Wednesday, June 17, 2009

U.S. Employment, the Economy and Perfusionists

The unemployment rate is now 9.4%, according the U.S. Labor Department, reflecting the highest rate in 25 years. In contrast, Economists are optimistic that the country will recover by 2010, according to numerous sources in today’s news.

Health Care is probably one of the most recession-proof industries in which to be working, and that’s a fine thing for perfusionists. I read an article published just this week which summarized a report by The Princeton Review about the job outlook for college grads in 2009 and beyond. The number of students majoring in healthcare is on the rise (particularly in the areas of nursing and biology, which rank 4th and 5th in popularity). Growth in health care as a chosen major has a great deal to do with the fact that Baby Boomers are retiring and going to need more healthcare, creating a need for more hospital employees.

Perfusionists remain needed. Last week, payscale.com updated its information about income averages for cardiovascular perfusionists. PayScale is a company based in Seattle which owns the largest database of online employee salary data in the world. Information is available to the public, though the services were designed for HR and hiring managers seeking salary information on positions they retain within their organization. The following charts show the income averages for perfusionists, according to PayScale:





If you’re a perfusionist looking for a job, visit the latest career opportunities at Perfusioncommunity.com. Perfusion Community also offers a employer/perfusionist matching program. Perfusionists may include their resume in a “bank” of professionals. The job list at Perfusion Community is updated numerous times weekly at perfusioncommunity.com. Finally, Trident Health Resources, Inc. is always looking for a few more experienced perfusionists. Visit Trident at tridenthealth.com to view employment information.

Sincerely,

Ralph E. Jordan
CEO & President
Trident Health Resources, Inc.

Sunday, June 7, 2009

More about Embracing Technology.

Trident’s feature article in this month’s HeartbeatE-newletter is a summary of technologies the company has adopted to enhance its business communications (link in blog entry below). Among having our own propriety perfusion software, Neptune, and launching VIVOrt, an information data system, Trident also is presently using or investigating some of the widely used social networking tools which were originally developed for personal friends, now extended into the business world as Fortune 100 companies and beyond find usefulness in them. Some of these names you may already be familiar: Twitter, Facebook, Wikipedia.

Just a few days ago, Forbes magazine released an article entitled, Smart Social Networking For Your Small Business. I’ve provided a link to it. In this article, the major networking websites are defined. It also provides a list of do’s and don’ts for companies which are planning to expand their marketing reach through such technologies. Companies small or large are quickly finding the need to embrace new ways of doing business. Our industry is no exception.

I wanted to add to this topic that the University of Nebraska Medical Center now offers “alternative” CEU opportunities. According to David Holt, Program Manager of the Clinical Perfusion Education Department, facebook.com or twitter.com are websites in which perfusionists can earn CEUs. He said perfusionists can, “… participate in educational ventures through these popular social networking sites. In fact, we are prepared to offer anybody who participates in any of our educational opportunities a 10% discount in registration fee if indeed you are actively following us through these electronic forums. This will help us to communicate to you any upcoming opportunities and also creates a mechanism for us to creatively communicate on current technologies.”

If you are currently using any of the referenced technologies, let us know what is working for you. Comments welcomed.

Ralph E. Jordan
CEO & President
Trident Health Resources, Inc.

Trident's JUNE Heartbeat Newsletter Released

The June E-Newsletter, Heartbeat, by Trident was released. Want to get on the mailing list or read the current issue? Click THIS