investment banking, but the rest of us started at around $30,000 tops. Of course, this was more than 10 years ago. Current college degree holders can expect as much as $50,000 or more but it’s those with technical degrees, such as engineering and computer science, who see that much money. (CNNMoney.com, Feburary 8, 2006)

In healthcare, most probably won’t see that much unless they get advanced degrees in nursing or medicine. For medical technicians and other allied health professionals, only years of experience will help them up the salary ladder with the average salary being about $40,000.

What was your first job–healthcare or not–fresh out of university? And what was your starting salary?

Technorati Tags: healthcare, health care, healthcare workers, salary, salaries, pay, work, jobs, career, benjamin Tomkins

At New York’s City Hall yesterday, home healthcare workers rallied to demand that “the city’s Health and Hospitals Corporation enter contracts only with home care agencies that provide a living wage.” Some healthcare workers make just $6.75 an hour with inadequate health insurance, sick leave, and vacation days.

Senator John Edwards of North Carolina:

All they ask is to be treated with some level of dignity and respect.

They might even settle for decent wages and benefits.

There’s some give and take when it comes to good working conditions vs. salary. Without a balance between the two, no one would be willing to continue working at healthcare jobs that require so much compassion, emotional strength, and pure physical labor.

If you had to choose between the two, would you rather have respect or a higher salary?

WCBS-TV, May 10, 2006

Technorati Tags: healthcare, health care, healthcare workers, home healthcare workers, jobs, career

According to the U.S. Census Bureau Census 2000, healthcare workers, including dental assistants, dental hygienists, licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses, medical records and health information technicians, registered nurses, dietitians and nutritionists, medical assistants and other healthcare support occupations, are among the top 20 occupations with the highest percentage of female workers. The American Society of Safety Engineers has some tips for those women who are pregnant on the job. Actually, the tips are good for ensuring worker safety for everyone.

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Once, long ago, when I was a young public health graduate student, a professor warned me against getting too friendly with one of the administrative staff. Back then, I figured it didn’t much matter because it wasn’t as if I had any power over her. I was just a lowly grad student! But, the following year, I did gain more responsibility and it started getting a little awkward.

Kim at Emergiblog writes more about working relationships in the emergency room. She asks:

• How close should you get to your co-workers?
• How much of your personal life should you discuss with the people you work with?
• At what point does information about yourself become too much information?
• Should you actually be friends with the people you work with?

I tend to be a blabber mouth and probably share too much. But considering how much time we spend with our co-workers, it’s hard being aloof all the time and I don’t think it would endear us to anyone if we were thought of as being cold.

Kim’s got a practical take on the whole situation. How do you behave at work?

Technorati Tags: healthcare, health care, healthcare workers, emergency room, ER, career, jobs, work

Does this job description sound good to you?

• Signing bonuses sometimes in the tens of thousands of dollars
• $40,000 a year salary after two years of college coursework
• $14 to $20 an hour for licensed practical nurse
• $16 to $45 an hour for a registered nurse
• Flexible work-life balance
• Fulfilling duties in a daily, challenging work environment

Sounds good to me. But it isn’t good enough to attract nurses in the Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky area.

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My other healthcare blogs are participating in a smoking theme day, so I thought I’d do it here at healthcare.wurk.net as well.

It’s a paradoxical situation when healthcare workers smoke. On the one hand, they’re supposed to be setting a good example. On the other hand, healthcare workers are often under a tremendous amount of stress which may push some towards smoking.

Many hospitals have banned smoking indoors but some, like the University of Missouri Health Care and Boone Hospital Center, will not allow smoking on any hospital-owned property including all outdoor areas, including green space, parking lots, and even inside parked cars. Starting Sept. 1, employees may also be cited for smelling like tobacco smoke.

Hospital administrators says this smoking ban is for the benefit of patients, co-workers, and the smokers themselves.

Do you think this is fair or a violation of privacy?

On an episode of Boston Legal I saw recently, the judge ruled that it was a fair and the case brought against an employer who fired his employee for smoking (outside the office building) was dismissed.

Update: The round-up of posts about smoking can be found at Baldiness.

Columbia Daily Tribune, April 29, 2006

Technorati Tags: smoking, healthcare, health care, healthcare workers, career, jobs

Last month, I posted about working with healthcare recruiters and to my surprise, I got some comments that opened my eyes to how recruiters are generally perceived. It was not good.

In an attempt to dispel the myth and negative aura, here’s an article available at John Hadley Associates LLC, Career Search Counseling that offers some more practical advice on the effective use of recruiters (pdf).

In summary:

1. Ask around for the best recruiter in your industry (in our case, healthcare).

2. Interview the recruiter. Some questions suggested by John Hadley:

• What salary range do you typically recruit for?
• What is your success rate in placing candidates?
• How often do you work with candidates in my industry? At my job level? In my specific job area? In my preferred geographic area?
• What is your success rate in my industry, profession, at my job/salary level?
• Do you have an exclusive arrangement with certain companies, or do you simply work “on spec”?
• Do you operate on a contingency or a retained search basis?
• Specifically how will you go about marketing me?
• What level of feedback can I expect on the quality of my resume, interview and presentation skills, how I performed in the actual interview?
• How do you submit my resume to prospective employers? Do you mail in the clean copy I send you on bond paper, or do you only e-mail or fax it in? Do you mark up my resume in any way before sending it in?

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