Blood, Guts and More.....

Hey Wait !

That's what we're learning about in Medical Occupations!

We are reviewing the digestive system next week - your guts!
Ewwww.

Keep practicing those vital signs. Take a pulse now and then
so you feel really comfortable about approaching a patient.

BRING IN YOUR BINDERS - two, 1-inch white binders with a window front. We have to put our CC binders together!!!

Look around the house for new items that you can spare for our backpack project, thanks!

Have a great weekend and be safe.

Mrs. Erceg

p.s. MED OCCS ROCKS !!!

WHOOSH ! SQUISH ! LUB DUB ! BOOM !

We're tracing blood through the heart....we're making some fun noises to simulate what happens as blood travels from the body, through the heart, to the lungs, back to the heart and then out to the body. Whew!!!

We learned about Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpura today. Tell your parents how cool that is.

For those of you that went to the meeting last night...congratulations for being there and continuing your medical education. I am so proud of everyone in the class. You are all so dedicated to health and wellness...and to this program.

See you tomorrow and have a great evening.

Mrs. Erceg

p.s. Congratulations to all of you that were in the skit today. Fabulous job.

Meeting Tonight!

For those of you attending, there is a meeting tonight at Valley Care Medical Plaza (this is not at the hospital) and here is the address: 5725 West Las Positas Blvd 2nd floor conference room in Pleasanton. Hope everyone can attend. REMEMBER IT STARTS AT 6:30!

Here are some of the terms we will be working on tomorrow:

arrythmia
atherosclerosis
claudication
embolus
and
hypercholesterolemia

Tomorrow we will also be tracing the flow of blood through the heart, and more BP practice.

Love,

Your favorite teacher (Mrs. Erceg)
written by: Justin

What is a SPHYGMOMANOMETER?

Well, tell your family all about it. Why does OSHA discourage the use of mercury spyygmomanometers?

PLEASE WEAR A SHORT SLEEVE SHIRT TOMORROW so we can practice taking each other's blood pressure. Wear your sweatshirt or jacket over the t-shirt. Wear appropriate clothing that is not revealing...that goes for the girls and the boys!

Do you have a blood pressure cuff at home? If so, practice tonight. You can look up instructions on the Internet.

WEDNESDAY 10/28.....MEETING - "Eating Disorders in Teenagers" 6:30 p.m.

Take care and I'll see you tomorrow.

Mrs. Erceg

There have been some "site" sightings.......

It's time to get going on site assignments. Some of you have already been told which site you'll be assigned to. I'll be calling everyone up to see me in class to talk about the location that has been chosen for you.

THIS WEEK: Site assignments, problem-solving techniques, T-P-R-BP, medical coding, office inventory, OSHA and JEOPARDY!!!!

KEYBOARDING SKILLS - Everyone must be able to type 30-40 words per minute with little or no errors prior to going to site. Talk to your CAREER CENTER or LIBRARY folks for help with a TYPING TUTOR program. Try typing this sentence over and over. It contains all of the letters in the alphabet:

"The quick red fox jumped over the lazy brown dog".

BINDERS: Please bring in two white binders with a window front. See previous blog entry.

10/28 VALLEY CARE MEETING- Eating Disorders in Teenagers ( 6:30 p.m. )

11/21 CMAA Meeting - I would love to see you there! (10:00 a.m. to 11:45 a.m.)

Have a great evening,

Mrs. Erceg

Is all of this sinking in?

You know what....? You have been absorbing vast amounts of information on a lot of educational topics in Medical Occupations!

We have four weeks of the program remaining (full-time in the classroom), then Thanksgiving week....then it will be time for community classroom/internship starting on Monday, November 30th.

Please take time to work with your parents on having reliable transportation, a properly fitted uniform and don't forget to keep that badge and lanyard handy! Please bring in those two white 1" binders....very important. Bring them in next week.

There will be a class picture taken the week before Thanksgiving, so please be prepared to bring in your uniform on Tuesday, November 17th. We have to have perfect attendance for the class picture, so please arrive on time that day.

Take care and good job everyone!!! Have a great weekend.

Mrs. Erceg

Safety First !

