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What Are the Requirements to Become a Licensed Dentist in Illinois?
There are many types of professions that are regulated in Illinois, such as cosmetology, psychology, financial services, and even architecture. One regulated profession that does not come as much of a surprise is dentistry. The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) oversees the licensing, continuing education, practice, and discipline of dentists and related professions in the state. Becoming a dentist takes years of hard work and study, but getting your dental license requires you to know all of the requirements before you apply for your Illinois dental license.
General Dentistry Licenses
Like many other health-related professions in Illinois and throughout the country, you must have a license to practice dentistry in Illinois. To obtain a license to practice general dentistry, you must:
- Be at least 21 years old
- Be of “good moral character”
How Can Physician Burnout Effect Professional Licensure in Illinois?
At some point, we have all felt exhausted, cynical, or unhappy with our jobs. This is called burnout and it can have negative effects on job performance and personal happiness. Physician burnout has been one of the topics of concern among the medical community for a few years now. According to the American Medical Association (AMA), more than 40 percent of all physicians in the United States report experiencing signs of burnout. Physician burnout has been linked to higher rates of medical errors, lower quality of patient care, and a higher rate of physician drug and alcohol abuse and/or addiction. Physician burnout and its associated outcomes could have serious implications for your Illinois medical license.
Signs of Burnout
Burnout is a long-term response to work-related stress that is characterized by emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and diminished feelings of personal accomplishment. Burnout is not unique to medical professions, but physicians tend to be more prone than others. Other symptoms of burnout can include:
What You Should Know About PBM Pharmacy Audits in Illinois
In the healthcare industry, there are many safeguards put in place to protect patients. When it comes to medication and pharmacies, it is no different. PBM pharmacy audits are conducted both for the sake of the pharmacy benefit manager (PMB) and for you, the pharmacy owner. A PBM audit can be a stressful experience for a pharmacy, especially a small, independent one, but many pharmacies cannot operate at desired capacity without also working with a PBM. If you have an upcoming PBM pharmacy audit, proper preparation is key to success.
Documentation is Extremely Important
For many pharmacies, but especially independent pharmacies, documentation is often an area that needs attention. When your PBM auditor comes to your pharmacy, they may request to see certain documentation that could be from months or even years ago. This documentation could be anything to do with things such as supply changes, such as going from a 30-day supply to a 60-day supply, or early refills. Having your documentation completed, thorough, and organized will save you much stress during the audit.
Common Charting Errors and How They Could Jeopardize Your Illinois Nursing License
In many ways, nurses are integral to a properly-functioning healthcare system. Nurses play an important role in patient care, especially because they are usually the ones who spend a majority of time with the patient. One of the tasks that nurses perform is documenting a patient’s history and medical care, also known as charting. Charting is an essential part of a nurse’s job and mistakes on a chart or an incomplete chart could result in injury or harm to the patient or in some cases, even death. Because of this, your nursing license could be at risk if you make a charting error. If you face disciplinary action related to a charting or documentation error, you should speak with an Illinois nursing license defense lawyer.
Common Documentation Errors
Proper charting and patient documentation are crucial for not only the patient’s health and safety, but also for your sake. Charting errors can lead to a slew of issues such as improper treatments, lack of treatment, permanent damage or even death to a patient. If a malpractice or other legal suit is filed pertaining to your patient and it was discovered that you made an error when you were charting, you could face serious consequences.
Medical Licenses and Medical Malpractice Lawsuits
Being accused of committing medical malpractice is one of the worst things that could happen to a medical professional. It takes years upon years of education, training, residency, and internship to become a physician. The last thing you would want to see is all of that go down the drain because of a patient complaint. In most cases, medical professionals do not have to worry about facing disciplinary action if they are accused of malpractice, but there are situations in which your license could be put into jeopardy if you are found to be responsible for malpractice.
What Is Medical Malpractice?
