Given the importance of a college degree in the healthcare industry, getting a student loan to pay for your tuition expenses is a necessary part of starting a professional life. Too much debt at the beginning of your medical industry career puts a damper on your ability to both spend in the present and save for the future. Paying down your student loans as quickly as possible is the way to go.

With becoming debt free as your goal, here are some ideas for dealing with student loans in the medical industry. Let’s get your principal down to zero!

Choose the Right Repayment Plan

Most student loans offer a variety of repayment plans tailored to the individual needs of the new graduate. If your first job in the healthcare industry is low-paying, consider a graduated payment plan, which starts you off with a lower monthly payment amount that rises every two years. Those of you expecting a higher salary down the road can probably handle those higher payments at the end of the loan term.

You’ll end up paying more interest over the long haul, but with the advantage of more spending money early in your career.

Other student loan payment options include an income-contingent plan that ties your monthly amount directly to your current salary. Additionally, the extended repayment plan allows up to 25 years for repaying a student loan. Ultimately, make a decision based on your earning potential and tolerance for additional interest over the life of a loan.

Consolidation makes it easier to manage your Student Loans

If you have multiple student loans from different lenders, the difficulty in managing them simultaneously means you can easily forget a payment. Take the opportunity to consolidate your loans with one lender. You’ll save on interest in the long run without the extra risk of skipped payments and their adverse impact on your credit rating.

Consider a Deferment if your Financial Situation becomes Dire

A loan deferment needs to be considered if you ever become laid-off in your medical industry career. Your loan actually doesn’t accrue interest when it is deferred, which will save you in the long run. Meet with your loan servicer to discuss what deferment period works best for your situation.

When you need additional insight related to your healthcare career, talk to the experts at Pinnacle Workforce. As one of the top medical staffing agencies in the country, our recruiters can help you at any time. Make it a point to meet with us at your earliest convenience.

Providing quality patient care while showing empathy is the prime directive for anyone in the nursing industry. Things become more interesting when the patient is a family member of yours or someone else on your team. Is it possible to still offer the same level of care without becoming distracted or conflicted in some other way?

Here are a few tips on staying focused when treating a family member as a patient. Let’s check them out.

Staying Objective is Vital

It is vital you or your coworkers remain completely objective when treating a family member as a patient. Loss of objectivity is a main reason why some experts don’t recommend providing medical care to a family member. While it is difficult to temper one’s emotions, always staying in a clinical frame of mind is important.

Keep Any Assessments or Treatments to a Medical Office Setting

In some cases, it is acceptable to offer informal medical advice or opinions to a sick family member no matter the current location, any real assessments or treatments should take place in a hospital or medical office. This is a case where family members deserve the same level of care as the public, and a home setting just isn’t the same thing. Encourage the sick family member to make an appointment with their primary care physician if necessary.

Don’t forget about HIPPA Regulations!

Sometimes in the relatively informal setting of treating a family member, it becomes easy to forget about patient privacy issues. Make it a point to never forget about HIPPA regulations whether you are seeing someone from your family or a complete stranger. Any patient retains the right to private medical care — no matter their relationship to the provider.

Encourage the Patient to seek a Second Opinion when Necessary

When looking at the situation from the patient’s point of view, they might not feel right rejecting medical advice or refusing treatment from a family member. Encourage them to get a second opinion if desired. This is another example showing the importance of empathy for the medical professional. Make them feel comfortable whatever their final decision.

About Pinnacle Workforce 

Pinnacle Workforce is tailored specifically to the needs of a dynamic healthcare industry—providing qualified professionals to the companies and organizations where they are needed most. If you need any additional insight on developing your healthcare workforce, talk to the experts at Pinnacle Workforce.

As one of the nation’s top medical staffing agencies, we can help you grow your professional life. Talk with us as soon as possible.

There comes a time where the daily grind of work begins to take a toll on your positive attitude and ultimately your on-the-job efficiency. Considering the stressful nature of the healthcare industry, any work-related tension and pressure can become exacerbated. With quality patient care as the prime directive of most medical companies, healthcare employees need to ensure they are getting enough vacation time lest their workplace performance suffers.

