Career Development in Healthcare

Career Development

• Career Ladder: Sequence of jobs progressing from entry-level to higher responsibility, based on education, experience, and performance.
• Career Clusters: Groups of similar occupations, sharing core knowledge and skills.
• Career Pathways: Specialized occupations within a cluster, requiring more specific knowledge, skills, and training.
• Career Portfolio: Written record of career planning and preparation.
• Employability Skills: Skills for choosing, obtaining, changing, and advancing in a career.
• HOSA: Career and technical student organization for future healthcare workers.
• Personal Traits: Individual qualities and characteristics.
• Professional Look: Standards of appearance expected in a work environment.
• Technical Skills: Abilities to perform tasks in a specific healthcare discipline.

Healthcare and Medical Fields

• Holistic Care: Treats patients as whole individuals, considering physical, social, mental, and spiritual well-being.
• Regenerative Medicine: Creates living tissue to replace lost tissue or organ functions.
• Alternative, Complementary, Integrative Therapies: Healthcare practices minimizing or avoiding surgery and drugs.
• Genomic Medicine: Personalized healthcare using a patient's genes to prevent illnesses.
• Western Medicine: Common medical care in the US, using medication and surgery.
• Nanotechnology: Science manipulating atoms and molecules for smaller devices.
• National Healthcare Skill Standards: Standards for worker skills in healthcare careers (defined by the National Consortium for Health Science Education).
• Credentials: Documents proving occupation qualifications.
• Accreditation: Official recognition by a professional association that an educational program meets minimum standards.
• Interdisciplinary Healthcare Team: Professionals from different backgrounds working together for patient care.

Healthcare Settings and Services

• Outpatient Care Facilities: Care without hospitalization.
• Clinics: Offices for one or more healthcare practitioners.
• Behavioral Health Care: Services for mental illness and substance abuse.
• Independent Living Support: Home health care, adult day care, and therapy.
• Long-term Care Facilities: Care for elderly or disabled who cannot live alone.
• Hospice Care: End-of-life care for terminally ill.

Healthcare Financing and Coverage

• Medicare Part A: Inpatient care.
• Medicare Part B: Doctor visits and medical insurance.
• Medicare Part D: Prescription drug plans.
• Deductible: Minimum patient payment before insurance coverage.
• Copay: Out-of-pocket fee at the time of care.
• Coinsurance: Patient's portion of healthcare costs compared to insurance.
• Premium: Monthly fees for insurance coverage.

Healthcare Information

• Health Informatics Services: Pathway involving healthcare and biomedical information methods, devices, and resources.
• Medical Coding: Assigning numbers to patient conditions, injuries, and treatments.
• Confidentiality: Legally protected right to keep patient information private.