Thank you to all the volunteers that assisted our guest speaker Betsy Leff. Good work lifting James the mannikin! We learned about ergonomics and patient transfer techniques. Tomorrow... Circulatory System, Introduction to Medical Coding, and much more!

Take care!

Mrs. Erceg

What are your career choices?

Hi Everyone,

I am looking forward to seeing your career research papers tomorrow. Please make sure you have followed the directions. If you have done an interview, you will only have one career paper and one interview script. THIS ASSIGNMENT DUE TOMORROW, 10/22.

GUEST SPEAKER TOMORROW - Betsy Leff from Kennan and Associates will be here to talk about safety in the workplace and ergonomics (look that one up). Please go online and look up CAL-OSHA and ERGONOMICS and prepare for tomorrow. It would be so nice to have some really good questions prepared for our speaker. Bring in five questions and you can have 15 points E.C. - SOME OF YOU NEED THOSE 15 POINTS!

Jeopardy Game prep is going well. I can't wait to see all of your answers and questions! Please talk to your parents and practice playing Jeopardy by watching it on T.V. A few of you need some help on the concept of the answer popping up and the responding in the form of a question....like this - "I'll take diseases of the human body for $100 Alex"

ANSWER "HEPATITIS" ~~ RESPONSE: What is "Inflammation of the liver"?

PARENTS: Please provide your son or daughter with two one-inch white binders with a window front. One will be for community classroom/internship and one will be for the career portfolio we are building. Some students have already started the career portfolio, which is great! Students will need 10 sheet protectors for the portfolio as well.

Please ask your son or daughter to show you the "Holiday Backpack Program" handout. As a holiday project, we are filling small backpacks with toys and other items for children and teens that are living in a shelter during the holidays. I do not want anyone to have to purchase these items, but if you have any of these items that are brand new, and not needed, please send them to school with your student. If you have any programs that are potential recipients of these backpacks, please let me know. (925) 606-4800 x 3640 or lerceg@livermore.k12.ca.us

By the way.......have you seen your Medical Occupations Intern in uniform yet? How does it fit?

Take care and have a good evening.

Mrs. Erceg

Feel that pulse? That's you!

HOMEWORK DUE AS YOU ARRIVE TOMORROW: 15 points !!!!!

Please write the following down near your bed tonight.....

Name _______________ Date ______________ MED OCCS

My resting heart rate on the morning of 10/21/09 ________________beats per minute.

Turn this in to me as you walk into the classroom.

Don't get out of bed and take your radial or carotid pulse for 60 seconds. THEN get out of bed and get to school. LOL

Sleep well,

Mrs. Erceg

Congratulations !

Hello Wonderful Students !

Congratulations to our newest members of the California Medical Assistants Association...!

PATRICK - ARMANDO- SAMUEL -RACHEL - GLAD TO HAVE YOU ABOARD! Please check out the CMAA newsletter at cmaa-ca.org It's filled with great information about M.A.'s in California. Current members are: TYLER, KAREN, NICOLE A., LARA, AND KARISSA

All student participants were a BIG HELP on Saturday at the conference. THANK YOU !!!! ....and tell your parents about how professional and helpful you were.

What did you learn about TEAMWORK today? Are YOU a team player? What does that mean?
This week - communication, medical records/CPT-ICD9 codes, circulatory system and vital signs, PDR and the JEOPARDY! game.

Reminder: Meeting coming up at Valley Care - Eating Disorders. Please sign-up.

GUEST SPEAKER ON THURSDAY 10/22 and the CAREER RESEARCH paper(s) are due. Don't forget to read the directions! There are many small details to adhere to.

Stay dry,

Mrs. Erceg, Sonia and Esha

PDR's.....Exercise your mind...and your arms!

Heavy, huh? Luckily, PDR's are not widely used any longer, now that electronic versions of it are available. We'll look at meds again next week and make a new patient medication list.

Have a great weekend and I'll see some of you tomorrow at the CMAA Education Day at LPC !

If you need to call me, please call me on my cell....(510) 305-5111.

Mrs. Erceg

Hello You Good Looking People !