Here is a look at three signs that it might be a good time to take a vacation. If you are suffering from any — or all three — some rest and relaxation needs to be on your docket. Let’s check them out.

Overtime Pays Bills, but Possibly at the Expense of Your Well-Being

There’s no denying that working extra hours benefits your household by putting some extra cash in your monthly budget. On the other hand, all this overtime might be costing you significantly when it comes to your overall stress levels. Burning the midnight oil at work on a consistent basis is a sure sign you need to take a break.

Make sure you take every vacation day available to you each year. Additionally, consider asking for comp time in lieu of payment for your overtime. This ensures you’ll have the down time you need to keep stress at a minimum.

Relationships at Home begin to Suffer

Don’t let the personal relationships in your life suffer due to work stress. If you feel this is the case, make it a point to schedule some needed vacation time. A stable home environment is a must for any successful career.

Finding a meaningful work-life balance needs to be your ultimate goal — one where your home life and office life compliment each other.

Making Mistakes while On Duty

Making mistakes at the office is arguably the most egregious sign that a vacation needs to be on your schedule… stat! Your professional reputation and — more importantly — the quality of patient care both suffer if your stress levels are causing you to perform poorly when on duty. Talk to your superiors about using a few vacation days to get your professional focus where it needs to be.

About Pinnacle Workforce 

Pinnacle Workforce is tailored specifically to the needs of a dynamic healthcare industry—providing qualified professionals to the companies and organizations where they are needed most. If you need any additional insight on developing your healthcare career, talk to the experts at Pinnacle Workforce. As one of the nation’s top medical staffing agencies, we can help you grow your professional life. Talk with us as soon as possible.

Job turnover exists in nearly all industries, and the world of healthcare is not an exception to this rule. Whatever your reasons — too much stress, burnout, or simply the fact that you don’t love your job anymore — it is acceptable to quit a job. You probably need to make sure a new position awaits you, unless you want to relax for a few weeks before starting to look for something new.

With keeping your career on the right track in mind, here are some reasons why it is OK to leave a job you don’t love anymore.

You’ve Become Stuck in Your Current Position

If you are interested in a career path with gradually increasing responsibilities, sometimes you may feel blocked in your current role. You want to move into something with more managerial responsibilities, and your current office doesn’t really offer a chance to be promoted. At this point, it becomes understandable if you grow to not love your job.

Make it a point to start putting feelers out in the local healthcare scene before deciding whether or not to quit. It helps to have a new position benefiting your skills and experience before leaving your current job.

Family Life Takes Precedence

When your professional career begins adversely impacting your personal life — or vice versa — you need to pause and take stock of what truly matters to you. Finding a position in the medical industry that rewards you both financially and as a person should be your goal. When family life is an important part of what makes you a person, consider finding a company that fosters a proper work/life balance.

A Toxic Work Environment is Bad for Your Health

The medical industry is generally stressful — it comes with the territory. But work environments that are especially toxic, maybe due to coworker issues or an evil boss, can cause harm to your health. Don’t feel bad if you need to look for employment elsewhere, as managing stress sometimes trumps all other considerations.

Partner with an Experienced Medical Staffing Agency

Maintaining a relationship with an experienced medical staffing agency helps make the decision to quit your job an easier task. A knowledgeable recruiter can offer insight into the job scene in your area and help you judge the best time to make your move. When you don’t love your current job anymore, you needn’t feel alone in your decision.

When searching for a top medical staffing agency to serve as a partner, look no further than Pinnacle Workforce. As one of the top healthcare employment firms in the country, we can help both you and your career. Talk with us today!

Welcome to 2016! With the New Year upon us, it becomes time to focus on improving your overall productivity over the next 12 months. Early January provides a great opportunity to take stock of where you stand in your healthcare industry career, and how to keep things on an upwards track.

With a successful 2016 in mind — both professionally and personally — here are four motivational quotes to help ensure you properly focus your efforts both this year and beyond. Let’s check them out!

