Becoming a Licensed Nursing Home Administrator: What You Should Know
Do you have a passion for helping those who cannot help themselves? Do you want to enrich the world of nursing homes and help the elderly and infirm live as well as possible? In a role as an administrator of a nursing home, you can do this and more on a daily basis.
Understanding Your Role as a Nursing Home Administrator
Prior to becoming the administrator of a nursing home, it is vital that you understand what you will be expected to do once you successfully attain this position. You will be responsible for every daily aspect of running a long-term care facility. This includes everything from the admission of patients to managing the physical condition of the building and directing the staff's regular duties. However, as important as the human aspects of being an administrator go, they are not the only important component of holding this position and being successful at it.
You'll likely need to handle the financial planning, budget building, and accounting of the nursing home. In order to continue operating, the facility must take in enough income to keep all expenses paid, and you will be responsible for ensuring that revenue taken in is used effectively and allows the facility to continue to function. This functionality must be carried out with efficiency and a business-like attitude. However, there is at least one difference between healthcare and many other business-related fields -- the overwhelming role of ethics.
In a healthcare setting, being ethical is not only a mandatory part of being an administrator, but a part that is mandated by law. Any breaches of ethics are more than simply the potential to lose your employment. Being anything but totally ethical can actually result in criminal penalties for you, and potentially serious physical hardship for the patient. Add to that the mental anguish of a patient's family members, and it becomes obvious why a major part of the training that a nursing home administrator undergoes is in business ethics along with healthcare regulations and the ethics specific to this field. Your integrity could literally mean life and death to the people who depend on you.
The Core of Your Success
In order to earn your degree, you will need a solid basis of mathematics, the liberal arts, and the sciences. Having a well-rounded education is an essential part of being able to lead a team of diverse professionals, as you will when you oversee an entire nursing home staff. The core curriculum will be a significant part of your education, as much so others can understand where you are coming from as so you can understand the course work that is specifically designed around being a nursing home administrator.
Choosing Your Track
Your track as a nursing home administrator will likely boil down to either acute care or long-term care. Acute care is a less likely educational track for those interested in administrating nursing homes, while the long-term care track is more commonplace. You will complete externships, in which you will be expected to operate in the field assisting actual nursing home or hospital administrators with their daily tasks. You will also be instructed in the various domains of care, which allow you to assess how your staff is performing above and beyond the methods typically used by human resources professionals.
Once you have attained your degree, you must take a national level exam in order to be licensed as a healthcare administrator. Further, a state level exam is also necessary in any state in which you want to practice. From there, you can pursue further education or find work as a nursing home administrator.
Extending Your Education
Your education can continue beyond the undergraduate level. Once you have your national certification and are a functioning administrator, pursuing your master’s degree is a frequent step that many individuals in this profession take. You may be able to expand your income and your opportunities as an administrator through extending your education further. However, this is not necessary for many opportunities, and ultimately the choice is yours.
Continuing Your Healthcare Administration Education
Just like in any other portion of the medical field, you must continue your education. This will keep you exposed to industry trends and make sure you are up to date on how the medical field is advancing. As the old saying goes, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link -- and you must be a strong link to understand what the doctors, nurses and orderlies under your management are expected to do. Keeping your license in force is vital to remaining employed over time.
Graduation Day for my Bachelor's of Science in Health Care Administration with ECPI University Cisco Track... http://t.co/C2QY2CXqDO
— Frederick Guild, Jr. (@_golive) May 15, 2015
Get Started Here with a Healthcare Administration Degree
Have you grown even more interested in becoming a licensed nursing home administrator? If your passion is to help people in this way, now may be the perfect time to check out ECPI University's Bachelor of Science in Health Science with a concentration in Healthcare Administration. It could be the Best Decision You Ever Make!
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