The national climate is thick with discussion about the health care industry and what will become of it. The success or failure of our country in this area will affect virtually everyone in some way. People are always going to get sick and will always need hospitals. The things we know for sure are few and the questions we face are monolithic in comparison. The best person to sort of these questions are those who have experience in health care as well as the foresight that comes with a business background. The college degree designed to create these superstars is a Masters in Health Care.

The Business of Running a Hospital

Health Care Masters degrees teach health care workers the “administration” side of running a hospital. Things like finance, communications, marketing, quality control, research and human resources are all important tasks that are necessary in the business of health we just don’t see them as much.

The Big Picture

Let’s say you cut your finger at home making dinner and you need stitches. The simple answer is: Go to the doctor and get yourself all stitched up.

Indulge me in describing the bigger process of what has to be done each time you visit a hospital.

When you walk in, you have to check and the person at the front desk retrieves your medical records. Someone has to keep those medical records in order and updated. Then you go back in the ER where a nurse assists you until the doctor comes to stitch up your finger. The doctor grabs a sterile needle and thread and goes to work. Someone had to order that thread, someone had to budget its cost and someone had to make a policy for the doctor to follow. Then with, seven perfect little stitches you are bandaged up and sent off.

So who is this “someone” we keep talking about? Health Care Administrators.

In a Nutshell

A masters degree in health care take you to the next level. The administrative level. Instead of just carrying out procedures dictated to you from the top you can become a decision maker. No recession or boom in business can change the fact that people need to take care of their bodies.

By the Numbers

• By 2016, employment of medical and health service managers is expected to grow 16 percent.
• Health care administrators managing practices with 7-24 physicians earn approximately 95,766
• Health care administrators managing practices with 26 or more physicians earn approximately $132,955
• The median income for those employed as managers in medical and health services careers was $84,980 in May 2007. The lowest paid 25% earned $59,910 or less while the highest paid 25% earned above $99,680

What the Times has to say about it:

“It is an excellent career for the middle-aged,” she added. “Some of our students are in their early 40′s. The job requires maturity, perspective, ability to relate to people in distress, and all this comes more easily with age.”

If square roots aren’t your thing, then at least Professor Corey Manchester’s boyish god looks will give you something to study in math class. San Diego State students voted their favorite math teacher into the Rate My Professor’s “Top 50 Hottest Professors” list. We fought off his starstruck admirers long enough to get in a little Q and A with mathematician.

My Colleges and Careers: What was your initial reaction to being ranked as one of the nation’s hottest professors?

Professor Manchester: I was really flattered, but I just don’t get it!

My Colleges and Careers: How familiar were you with ratemyprofessor.com?

Professor Manchester: Very. I know it’s the primary resource for students picking classes. I know alot of professors hate it, but I think it’s good that they’re being held accountable for being less than stellar at their jobs.

My Colleges and Careers: Do you think this sort of category is frivolous and silly or fun and interesting?

Professor Manchester: I guess a little of both. I also won “Favorite Faculty Member of the Year” this year, and that means far more to me than anything based on physicality.

My Colleges and Careers: Has anyone ever told you that you resemble a celebrity? If so, who?

Professor Manchester: Hmmm..not that I recall. At least not in adulthood-when I was little, people always told me I looked like Ricky Schroeder (blonde and freckly).

My Colleges and Careers: What do you love about being a professor?

Professor Manchester: Oh gosh…so many things. I love being able to explain a difficult concept to a group of people who probably aren’t huge fans of the subject. I love being able to show them that everything in their lives in based on math. I love making them think about math in a totally different way. I love giving them an appropriately nurturing environment for math (rather than a sink-or-swin approach like many professors deliver).

My Colleges and Careers: Are you going to leverage this title for a salary increase?

Professor Manchester: Yah right. I’ll be lucky to not be laid off, given the state of the California budget!

What is Human Services? I’m so glad you asked. A career in Human Services can include the following:

• Social Work
• Counseling
• Therapy
• Psychology
• Family Studies
• Social Policy and Planning
• Marriage Counseling
• School Counselor
• Nonprofit work
• Psychiatry

It’s time to face the music kids: Everybody and every family is dysfunctional in some regard. Fortunately, we live in a society that has started to realize the benefits of therapy, psychology, and counseling. Nearly 50% of American households have had someone see a mental health professional and 50% of Americans think the stigma of seeking mental health services has decreased in the past five years.

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The Governator recently launched an initiative to utilize for online learning materials in California schools. This is what he had to say:

“California is home to software giants, bioscience research pioneers and first-class university systems known around the world. But our students still learn from instructional materials in formats made possible by Gutenberg’s printing press.”

We want to know what you think about this issue. Let the commenting begin. If you are not boring then you probably have an opinion and it’s time for some robust discussion.

Schwarzenegger believes the educational system will be able to save money by going digital. He expects science and math books to be in digital form by next fall and wants to use the savings to hire more teachers and to reduce class size.

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This post is for all the My Colleges and Careers female fans out there. Do attractive male professors make better professors? According to RateMyProfessor and the New York Times, teachers who are considered “good-looking” tend to get better student evaluations. Economists have found that men with above-average looks are paid about 5 percent more than those with average appearance. A recent study concluded:

The average teaching evaluation was 4.2 on a 5-point scale. Those at the bottom end of the attractiveness scale received, on average, a teaching evaluation of about 3.5, while those on the top end received about 4.5.

