Army Soldier PA, Killed in Afghanistan While Serving Others

Cory Jenkins, 30, a dedicated Physician's Assistant and living husband and father, going the extra mile to serve his fellowman.

Cory Jenkins was killed recently while serving selflessly in Afghanistan leaving a wife and a 9 week old son.  This young man chose to be in the army to serve in trauma and felt the military would be the place for him.  He led an exemplary life as he earned his Eagle Scout and later served as Scoutmaster.  His education was gained at Brigham Young University and A.T. Still University. 

We at Alpha Resource Network want to salute Cory Jenkins for his sacrafice, dedication and heart for service.  To his family and friends - you are in our prayers for comfort during this difficult time. 

To read the complete article, click on the link below.

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/143654

America's Primary Care Physician Shortage

First nursing shortages and now physician shortages?? Yes, that is correct.  There have been a series of events that have led up to this shortage including the possibility of universal health care that will cause the shortage to exponentially grow to 500,000 by the year 2020. 

The Examiner had a great article on this earlier this week (see link below for full article) highlighting some of the catalysts for the physician shortage.  In short, the reasons are as follows:

In the 1980s, US medical schools were graduating twice as many physicians as were retiring.  Physicians began to worry about their income and future job market.  In 1987, Congress capped residency programs at 23,000 per year, a level that is still in effect this day.  The influx of physicians into the market never happened.  Now realizing the upcoming dilema, schools are ramping up to fill the gap, however with the years of education, lack of facilities, educators, clinical opportunities the opportunity to play catch up is not viable for quite some time. 

What is the solution?  Enter the Nurse Practitioner and Physician Assistant.  More times than not when I make an appointment to see a doctor, I am asked if an NP or PA would be okay, and therefore I am able to get an appointment faster.  The quality and knowledge of service has always ranked high on the scale. 

We are seeing more hybrids on the roads for efficiency, now we will be seeing more NPs and PAs in the healthcare offices for efficiency, faster service without sacraficing quality and knowledge.  A positive, reliable and cost productive solution for America's Primary Physician Shortage. 

http://www.examiner.com/x-5968-DC-Public-Policy-Examiner~y2009m8d24-Physician-shortage-spurs-search-for-alternatives

Go ahead...get yourself a Blog!

As a healthcare professional, why should I have a blog you may ask. As illustrated in more detail in the article link below, a potential employer can be pointed to your blog to give a larger view of your expertise in your field. The employer can read the posts to gain more insight than can be given on a resume and even during an interview.

In the article referenced below, the designer was able to stand out from the rest of the candidates due to her high level of knowledge and expertise she was able to share through numerous blog posts.



http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Hired-From-a-blog-to-a-cnnm-1816259633.html?x=0&.v=2&.pf=career-work&mod=pf-career-work

Social Networking

Social networking seems to be streaming from all facets of our lives. We have progressed from what is now considered a simple and everyday use of emails and text messages to setting up our profiles on LinkedIn, ZoomInfo, MySpace, Facebook, and can't forget the blogs to the ever so quickly catching momentum Twitter. I suppose a lot of jobs have been created at companies to keep them up to date with all of the online internet media available. We certainly can find ourselves rather up to our elbows in the middle of all of it if we aren't careful.

Personally, I find it difficult to be on the computer and not take a peek at the tweets and facebook, to say the least. Or how about the blackberry browsing in between errands or waiting for an appointment. Yes, technology is invading our lives in many facets and what fun we are having!

Being rather new to twitter, I am trying to learn the terminology and variations of tweets. Today the topic has been hash tags. The words can be so usual, it is almost like learning a foreign language.

The benefit of all of these networking tools is the ability to keep in touch with people, news in the world around us. We've come a long way since the pony express days!

Enjoy your technology!