Health related degree/cert without B&M?

I have pretty much decided on what Bachelors and Masters to pursue (YAY!), but in order to look better for the Masters application, and since I may have extra time to take some serious healthcare-related courses, I am wondering if there is a decent Associates (or Certificate) that I should consider.

I know there are no serious healthcare career programs that are fully DL but in my case I would not be needing to use the degree/cert most likely. I did not see anything at EC, TESC, COSC, and a few others that seem to fit my requirements. I am open to it being not that great like something lower level with an end pay of $15/hr or less. Again, it's mostly to just get myself immersed in some healthcare field and look good for the other school.

- Associates would be great, Certificate maybe, or it can be no degree if it leads to a certification exam, accelerated Bachelors
- Possibly will consider non-RA if it has an ok rep and such. Not sure if I'd want one that is foreign, I guess it could be ok.
- Must not need prior hands-on healthcare experience or prior degrees/certs. If it requires science classes or a general bachelors degree that is fine but it is better if it doesn't so I can work on this one first/concurrently.
- FULL DL preferred. I am totally okay with doing some in-person but only a little bit, like < 10% of what most programs are wanting, I know this eliminates most options.
- Wanting to transfer in exam credits and then only have to do about 18-30 additional credits for the new degree. For the new credits, ideally they have a more flexible learning schedule.
- Psychology related may be okay too
- Don't bother mentioning the Billing/Transcription/Aide ones though. Also I would not be into Assisting/Secretary unless it would be very easy for some reason, I just don't want to put much into that type.

Thanks again everyone. I wouldn't be surprised if nothing fits. I do have alternate plans I could follow, namely the EMT certification (it's only part-time 3 months B&M for the Basic). Just trying to consider more options before committing myself to EMT or something else. What I would LOVE is Sonography/Respiratory/Surg Tech/Nuclear, maybe Radiology, others would be fine too -- but understandably, they want clinical B&M work etc.

 

Allied health programs are available by distance learning. I would recomend the EMT course, it is a good foundation for allied health careers that are patient care related. All distance learning allied health programs will require significant clinical hours and you may be required to find a clinical site.

Here are some additional options;

Allied health institute- www.alliedhealthinstitute.org
nationally accredited by ABHES has distance learning programs for medical assisting and EKG technologist. National certification is available for both of thoes medical assisting can be RMC or CMA certification. EKG certification is available www.cci-online.org as a CCT. I would avoid patient care technician or biliong classes.

Southeast community college http://www.southeast.edu/academics/distance.asp
Has a decent amount of distance learning allied health programs including surgical tech, resp, and x-ray.

Ultrasound also has multiple distance learning options.

If you can narrow down your interests it would help to provide a shorter list of possibilities.

Jeremy

 

Thanks. I saw another thread where you mentioned southeast. EKG is a good idea, although probably too long for what I am seeking. I'll look it up in case it's not too long.

The narrowing factor for me is that I be able to complete it pretty fast, like 1 year is about the max, it should be more like 1 year for 'average' adults who are working a job, hence if the program allows, then I could complete it in months if working full-time.

Again, I know that's a lot to ask for, but EMT does exist Then again, see, even the EMT certification does not provide much real interaction with patients. It's only if you then use the EMT to volunteer for months that you get anything. And with only EMT-B, they won't let you do anything much.

The main thing is I didn't want my patient interaction time (when I volunteer, which I am looking forward to starting) to be something silly like serving them food or changing their sheets. So in order to have interaction you usually need some training. But, as I said, I don't want to spend too much time on this aspect since I have some other options (especially if I travel), just seeing if there is anything else that fits the situation.

 

Independence University offers a A.S. in Advanced Respiratory Care. All didactic courses are complete via DL. You will need to attend clinicals at a location in your area (most likely a hospital).

Independence Univ. is accredited by DETC as well as the Commission on Accreditation for Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP) in collaboration with the Committee on Accreditation for Respiratory Care (CoARC).

Not sure how long this program would take to complete.

 

Yeah, that one looks great and normally takes 2 years but can be done a bit faster -- BUT there are many complaints that it's extremely hard to find a place for clinicals because the hospitals don't want anyone from this school. Clinicals are something like 720 hours! So yeah the student is a big burden on the hospital. What the hospital gains is generally the student is local and might work for them after graduation.

 

As mentioned above, Southeast also offers an online Respiratory Therapy program. This might be a better option, since Southeast likely has a better reputation than Independence.

 

Sa

It sounds like you enjoy the medical field. May I suggest the Surgical First Assistant route. It provides a rigorous 1 year curriculum with a "prestigious" credential. A few states license the first assistant and have laws establishing billing practices. Illinois, Kentucky, Texas, D.C., have license /registration laws a few other states like Florida have pending legislation.
http://www.idfpr.com/dpr/who/surgast.asp

CAAHEP accredits a few SFA distant learning programs but check what pre-requisites are required. http://www.caahep.org/Find-An-Accredited-Program/

Meridian Institute in Tennessee appears to be promising.
http://www.meridian-institute.com/
They offer a 3 phase program which includes online didactic, 1 week at Vanderbilt University practicing on live animals and a clinical component with 125 surgical cases.

Caution! Being a First or Second assistant requires a strong stomach! In addition, you need to literally know your anatomy inside and out.

 

Certified Sterilization Tech

A good way to get your foot in the door prior to becoming a SFA is to become a certified sterilization technician. Basically, you are a glorified medical equipment dishwasher but you learn all the surgical instruments, anatomy, microbiology and how to set up a sterile field.

http://www.sterileprocessing.org/courses/courses1.htm

The course leading to the Ambulatory Surgery Technician certification looks appealing!

 

http://www.sterileprocessinguniversity.com/

 

I'm pretty sure that SFA is only for after you are a surgical technologist for a while.

I am going for the AA route (small chance of PA/RT/etc instead) as discussed in the other thread but am looking for quick little things to do along the way.

Sterile processing is totally along the lines of what I'm wanting to do right now. Thanks! I may do that. Still interested in knowing what else I could do in case the local hospitals don't need someone for sterile processing.

One thing I have interest in is helping patients understand medical literature and paperwork, and find informative materials they need... of course medical librarian takes too much training for what I am seeking... may find a volunteer position where they just train me for a couple days. Could be good to have some kind of little certificate related to this.