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Here at My Colleges and Careers, we don’t pretend to be above silly rankings like Rate My Professor’s Top 50 Hottest Professors list. We embrace and accept people who embrace and accept entertaining things. While a professor’s ability to teach and inspire will always be the the bread and butter that our educational system survives on, sometimes a little dessert is ok.

We now present to you (with a cherry on top) an up close and personal interview with one of the country’s hottest educators: Professor Dacia Charlesworth, Associate Professor in the Department of Communications at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne.

My Colleges and Careers: What was your initial reaction upon learning you were ranked as one of the nation’s “Hottest Professors?”
Professor Charlesworth: I laughed. I joke that since I was 1st runner-up for homecoming queen this title has replaced all the feeling of inadequacy I once had. Seriously though, I support RMP and encourage my students to leave their comments. Some faculty don’t like RMP and feel that since there’s no way to actually verify if students have completed one of your classes the site is invalid. I note that there are measures faculty can take if they think a comment is unfair or submitted by someone who clearly wasn’t a student (e.g., one of my friends flagged a rude comment by a student who’d written that he’d taken her for a class the university didn’t even offer; RMP removed the comment). RMP is one way for students to learn about professor’s teaching styles; I always ask my students to be very clear about rating and referencing my expectations and grading standards since I’m very rigorous and want potential students to know what to expect in my classes.

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Criminal Justice is a sexy field. It is exciting and important. How else could Hollywood make so many TV shows about it if it weren’t inherently interesting? Nearly everyone has said “I would like to do that,” as they watched CSI or Law and Order from the comfort of the own couch at least once. To all you armchair detectives: it’s time to go for it. Criminal justice careers are growing. And when I say “growing” I mean it.

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The idea that every hardworking man and woman can succeed in America is losing some steam in this brutal recession but the American spirit is as as true blue as ever.

Actually, it might be more appropriate to describe the American spirit as yellow. Lemon yellow. Historically, Americans are famous for turning lemons into lemonade.

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Iran is experiencing some of the most extreme protests and riots the country has seen in decades, which is saying a lot considering the Middle East isn’t the sweetest place in the world. Iranian supporters of presidential candidate Hossein Mousavi are upset at their candidates loss and believe it was not a true democratic election. They claim President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s re-election was rigged and have taken to the streets to express their outrage.

Social Media is playing a role in the dispute more than ever before.

Iranian government officials have tried to block coverage of the riots through social media sites like Twitter. Google reported that YouTube appears to be formally blocked in Iran but the the site is still experiencing 10 percent of it’s normal traffic levels from the country.
This organic discussion and collection of links circling the globe is markedly different from traditional news. The difference between social media news and traditional news is that everything is based on merit rather than authority and there is no strong mechanism to distinguish between fact and fiction.

As I have thought about the web and its role in the dissemination of information I have started to wonder what Iran’s education system is like. Well-educated countries often have a more vocal expression of opinion. That diversity of opinion is often accompanied by generous freedom of speech rights, as seen in America, but Iran is not so lucky.

Facts about the Education System in Iran:

• At the university level every student attending public schools is required to commit to serve the government for a number of years typically equivalent to those spent at the university, or pay it off for a very low price (typically a few hundred dollars).
• Iranian universities produce approximately 750,000 skilled graduates annually.
• English as a second language is introduced from grade 7
• The most popular field of study for college students is engineering at 25.2 percent, followed by the medical field at 24.2 percent and 13.4 percent are involved in pedagogic and teacher’s training.

One thing is for sure though: Iranians understand citizen journalism and using social media. No doubt about that.

In this volatile and depressing economic environment, consumers and bankers alike are looking for some light at the end of the tunnel.

Look no farther than the makeup counter my friends.

In recessionary times, economists have noticed lipstick sales actually increase. This trend was coined “The Lipstick Factor.”

So when everyone is flat broke how can sales be increasing?

Two Words: Small Luxury.

A small luxury like lipstick keeps people happy in a sad environment. They know it isn’t fiscally responsible for to blow money on large purchases but something small like lipstick provides a cheap way to boost their mood without putting any major dents in the pocketbook.

In our factory, we make lipstick. In our advertising, we sell hope.

Peter Zarlenga

Another reason why beauty sales increase during economic downturn? Many people are losing their jobs and homes and trying to save money on beauty products at that point is like straightening chairs on the Titanic.

If buying a ten dollar lipstick saves you from feeling like you need a $200 dress, mission accomplished. Little somethings are better than big nothings.

Or maybe you need some beautification to motivate yourself in the job search.

In fact, beauty sales were increasing before the recession even began. In the five years up to 2007 the market for luxury beauty products in the US grew by 17 percent to reach just under $9 billion.

Good News for Cosmetology School Hopefuls

This is the perfect time to get involved in a cosmetology program. If you strike while the iron is hot you can make the best of this rainy day. And by rainy day, I mean severe economic meltdown. Many cosmetology schools have reported increased sales and more people tend to frequent beauty schools for treatments because they are inexpensive compared to high-end resorts.

For more information about Cosmetology schools in your area check out My Colleges and Careers.