A little known career opportunity in the medical profession is the physician’s assistant. A physician is a general practitioner of medicine who has completed at least four undergraduate years of college and four years of med school along with three to eight years of internship and residency. A physician’s assistant is a person who has completed four years of undergraduate college coursework and two to four years in a certification program alongside a physician. The overall appeal of one over the other is that a physician’s assistant can practice medicine on a quicker time table without the expense or hassle of med school.
The Physician’s Assistant
April 27th, 2010Medicine: Thinking Outside the Pill Bottle
April 27th, 2010When asked about medicine, the first thing a typical person thinks of is drugs, be it pills, intravenous fluids, topical ointments, or some other sort of magical germ fighting agent that is introduced to the body. While most ailments can be cured with one of the aforementioned methods, the use and practice of medicine is a much broader and intricate web involving various types of treatments. Some methods are a tad more exotic than others, but medicine as a whole is more or less a leap of faith both for doctors and patients. The question isn’t necessarily which medicine to take, but how to improve the overall health of an individual.
Don’t Fear the Doctor: Dealing with Hospital Anxiety
April 27th, 2010For nearly everyone, nothing is more terrifying than preparing for a lengthy stay at the hospital. Everything is restricted within those walls, including a person’s diet, visitors, activities, and daily routines. There is a feeling of entrapment, the uncertainty of life and death. Along with that is the worry over whether or not a treatment will work, and what havoc the side-effects of such a treatment will wreak on a frail and tired body. After a while, one wonders whether he or she will be allowed to go home again to enjoy a hot cooked meal and a shower. While these are all realistic, valid concerns, sometimes one must set aside these anxieties to deal with the chore of getting well.
Ultrasound Imaging Careers
April 27th, 2010Ultrasound technicians, also known as sonographers, are in increasing demand in the medical field. Since ultrasound imaging is generally preferred over other medical diagnostic tools, ultrasound technicians are beginning to have a more dominant role in diagnosing and treating patients. Ultrasounds are typically painless and noninvasive with little to no risk involved during the imaging, making it popular amongst patients and doctors alike. Hospitals, labs, clinics, private practice offices, and public health facilities are just a few examples of the settings in which ultrasounds are utilized. Most sonographers, however, work in hospitals because of the variety of cases and the flexibility of the hours. By using the ultrasound machine on many patients with varying conditions, sonographers get the advantage helping more people and the bonus of gaining priceless on the job training.