Unitek College Blog

Castro Valley registered nurse (RN) Kristeen Klaas was awarded more than $344,000 in damages last week by an Alameda County jury in response to her lawsuit against ValleyCare Medical System.

According to a July 24 story in the San Francisco Chronicle, Klaas, an RN for more than 30 years, claimed her former employer refused to rehire her after she quit her job in May 2008. Klass left the Livermore-Pleasanton-area hospital after 15 years of service.

Prior to her departure, Klaas complained for over two years to ValleyCare management about patient safety and the questionable conduct of fellow hospital staff. In her lawsuit, Klaas claims that facility management refused to respond to her rehiring request in retaliation against her expressing her concerns. The 54-year-old operating nurse now divides her professional time between San Leandro Hospital and the Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Oakland.

The San Francisco Chronicle lists several examples of the controversial practices Klaas reported during her time at ValleyCare. One instance involved a surgical technician who brought a rifle that was for sale into the operating room office. Other instances include a nurse who jumped rope with an electrical cord in the hospital operating room and also brought a dog into the operating team break room.

One of the most shocking complaints made by Klaas describes how the tip of a surgical instrument was left inside a patient. The error was discovered after operating room staff failed to find the object following surgery. Klaas said ValleyCare does not have a formal policy requiring staff to account for instruments after surgical procedures.

Like other skilled nursing personnel, such as Santa Clara RNs, Klaas is dedicated to the proper care and health of her patients. Her commitment and sense of professional responsibility led her to report potentially unsafe practices and stand up to retaliatory management actions.

Northern California has a growing need for skilled and dedicated registered nurses like Klaas. Now may be the best time for you to train for San Francisco RN jobs, or career opportunities as a Sacramento RN.

Expand your professional horizons today with Unitek’s quality LN to RN training program! Our staff of highly-skilled instructors give you the knowledge and expertise you need to transition from Licensed Nursing to an exciting and reward Registered Nursing career. Learn more about our established RN program now!

For more information on the legal proceedings involving Kristeen Klaas and ValleyCare Medical System, please visit:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/07/24/BA6H1EJ0NA.DTL#ixzz0uqCt1FrX

Brenda Calvin Wright, a licensed vocational nurse (LVN) clinical manager for the Chapa-De Indian Health Program in Auburn, California, will receive a distinguished national award for excellence in nursing on July 21 in Washington D.C., reported the Colusa County Sun Herald.

Wright will be awarded on Wednesday during the 2010 Nurse Leaders in Native Care Conference. The annual event includes a series of educational workshops and presentations on the people and issues that impact American Indian and Alaskan Native nurses. It is sponsored by the Indian Health Service (IHS) Division of Nursing, the Indian Health Service National Nurse Leadership Council, and the Arizona Nurses Association.

As a member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, Wright was nominated to the National Nurse Leadership Council by her supervisor for her compassionate approach to nursing, and the positive impact she has on her patients’ lives. In her nomination, Wright is said to improve the attitudes of numerous patients by taking the time to communicate sensitive medical practices and emphasizing the benefits of daily self-care.

According to the Colusa County Sun Herald, Wright began working at the Chapa-De Indian Health Program as a receptionist five years ago. After a year at the Auburn-based healthcare program, the native of Colusa County, northwest of Sacramento, transitioned to a rewarding new role as an LVN. This professional change followed the death of her husband Larry in a truck accident.

Wright, a grandmother of two, is the only California Indian Health Care nurse to receive this year’s prestigious award from the IHS National Nurse Leadership Council.

The Chapa-De Indian Health Programs serve more than 4,000 patients in the Greater Sacramento communities of Auburn, Grass Valley and Woodland. While many of the programs’ patients are Native American, Wright is recognized for sharing her compassionate and professional nursing skills with all of Chapa-De’s clients. As she told the Colusa County Sun, “All our patients are like family to me. Not just Native Americans, but those from all communities.”

Like other nursing personnel, such as San Francisco LVNs, Wright is part of a vital and growing field in the healthcare profession. Licensed vocational nurses play an important role in the and daily care of patients in clinics, hospitals and other settings. They also provide key information on preventative care and treatment to families and caregivers.