Ralph Waldo Emerson wants you to look within Yourself

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

You need to truly look within yourself to find the focus you’ll need to improve your daily job performance. In addition to improving your focus, channeling your inner peace allows you to develop the empathy that is vital for anyone working in the healthcare industry. Keep referring to Emerson’s quote throughout the year whenever you need a reminder to look within.

Always give your Best no matter the Size of the Task

Don’t be afraid to give your best to what seemingly are small jobs. Every time you conquer one it makes you that much stronger. If you do the little jobs well, the big ones will tend to take care of themselves. – Dale Carnegie

Make sure to give your best efforts everyday at work, whether you are assisting on a big project or dealing with comparatively mundane tasks. As Carnegie notes, a succession of smaller triumphs makes completing the larger efforts an easier process. Management will definitely take note of your growing success rate!

Don’t Let Job Difficulties hamper your Efforts

In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity. – Albert Einstein

Sometimes the most difficult projects are the ones giving you the best opportunity to shine. No matter how frustrating things get, always keep a positive attitude while focusing on the successful completion of the task. Your efforts won’t be for naught.

Failure gives you the Chance to Rise Again

Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising every time we fall. – Confucius

When failure happens on the job, don’t allow it to bring you down. In many cases, professionals are judged by how they bounce back from adversity. Brush yourself off and get back into the fray.

If you need any additional insight on building a lifelong career in the healthcare industry, talk to the experts at Pinnacle Workforce. As one of the top medical staffing agencies in the country, we can help grow your professional life. Meet with us as soon as possible.

During your career it is important to periodically take stock of the salary data related to your profession, and the nursing industry is no exception. If you feel you are being underpaid, maybe it is time to look for a more lucrative position somewhere else? For those new to the nursing profession, it serves as inspiration to see how much experienced nurses are making — maybe it is good idea to earn your RN certification?

With more informed medical professionals in mind, here is a look at what nurses are making at the end of 2015. This data — from PayScale.com — is based on nursing positions and not location, so understand an area’s overall cost of living does affect the average salary.

RN Salary by Years of Experience

Registered Nurses enjoy a good starting salary right out of the gate, with an average yearly pay a shade under $50,000 at $49,910. These average earnings stay around the same for the first few years of a nurse’s career. Once five years of experience is attained, the average salary rises to a shade higher than $60,000, with veteran nurses with over 20 years of experience enjoying an average salary of $67,753 per year.

Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) Salaries

Certified Nursing Assistants obviously make less than other nursing disciplines, with an initial starting salary of around $24,000 per year. More notably, their average salary barely rises based on experience, as CNAs with 20 years of experience only average $25,808 per year. Once again, it pays to earn your RN or LPN certification!

LPN Salaries by Experience

While Licensed Practical Nurses (LPN) don’t make as much as RNs, their overall salaries do increase by experience level, unlike with CNAs. New LPNs average $34,747 per year and those with over 20 years of experience average $41,499 on an annual basis. If nurses want to maximize their earning potential, moving into one of the other more lucrative nursing disciplines is a must.

Other Nursing Disciplines that Pay the Best

The PayScale survey noted the other nursing disciplines offering the highest earning potential in the profession. Staff nurses, charge nurses, as well as emergency and operating room nurses with over 20 years of experience all command yearly salaries in the mid-70s. License Nurse Practitioners boast the highest salaries of all nurses, with yearly pay ranging from the low-80s to nearly six-figures, based on their experience level.

If seeing the earning potential of other nurses inspired you to take your career to a higher level, talk to the experts at Pinnacle Workforce. As one of the top medical staffing agencies in the industry, we can help you maximize your potential. Schedule a meeting with us today!

The fact that more states are legalizing (or getting ready to legalize) medical and even recreational marijuana is playing havoc with HR managers worried about otherwise qualified candidates failing a pre-employment drug screening. In the medical industry, the hiring of nurses is obviously affected by this growing trend.

Some pundits predict the federal government will legalize or fully decriminalize cannabis by the end of the decade. What should your medical organization do to mitigate the impact of increased marijuana use on your hiring practices? Let’s take a closer look at the situation.