I am already imagining how wonderful you will look in your new uniforms! Please wash them -(shirt inside out due to saving the silkscreening). Wash with a dark load, okay?

FOLKS GOING ON SATURDAY TO THE CMAA CONFERENCE: Please work on getting your uniform, shoes, lanyard and badges ready to go. Make sure you bring your parking pass and leave it on your dashboard. Bring a camera too...there will be a lot of photo opportunities. If you are arriving in the morning, please arrive at 7:45. If you are arriving in the afternoon, please arrive by 12:45.

Keep working on the CAREER RESEARCH assignment! DUE THURSDAY 10/22 Please see me if you need help!

Tomorrow.......we're looking at a lot of different medications in the PDR....how many ways can medication be administered? We'll see!

Take care and have a great evening.

Mrs. Erceg

Keep those records neat and organized!

Tomorrow we'll have a guest speaker, Guy McCord from Bibbero Systems. His company is the one who manufactures and distributes all of the medical record folders and products to maintain records in health care facilities.

REMINDER: Talk to your parents and to your doctor about obtaining a copy of your pediatric records for transfer to your new physician (family practice or internal medicine) before you turn 21. Pediatric records do not have to be retained after you turn 21. Remember, the doctor owns the original record and the patient owns the information inside of it. That is why you can have a copy!

Please invite folks to Saturday's CMAA seminar! Everyone is welcome and we'll take the registrations at the door if needed. They will need a parking pass!

CONGRATULATIONS TO RUBY AND KELSEY C. !!! They volunteered for the GOOD NEWS BEARS group last weekend. More later......

Take care everyone and I'll see you tomorrow.

Mrs. Erceg

p.s. NO CELL PHONES, NO GUM in class! A few of you needed reminders today........eeeeeeek!

I Feel Better Already

Hi Folks!

Good job to those who shared today with compassionate communication toward your patient. I really appreciate you being concerned, yet informational.

I loved hearing about your "Fact vs. Fiction" research.

What do you think of this product? Does it really work?

http://www.vimeo.com/vitality or go to rxvitality.com GLOWING PILL BOTTLES ! WOW!

We'll continue to work on our lessons this week on communications, records and PDR. The game we are creating will have an answer first.....then the response comes in the form of a question...just like Jeopardy on t.v. Did you watch it last night? How about this one for $100.00- "hepatitis" response: "What is inflammation of the liver"? Each group will make a study guide for the other groups to review.

Have a nice, warm, dry, evening.

Mrs. Erceg

Thank You All !

I REALLY APPRECIATE your lovely testamonials that you emailed today. How wonderful you all are to step up to the plate for R.O.P. programs. You are helping pave the way for yourselves and future students too.

Homework: Watch JEOPARDY! tonight....get into the pace and the challenges ahead as we prepare the game using our topic areas.

Medical records, PDR and Communications this week.

Take care,

Mrs. Erceg

Compassionate Communication

Dear Medical Professionals:

I am anxious to experience continue compassionate communication with those of you that did not have me as your "patient" today. You really get it. It takes a very special person to have empathy, topped with excellent communication skills. I felt well-cared for and assured.

We have a big week scheduled next week. Get plenty of rest and good nutrition, be happy and smile a lot.

I will ask that you email me, next week, a testamonial for the Medical Occupations Program and answer a few questions about your future plans. (There's a certificate in it for you!)


UPCOMING EVENTS: THIS weekend - OctoBEAR Affaire at Alden Lane Nursery. Great gifts for sale and fun drawings for prizes. Go Karts! Fundraiser on 10/16, CMAA Meeting at LPC on 10/17 and on 10/22 - your career research paper is due. Please see me if you need help !!!

Have a great weekend.

Mrs. Erceg

GREAT DAY!

Thank you all for working hard today! You demonstated being proactive versus reactive very well. Very nice! Tonight, prepare MTP #3 and turn it into patient education to inform and enlighten. Highlight and develop the dialogue to inform and educate others about your disease. Tomorrow we will discuss them in class.

Have a great evening, I am looking forward to seeing you tomorrow!