If you’ve thought of exploring LVN Jobs in Sacramento or considered working as a Santa Clara LVN, Unitek College has a quality training program that can get you started on a rewarding career in the expanding nursing industry. Discover more about Unitek’s LVN convenient training program today!

To learn more about Brenda Calvin Wright, please visit:
http://www.colusa-sun-herald.com/news/wright-5090-nurse-patients.html

And to learn more about the federal Indian Health Service program, please visit:
http://www.ihs.gov/
http://www.ihs.gov/medicalprograms/nnlc/nnlc_conferences.asp

Please, please accept a high-paying job with us. In fact, just swing by for an interview and we’ll give you a chance to win cash and prizes.

Sounds too good to be true, especially in an economy riddled with job cuts in nearly every industry. But applicants for nursing jobs are still so scarce that recruiters have been forced to get increasingly inventive.

One Michigan company literally rolled out a red carpet at a recent hiring event. Residential Home Health, which provides in-home nursing for seniors on Medicare, lavished registered nurses and other health care workers with free champagne and a trivia contest hosted by game-show veteran Chuck Woolery. Prizes included a one-year lease for a 2009 SUV, hotel stays and dinners.

“We’re committed to finding ways to creatively engage with passive job seekers,” said David Curtis, president of the Madison Heights-based company.

Recruiters like Curtis may have little choice. The long-standing U.S. nurse shortage has led to chronic understaffing that can threaten patient care and nurses’ job satisfaction, and the problem is expected to worsen.

The shortage has been operating since World War II on an eight- to 10-year cycle, industry experts say. Each time the number of nurses reaches a critical low, the government adds funding and hospitals upgrade working conditions. But as the deficit eases, those retention efforts fade and eventually the old conditions return, often driving nurses into other professions.

“We recently had a hiring event where, for experienced nurses to interview — just to interview — we gave them $50 gas cards,” said Tom Zinda, the director of recruitment at Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare in the Milwaukee-area city of Glendale. “We really try to get as creative as we can. It’s a tough position to fill.”

Recruiters across the country have tried similar techniques, offering chair massages, lavish catering and contests for flat-screen TVs, GPS devices and shopping sprees worth as much as $1,000.

Even strong salaries aren’t doing the trick. Registered nurses made an average of $62,480 in 2007, ranging from a mean of $78,550 in California to $49,140 in Iowa, according to government statistics. Including overtime, usually abundantly available, the most experienced nurses can earn more than $100,000.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts about 233,000 additional jobs will open for registered nurses each year through 2016, on top of about 2.5 million existing positions. But only about 200,000 candidates passed the Registered Nurse licensing exam last year, and thousands of nurses leave the profession each year.

Several factors are in play: a lack of qualified instructors to staff training programs, lack of funding for training programs, difficult working conditions and the need for expertise in many key nursing positions.

Cheryl Peterson, the director of nursing practice and policy for the American Nurses Association in Silver Spring, Md., said employers must raise salaries and improve working conditions.

“The wages haven’t kept up with the level of responsibility and accountability nurses have,” said Peterson, whose organization represents nurses’ interests. Chronic understaffing means nurses are overworked, she said, and as burned-out nurses leave the situation spirals for the colleagues they leave behind.

Some hospital departments where experience is vital, such as the emergency room or intensive-care unit, simply cannot hire newly minted nurses. So managers in those areas have even fewer staffing choices.

Nurses qualified to teach aspiring nurses are scarce chiefly because they can make at least 20 percent more working at a hospital, experts said.

“It can be hard to turn down that extra money,” said Robert Rosseter, the associate executive director of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing in Washington, D.C.

Many recruiters have looked for employees overseas, and about one-fourth of the nurses who earned their licenses in 2007 were educated internationally, most in the Philippines and India.

Some health organizations go out of their way to recruit as many nurses as possible even when they’re overstaffed.