Employers have the Right to forbid their Employees from using Tobacco and Alcohol

Considering employers currently enjoy the right to restrict their workers from smoking and drinking, let alone illicit drug use, marijuana becoming legal won’t impact a company’s ability to drug test nursing candidates or members of their current staff. In fact, one of the most respected hospitals in the country — The Cleveland Clinic — recently added nicotine testing to their pre-employment screening.

If your healthcare organization is located in a state with legal medical or recreational marijuana, it is important your hiring policy clearly states that the legal status of cannabis doesn’t affect its prohibition among your staff. Remind them that all new employees still need to pass a drug test, and marijuana is included on the screen.

Quality patient care remains an overwhelming reason your nursing staff needs to be at their highest efficiency level when on the job. Considering the fact marijuana stays in your system for up to a month after its effects have worn off, a blood or urine test does a relatively poor job of truly measuring cannabis intoxication. Until better blood level standards are developed, however, healthcare employers need to err on the side of caution.

Expect Medical Organizations’ Anti-Drug Policies to remain Legally Enforceable

Recent court decisions have upheld the rights of companies to terminate employees due to failing a random drug test — even in states with some form of legal marijuana. Pay attention to the laws in your state in case they change, as Arizona and Minnesota are current exceptions to this rule as it concerns medical marijuana. Rest assured that as long as companies are allowed to pre-screen candidates for tobacco and alcohol, the same rule applies to marijuana if or when it becomes fully legal in United States.

If your healthcare organization needs assistance in building a top notch team, talk to the experts at Pinnacle Workforce. One of the top medical staffing agencies in the country, we offer the top candidates able to make a difference for your firm. Contact us today!

Bullying belongs in no workplace, especially in the medical industry where patient care needs to be the focus. Unfortunately, coworker harassment can be a problem in hospitals and medical offices. The American Nursing Association (ANA) remains acutely aware of the problem and is taking steps to mitigate the issue.

Let’s take a closer look at how the ANA is solving this issue affecting medical offices across the country. Is your workplace one of them?

Safe Work Environments are a Must in the Healthcare Industry

The prime directive of the ANA’s fight against workplace violence in the medical industry is straightforward. They feel the ultimate goal of both RNs and their management is:

“…to create and sustain a culture of respect, which is free of incivility, bullying, and workplace violence. RNs and employers across the health care continuum, including academia, have an ethical, moral, and legal responsibility to create a healthy and safe work environment for RNs and all members of the health care team, health care consumers, families, and communities.”

In fact, the ANA’s own Code of Ethics requires all nurses to “create an ethical environment and culture of civility and kindness, treating colleagues, coworkers, employees, students, and others with dignity and respect.” Those same nurses can expect to be treated in the same manner.

In short, the ANA tolerates no violence of any kind in the nursing profession.

Employers need to implement Best Practices to mitigate Workplace Violence

If your company doesn’t already have a set of policies and procedures to prevent bullying and other forms of workplace violence, they must be implemented as soon as possible. Your operational efficiency, corporate finances, and — most importantly — the quality of patient care will suffer without them. Nurses themselves experience many adverse effects from workplace violence, including: decreased job satisfaction, reduced organizational commitment, decreased personal health, and, in some cases, ultimately leaving the profession itself.

In addition, OSHA’s General Duty Clause requires all employers to provide a workplace free of any hazards that could cause physical harm. Any failure to have an anti-bullying policy in place puts your organization at risk of being cited under that OSHA clause.

ANA Recommended Resources for handling Workplace Violence

The ANA recommends a variety of resources to mitigate workplace bullying. A selection of these resources follows:

The ANA Leadership Institute’s™ “Diversity Matters: Create an Inclusive Nursing Culture that Leads to Better Outcomes” webinar (ANA, 2015b).

“Civility Tool-kit: Resources to Empower Healthcare Leaders to Identify, Intervene, and Prevent Workplace Bullying” (Adeniran et al., 2015).

