Life Care Planning – Online Degree & Certificate Programs
Life care planners are health service professionals that specialize in working with the traumatically disabled or chronically ill. The chief goal of a life care planner is to assess future health care costs for the disabled patient. The life career planner assists the patient in becoming more comfortable with their new lifestyle by designing a support system that is will improve their overall quality of life. A life care planner may also be retained by a lawyer to determine settlement costs in malpractice lawsuits brought by victims against hospitals, car drivers, and the like. A combination of nurse, therapist, and advocate, a successful life care planner is well-versed in skills as wide-ranging as litigation and physical therapy. As a career in life care planning entails engaging with seriously ill patients, individuals who choose to pursue the profession should be sensitive, compassionate, and altruistic.
Duties
The basic duty of a life care planner is to spend time with severely disabled patients and their doctors in order to formulate a cost analysis for projected future health services. Such costs may include medical equipment and other health services such as in-home care. The life care planner takes into account many factors when making their assessment, including the age and health of the patient and doctor recommendations. A life care planner will, on average, spend about 4 to 5 hours a day with a patient in order to better appraise their needs. The overall intention of a life care planner is to design a lifestyle that will make life as streamlined and stress-free as possible for a disabled patient. Many life care planners also work with lawyers to estimate the amount of care the injured will need in the future. The exact tasks undertaken by life care planners differ based upon what job they were hired to complete, but will always be focused on the well-being of the patient.
Education and Background
Life care planners are by and large made up of registered nurses or other health service professionals with long term experience in their related field. Physical therapists are another example of a professional that often work as a life care planner. Life care planners must be knowledgeable about a wide range of skills, including health issues, legal situations, and generally medical techniques. Successful life care planners have amassed a large amount of work experience in a related field before entering their chosen profession.
To become a life care planner, make sure to gain as much work experience as possible in a health service profession. The more on-the-job training one receives as a health service provider will prove beneficial in a later career as a life care planner. Good career choices for future life care planners include nurses, occupational therapist, home care aids, and physiologists. Any occupation that teaches professions to recognize, treat, and gauge the effects of disability or illness is appropriate training for a vocation in life care planning.
After gaining enough professional experience in various health care service fields, the next step is earning a certificate in life care planning. Life career planning certificate courses will cover the basics of the profession, along with educating potential planners about the legal and operational aspects of life care planning.
Employment Opportunities and Salary
The number of elderly people is fast outpacing that of any other age group. With the retirement of the Baby Boomer generation already underway, the amount of disabled and ill people in need of life care planning services is expected to increase in size dramatically over the next 10 years. According to a current survey, entry-level life care planners can charge between $80 and $150 hourly for their services. Employers that currently have positions available to life care planners include insurance companies, law firms, and government agencies. Some life care planners run their own consulting business as a way to earn extra income.
