Healthcare Careers – Benefiting from ALLEGRA Learning Courses

ALLEGRA Learning courses and certificate programs can provide you with healthcare career options in many ways:

• They improve your basic knowledge of specific topics and can improve your skills in specific areas.
• Certificate programs can help you seek a job or career in another field or specialty.
• They can increase your ability to provide support to a diverse client population.
• They can help you obtain continuing education credit toward a national certification or relicensure.

All our courses and certificate programs can also help you personally by providing education to enhance and support your health and wellness journey.

Certificate Programs vs. Certification

ALLEGRA Learning has certificate programs. These differ significantly from “certification” in a particular area. A certificate program is an educational program that awards a certificate of completion after the program is completed. Credentials (i.e. “letters” after a name) are not awarded for a certificate program.

A certification refers to an earned credential that demonstrates specialized knowledge, skills, and experience.

• Certification is a voluntary process of validating knowledge, skills, and abilities beyond the scope of the nursing (or other healthcare) license.
• Certification is awarded by a third-party, nongovernmental entity.
• Certification candidates receive their credential only after they meet strict eligibility criteria and successfully complete a standardized exam.
• Credentials are nationally recognized and are also portable so they can be used in all states and all organizations.
• Certification credentials are often good for a period of time (such as 5 years) and include ongoing requirements that must be met to keep the certification current. The recertification process usually includes a combination of continuing education and experience in the subject area to ensure that credential holders have maintained a specific level of expertise in their specialty and that they participate in activities that support competency in their specialty.
• Certification usually results in the ability to place “letters” after one’s name.
• They, too, are often useful in the workplace as a way of demonstrating additional knowledge or skill in a subject area and are helpful to individuals who are seeking to improve their knowledge in a particular area or change careers (include starting one’ own business).

Certificate vs. Certification Exams

Often an exam is required to complete a certificate program. This exam is very different from a certification exam. Certificate exams are developed by the organization that created the course content. Certification exams are comprised of standardized exam questions based on national studies of job analyses and nursing/health care roles. Certification exams are administered in a secure and proctored environment, and they undergo regular statistical psychometric analyses that measure the fairness and difficulty of the exam questions.

How Do I Further My Healthcare Career?

Depending on the topic you are studying, the ability to coach, teach, advise, etc. requires a level of knowledge that is often greater than what our certificate courses offer. Often clients may have medical conditions, take medications, have physical restrictions, etc.

The knowledge in these certificate courses (while thorough and excellent as supporting knowledge, especially for those individuals already with high levels of health care knowledge and expertise such as nursing, medicine, etc.) is not adequate for those without health care expertise.

If you wish to teach, advise, coach, change healthcare career specialties, etc. in a particular topic, we strongly encourage you to find additional ways to gain more knowledge in the healthcare career in which you are interested. These ways may include, but are not limited to, formal college education, national certification, seminar/workshop training, etc.

1. Check what (if any) state requirements there are regarding your career interest, training, etc. For example, massage therapists or acupuncturists may have specific requirements to be licensed in various states.
2. Learn all you can about any specialty, modality you wish to practice, or field you are interested in. This provides you with appropriate knowledge, experience, expertise, and skill AND ensures the safety of a client.
3. Obtain national certification(s) in any modality in which there is licensing involved and/or when it is important for clients and practitioners to ensure the safety of clients (this includes most types of healing modalities).

In short, the courses we offer are introductory and developed to provide a foundation of knowledge for someone wishing to pursue the topics further. They are also continuing education courses designed to support and enhance knowledge for practitioners already in the field. They can provide a solid basis for the skills and education needed to support your current healthcare career or help you find a new career option.

To learn about starting your own business in health and healing, check out our Certificate in Starting Your Own Business in Health and Healing.