Ending Nurse-to-Nurse Hostility: Why Nurses Eat Their Young and Each Other (2nd ed.) (Bartholomew, 2014).

Employers should provide these and any other resources to help their staff stamp out bullying at the office. The ANA provides many other excellent resources to mitigate this issue.

If your organization needs additional input on building a top notch staff, talk to the experts at Pinnacle Workforce. One of the top medical employment agencies in the country, we offer quality candidates able to make a positive difference for your firm. Schedule a meeting with us today!

A positive company culture makes going into work a bit easier each morning, especially in the stressful healthcare industry. Friendly management plays a large role in nurturing this kind of welcoming environment. But does this mean it’s a good thing to become friends with your boss outside of the office?

A fine line exists between friendship and a positive boss-employee relationship. Let’s take a closer look at this issue with an eye towards keeping your career on an upwards trend.

There isn’t a Magic Formula for the Relationship with your Boss

Since there really isn’t a certified manual for handling the relationship with your work superiors, it is important to treat things in a natural, friendly manner while focusing on being productive in your role. If the relationship with your boss develops into a true friendship outside work, don’t let it become a distraction. Your on-the-job performance is the most important factor — by far — especially if direct patient care is part of your daily responsibilities.

Don’t feel you can slack off because the boss has got your back, so to speak. A false sense of security in this situation can be damaging to both your career and your friendship. It is vital you keep things professional at all times when at work.

Pay Attention to your Coworkers

Once the other employees in the office realize you are becoming good friends with the boss, you’ll need to keep an eye out to ensure an envious coworker doesn’t try to sabotage your position in the office. Maintain a friendly and positive air, while never engaging in the gossiping typical of some workplaces. Foster a sense of teamwork and cooperation to ensure the relationship with your coworkers doesn’t change.

Don’t be Afraid to Say “No”

Don’t let your boss’s status as friend force you into being overworked or anything else that makes you feel uncomfortable. All aspects of your friendship should remain outside of the office. Say no when you have to; the strength of your relationship is hopefully strong enough to handle any minor work disagreements.

If you need any additional insight in navigating the waters of a long career in the medical industry, talk to the experts at Pinnacle Workforce. As one of the top healthcare staffing agencies in the country, we can help you take things to the next level. Schedule time with us as soon as possible!

Cultural fit plays a large role in the overall happiness with your job, both in the medical industry and other business sectors. If you aren’t professionally compatible with your employer and coworkers, your work performance may suffer, adversely impacting your chances at a better position elsewhere. It is important to understand the corporate culture at any healthcare establishment before you accept a job offer.

Let’s take a look at some ideas on finding a compatible company culture at your next position in the world of healthcare.

You must Research the Company Beforehand

Researching the company in question before any job interview is vital for a myriad of reasons, especially so you sound knowledgeable during the interview. This research also potentially offers you a look at their company culture. The company’s website as well as their LinkedIn and Facebook pages, if present, are other great sources for cultural information.

Additionally, you can check out their listing on Glassdoor for insight from current and former employees.

Leverage your Professional Network

Talk to any contacts within your professional network to see if they know any current or former employees of the company in question. Maybe you already network with a current worker? This “inside” information is invaluable when trying to figure out whether or not you would fit in at any organization.

Find out what everything you are able from as many sources as possible (either online or inside information), and then keep your eyes open when arriving for your interview. Check out the office and watch how people are interacting with each other. Ultimately, once you have all the information you need, trusting your own judgment is the best call.

Personal Information on your Résumé

While you want to limit the amount of personal information you put on your résumé, mentioning some — like any volunteer activities — helps to give your potential employer an idea of what makes you tick. It lets them decide whether or not you would make a good fit with the other workers at their company. Any smart company in the medical industry knows happy employees perform better and are probably more empathic with patients.

Also, work with your recruiter to go over your personal attributes, so they have a better idea of which of their clients makes a better cultural fit.

If you need further assistance on your job search in the healthcare industry, talk to the experts at Pinnacle Workforce. As one of the nation’s top medical staffing agencies, we can help both you and your career. Schedule some time with us today!