Residential Home Health, the home-nursing company in Michigan, is always looking to hire, Curtis said. Even with 375 clinical professionals on staff, his recruiters are eager to sign up as many as 50 more nurses and therapists, hence the Chuck Woolery event.

Zinda, the Milwaukee-area recruiter, said creative recruiting helps to introduce nurses to his hospital. Besides offering interviewees $50 gas cards, he has provided $100 gift cards to the local mall, and created a Facebook page to target younger nurses.

Attracting good candidates is about offering good working conditions, he said, but creative recruiting goes a long way in generating a buzz.

“Bottom line, you need to get people excited about what you’re offering,” he said. “If you don’t, they can easily go elsewhere.”

Article Written by: Dinesh Ramde
Click To Read Full Article

We have all heard horror stories of how we are all headed towards an economic disaster with the falling stock market, the mortgage crisis, and the never ending saga about the empty coffers of our state government. Is Health care next? Should one expect wages to drop? And demand to suddenly drop?

Irrespective of who wins the elections, and how dramatically the national economy may fall, health care services is one area which can’t keep up with the escalating demand. North of 60% of the population is demanding premium health care services and expect the service providers to drop the nurse to patient ratio to be a lot lower than current metrics. This is even more apparent in states such as Florida and California with resident population demographics leaning towards the aged.

Due to the shortage of qualified local nurses, an increasing number of recruiting firms are targeting Canadian and other international markets to lure experienced nurses to better paying employment opportunities with U.S. employers. The only way we can meet the burgeoning demand, is to increase seats in our Pharmacy, LVN and LVN and RN programs and send more nursing graduates into the work force. More supply won’t alone solve the problem, but it’s one of the ways to alleviate the impact of the health care crisis. Complement the increased supply with a partnership- between the federal government and the industry-which join hands and make the proposition of entering the nursing profession a sweeter deal – and a national crisis, can indeed be averted.

Is the current economic disaster affecting you in any way?

I found an interesting snippet on PayScale.com about the rising pay brackets for a Registered Nurse (RN).

It is has never been a better time to train to become a Registered Nurse (RN) and be rewarded with a six figure salary. With the ever growing demand for registered nurses in the Bay Area a Registered Nurse (RN) with less than one year of clinical experience can earn more than $28 an hour.

I also read that a nursing career is one of the most recession proof professions.

“According to government analysts, a nursing career is as close to recession-proof as most professionals can get in the next three decades. The nation will rely on nursing school graduates for everything from rehabilitation to hospice care. Most nurses can choose their own shifts, or work for agencies as flexible contractors. A nursing degree can help you net $52,000 or more per year.” Read more…

Source : Salary.com

While I was browsing the web I found a compelling training program at Unitek College as well as program information along with course information. I feel my 2 years as an Licensed Vocational Nurse (LVN) has armed me with the experience and wisdom to take me through the rigorous Registered Nurse (RN) training program.

I shared my research with a couple of my friends who are in the retail sector and they also find themselves at a crossroads with mega retailers cutting costs and downsizing employee count. And they are seriously considering the Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) Program. I am glad I was able to lead them to your site. Keep up the good work!

With a degree in nursing, Elsa Mendoza didn’t have to look far for a job. After receiving her degree in nursing from Unitek College in 2007, the 25-year-old Elsa applied for positions at four local hospitals in the San Francisco Bay Area; (Kaiser, Stanford Hospital, El Camino Hospital, and Good Samaritan). Elsa soon received four job offers from all four hospitals. Within a short period of time Elsa was earning an annual income of more than $65,000 and only working four days a week.

As the fears of recession build up, employees begin to worry about their future, fortunately nursing jobs are one of the five careers that are recession proof according to Yahoo.

“As long as people continue to get sick, there will be a need for nurses. Nurses perform perhaps the most critical role of all–they save lives and prevent illness. And with demographic shifts putting extra strain on the health care system, nurses are experiencing unprecedented demand. The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts nearly 30 percent growth in nursing jobs through 2014, the second largest increase of any occupation.”

Did your profession make the top five recession proof careers?