Medical malpractice occurs when a medical professional causes injury or harm to a patient because of a negligent act. Malpractice can occur during any stage of care, but to be considered malpractice, it must contain the following three elements:
- The standard of care was violated
Reinstating an Illinois Pharmacist License
To become a pharmacist, a person has to go through many years of schooling, pass dozens of tests and complete thousands of hours of an internship. Becoming a pharmacist is a huge accomplishment; to have that all taken away from you can be devastating. There are many reasons why your pharmacist license might have been taken away. Perhaps you got into trouble for illegally distributing controlled substances. Or maybe you made an error in a prescription that you filled for a patient. Whatever the reason, having your ability to practice taken away can be disheartening. However, there are steps you can take to have your license reinstated.
Reinstating Your Pharmacist License
In most cases, it is possible to have your pharmacist license reinstated if it has lapsed into the inactive status. The process of reinstatement will look different depending on the length of time that has passed since the license was inactive status. Depending on the time that has passed, your requirements for reinstatement will be slightly different.
Continuing Education Requirements for Illinois Social Workers
In the state of Illinois, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of people who have careers as licensed professionals. These professions can range from the obvious, such as doctors and nurses, to the not-so-obvious, like architects and engineers. The one thing that all of these careers have in common is the need to become licensed in the state they practice. The state of Illinois has also put into place certain requirements for license renewal for many professions, one such requirement is continuing education. This requirement exists for the sake of maintaining a knowledgeable and up-to-date workforce. One such profession that requires continuing education is social work.
Understanding Social Work Licensure
In Illinois, there are two types of licenses you can receive in the social work profession: a licensed social worker (LSW) and a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW). These two types of licenses are very similar, though they have separate qualifications and requirements, mostly depending on your experience as a social worker. No matter the type of license, social work licenses expire on November 30 of every odd-numbered year. Despite these differences, the continuing education requirements are the same for these licenses.
Protecting Your Medical License When You Prescribe Controlled Pain Medications
The United States has been experiencing what has been referred to as an opioid epidemic for years now. Part of the cause of the epidemic was due to pharmaceutical companies insisting these medications were safe and non-addictive. This led physicians to prescribe narcotics at an increasing rate for patients with chronic pain. After it was discovered that these medications were actually highly addictive, they became controlled substances and subject to many regulations. State licensing and regulatory agencies began cracking down on physicians’ prescribing of these medications, punishing many who were abusive or neglectful in their power to prescribe. In 2019, 36 physicians in Illinois received some sort of disciplinary action due to improper controlled substance prescribing practices.
Opioid Use Guidelines for Physicians
In 2017, the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) adopted a policy that outlines responsible prescribing practices for physicians with the privilege to prescribe controlled substances. This policy gives state medical boards criteria to use to evaluate a physician’s management of a chronic pain patient. This criteria includes evaluating the physician’s:
Understanding the Most Common Forms of Disciplinary Action Taken Against Physicians
One of the biggest and most concerning things that could happen to a physician is losing their privilege to practice medicine. While this type of disciplinary action is not as common as other types, it does happen in some cases and can be devastating to the physician. According to the latest information from the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB), there were more than 8,800 state medical board actions taken across the country in 2017. These actions range from something as simple as imposing a fine to permanently revoking a physician’s medical license. Here are the most common forms of disciplinary action taken against physicians in the United States:
- License restricted (1,343): The most common form of discipline from medical boards across the country was to restrict a professional’s medical license. Having your medical license restricted typically means you are limited in what you can do as a physician. Typically, restrictions have something to do with clinical privileges, such as restricting the ability to write prescriptions.
How Substance Abuse Can Affect Your Professional License
After a long and stressful day, sometimes it is nice to come home and have a glass of wine or a beer. It is not uncommon for someone to come home from work and have a drink or two to unwind, but for some people, this can become a harmful habit -- especially if you work in the medical field. Individuals who work in the medical field face an immense amount of stress and tension on a daily basis. Multiple studies have suggested that medical workers face a higher chance of developing a substance abuse issue. According to the Mayo Clinic Proceedings, somewhere between 10 and 12 percent of all physicians will develop a substance abuse issue during their careers. Substance abuse is serious for anyone, but for a physician or other medical professional, it could jeopardize their career.
Signs of a Substance Abuse Issue
Sometimes, it can be difficult to spot the signs of substance abuse in a medical professional. Most of the time, medical professionals are very high functioning substance abusers, meaning they are still able to go about their daily lives and maintain their careers and households for a period of time. Here are a few common signs that a medical professional is battling substance abuse:
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