Whether you've never worked in healthcare or as a CNA, Medical Assistant, or other medical-field work, you'd be surprised by the need for certified phlebotomists. Phlebotomy involves knowledgeable blood drawing and blood handling.

It's a process that may look fast and easy when a trained person does it but a procedure that takes some time to perfect while offering excellent patient care along the way. Finding a path into healthcare has never been easier than working on a phlebotomy certification and getting started in this high-demand field.

Dental assistants are a significant area of need in both urban Portland and in rural dental practices around Oregon. Getting your basic dental assisting certification and an Expanded Functions exam helps raise your qualifications amongst dental assistants. What's more, Portland Community College offers the Integrated Community Dental Assisting program to train versatile dental assistants with a wealth of classroom and hands-on knowledge going into their first jobs. Let's look at why this role is so crucial.

There's a misconception that getting into healthcare as a career takes many time-consuming years of study. Many people begin their healthcare careers with a rapid training course that moves them into an entry-level job. People develop their expertise from entry-level careers in phlebotomy or other areas of healthcare. Others work full-time while taking evening coursework to move into different healthcare roles.

Unlike going to school full-time for years, this method of incrementally advancing through the healthcare field provides an income while studying. It can still help you move into your ideal healthcare role eventually. Let's look at how to become a phlebotomist Portland desperately needs and why this role is well-suited to growing a healthcare career of various kinds.

Dental offices may have a dentist's name on the door, but usually, it takes more than just the dentist to handle the tasks that keep the business afloat. Instead, various workers, such as dental assistants, handle tasks from the moment the patients walk through the door till the practice closes for the day and prepares for the next day.

Dental assistant work is in very high demand right now. The Bureau of Labor Statistics lists the field's growth rate at 11%, making it a high-demand career in Portland. Becoming a dental assistant is a rewarding and varied career, offering the chance to see the inner workings of a healthcare practice if you have a goal of continuing with your education to participate in some other aspect of the field.  If you speak to any dentist who's gone through a hiring shortage, they'll tell you exactly the value of dental assistants. Offices run on the labor of these workers!

So many important aspects of a doctor's visit begin to solidify when you first walk in the door. Think about the difference between being greeted politely and immediately connected to your provider versus not being noticed and then being haphazardly registered and checked in for your appointment. As a Patient Access Specialist, you get the opportunity to make people feel connected, cared for, and ready for their appointments, all while doing important behind-the-scenes data collection that helps you to continue serving them well during the payment or insurance process.

Maybe you're asking, "What is a patient access specialist, anyway?" Patient access specialists are the workers who first interact with a person coming into a medical clinic or doctor's practice. Their combination of greeting and entering information into the scheduling and documentation databases is one of the vital components of keeping the practice running smoothly. As a Patient Access Specialist, you need a combination of skills to find success in helping patients feel at ease.

Dentistry has advanced in remarkable ways over the centuries. In just the past few decades alone, safe and frequent radiological scan technology has allowed dentists and orthodontists to understand the human mouth better. The information revealed in these scans helps dentists find potential problems before they are noticeable on the surface of the teeth and before they become a medical crisis or significant source of pain.

Dental assistant work exists in various dentistry contexts, including regular dental practices, emergency dentistry, orthodontics, and oral surgery. While the work varies from one practice to another, there is a need to take x-rays or other imaging scans accurately and safely in most of these contexts.

However, with this additional technology comes additional training for dental assistants who want to be versatile team members in dentistry practice. Understanding this additional training and how it benefits you shows how radiology for oral surgeons' certification can help you advance your career and keep strong job security as you consider future moves within the field.

While the reception workers in any business can make customers feel comfortable and well-oriented, there are few contexts where they are as vital as in the medical world. Patient access specialists work as the first contact with patients visiting a doctor's office or other healthcare settings.

People often come to the doctor with stress or concerns, and the patient access specialist they encounter shapes their experience, calms them down and helps them feel cared for and supported. If you're looking for a role that impacts people and keeps you busy with new tasks every day, a patient access specialist is a fantastic role that can lead to other industry opportunities.

Whether a hospital is in the middle of a significant world health event or working with typical patient volumes, the phlebotomists are one of the many sets of personnel that keep them running smoothly. Phlebotomists take and process blood, which is one of the critical sources of information that helps doctors and their teams to do their work. Too little bloodwork severely restricts diagnoses and treatment. When there aren't enough phlebotomists, these delays in bloodwork can impact the entire hospital, making it harder to treat patients in the ways they need most.

Here are just a few ways in which phlebotomists are part of the life's blood of hospitals.

There will always be perks and drawbacks when you choose to pursue a new career, be it for the first time or as you’re switching industries. Any career counselor would tell you to choose a career based on your preferences and aversions. For instance, if you have always struggled with and disliked math, choosing an actuarial or accounting career could make your day-to-day challenging. If you've been holed up with a calculator doing equations for fun throughout your youth, it might be the perfect fit. 

Welcome back to our latest blog series where we explore a day in the life of various entry level healthcare careers. If you're considering a job in healthcare, this will be an excellent series to keep up with, offering a broad view for potential entry points into different roles in the industry.

Today's post is the second in our series, and we'll be taking a look at a day in the life of a medical coder.