Mrs. Erceg and Katelyn and Nicole! :)

Proactive....or Reactive?

Try smiling in the face of adversity!

Be prepared TOMORROW (10/8) for the bell work. Please write up a

scenario in which a proactive response replaces a reactive response.

DUE TOMORROW: Proactive/Reactive Scenario (have one ready) MTP # 4 Nobel Prize Winner(s) Assignment

I'm asking all students to think about a testimonial....a short one or two paragraphs that describes your experience in R.O.P. so far. I'll provide you with a handout to complete this task. ALL students that do this will receive a certificate for their portfolio.

What are the three "R's" about? Preventing stroke - Reduce risk, Recognize symptoms and Respond by calling 9-1-1. We'll talk about the brain tomorrow and some careers associated with the nervous system.

Keep thinking about the "MTP #3 Transition to Patient Education". Highlight or copy your paper in preparation to discuss talking to a patient about their diagnosis. DUE FRIDAY 10/9. This is part of therapeutic communication....with compassion.

Have a great evening.

Mrs. Erceg

This won't hurt a bit....yes it will, but just a little.

Flu shots (seasonal, not H1N1) are recommended for all students. H1N1 (Swine Flu) vaccination is not readily available quite yet. Please contact your physician to talk more about that. Children, teens and elderly folks are more susceptible to the H1N1 strain.

CMAA Meeting 10/17 !!! Saturday, October 17th will be a GREAT opportunity to earn certificates. Half-day - $15.00 (no lunch included). Full-day $30.00 (lunch included).

I am so PROUD of you all ! Chapter 3 is no easy task !!! Please tell your parents about your wonderful knowledge of legal terms. We'll get through all of that, I promise. You'll be a valued volunteer having learned all of this.

MTP # 4 - What is your topic? Please do not wait to find one....ask me for help if needed !!!
DUE THURSDAY - and don't forget the assignment for the Nobel Prize Winner(s) for 2009 also due on Thursday 10/8.

Have a great evening.

Mrs. Erceg

I just can't believe it's true....

How about finding an interesting topic for MTP #4? Remember, a product or service that makes you say to yourself...."Hey....is that for real"? "Does that REALLY work"? Ask parents to help. Look at the internet too. Follow your notes! Use terms like psychosomatic, placebo, power of suggestion, etc. from the PPT today.

We'll continue with our lessons on brain and spinal cord, therapeutic communications, and more.

PROGRESS REPORTS are being given out this week and they are to be returned with student and parent signature.

Take care and have a great evening.

Mrs. Erceg

Wishing you a Great Weekend....

Hi Folks,

I hope you enjoyed the film today. Isn't it amazing how times have changed. You are very lucky to have all of the opportunities in the world to become anything you want to be. But wait...there's more - I'm here to help you so pleeeeease....ask!

Have a great weekend and get plenty of rest and get your "brain" ready....next week we will study the brain and spinal cord. Here are some terms we'll learn.... CVA, TIA, cerebral palsy, encephalitis, epilepsy, hydroencephalus, meningitis, MS, neuralgia, Parkinson's Disease and more. Have you ever heard about the signs and symptoms related to a stroke? We'll also look at the "Special Senses" - sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell - is there a "sixth sense"???

We will also look at "Therapeutic Communication" for the health care worker. You know there will be more....fun that is!

See you Monday,

Mrs. Erceg

Woo Hoo!

I just love my students! They will bring me cookies and flowers tomorrow. HA HA (That's what the afternoon class said) LOL

No really.....I had to compliment all of you on an outstanding job this week. We've had some pretty intense discussions. I also want to repeat a compliment from Mary at the Valley Care Health Library. She is so impressed with all of you - your maturity level and commitment to learning more about medicine. At the last meeting regarding prostate cancer, many of you took care of older people in the audience by giving up your seats or helping escort someone to the front so they could hear or see the presentation a little better. Oh my, I do have a wonderful group!

Bring in a white 1" binder (with a plastic window on the front) soon with some sheet protectors. Let's start making those portfolios! You may keep your portfolio here in the classroom.

I am looking forward to seeing you tomorrow...

Mrs. Erceg