12 Classes Every Medical Assisting School Should Teach

Even though Medical Assisting programs and classes vary across the country (and depend on state accreditation standards), there are a number of common subjects most medical assisting students will learn about.

Since medical assistants perform a variety of clinical and administrative duties within a medical office, adequate training in a broad range of subjects is necessary to accomplish the common tasks often required of by medical assistants.

The following list is a snapshot of some of the classes you should take in your medical assisting program:

Patient care

Disease Transmission/Bacteriology

Pharmacology

Medical insurance

Bookkeeping

Health sciences

Cardiopulmonary

Electrocardiography

Laboratory procedures

Endocrinology and reproduction

Medical Law and Ethics

Externship/Internship

This might seem overwhelming at first, but remember that these classes are not taught all at once. Depending on the medical assisting program you join, you will take one to three classes at a time.

And, some of these classes might be blended together. For example, the Medical Insurance class might include a study of bookkeeping; or the Patient Care course might include a study of laboratory procedures. You may only have to take 6 to 8 classes to graduate, but make sure these subjects are included in your study.

This broad class list might also look scary simply because of the strange class names. Cardiopulmonary, Electrocardiography, and Endocrinology sound more like classes that medical doctors would take, but rest assured that the words sounds worse than the class really is.

Let’s breakdown each medical assisting class so you know exactly what’s getting discussed.

Patient Care

Most medical assisting programs will have a class about the proper way to take care of patients and how best to explain common procedures. Patient care classes are important because they will teach you skills in reviewing patient charts, records management, basic front office skills, working with patients, and often common medical terminology is discussed.

Disease Transmission/Bacteriology

Classes in disease transmission and the importance of sterilization is vital to any medical assisting curriculum. You want to know the proper methods in sterilization, and the basic laws initiated by the various health related governmental agencies (e.g. Occupational Health and Safety Administration).

Pharmacology

The pharmacology class will help you learn about the common medicines prescribed by doctors. You’ll learn about therapeutic drugs, and their effects on the body. You will also learn proper methods of administering medicines.

Medical Insurance

Learning to work with health care insurance companies is also an important skill for medical assistants. This class will focus on teaching you how to read medical insurance bills, and how to understand some of the common terminology.

Bookkeeping

Basic knowledge of bookkeeping procedures is also important. This class will usually give you hands-on experience with check writing procedures, medical billing and coding, financial management, and basic accounting skills.

Health Sciences

Sometimes the health sciences course is integrated with another class listed here. This class highlights practical guidelines for good nutrition and weight control strategies.

Cardiopulmonary

Cardiopulmonary will give you insight into the circulatory and respiratory systems. You’ll learn to check vital signs, learn medical terminology, and most schools will train you in CPR.

Electrocardiography

Though this class sounds like something you learn as an electrician, it actually is a class focused on studying the electrical pathways of the heart muscle. It prepares you for applying EKG or ECG leads to record the heart’s movement.

Laboratory Procedures

The lab procedures class will teach you common lab procedures performed in a medical office. You’ll study the proper handling, collection, and transportation procedures for various bio specimens.

Endocrinology and Reproduction

Endocrinology and reproduction will give you an overview of the functions of the skeletal, endocrine, and reproductive systems. This course often incorporates a study of child growth and development issues. You also might study various aspects affecting behavior.

Medical Law & Ethics

Vital to any medical office is a strict adherence to the medical laws and ethics governing a health care facility. During your medical assisting training, you’ll learn the principals and rules that should be followed, and how to recognize any illegal activity.

Externship/Internship

Any quality medical assisting program will give you an opportunity for real-world experience through an internship or externship program. The internship usually involves spending several hours a week in a medical facility where you’ll practice the skills you’ve learned. The internship programs are important because it allows you to gain confidence while gaining practical experience.

This brief list is just a summary of what you’ll be taught. Each medical assisting program will have different names for their classes. What’s important is that these subjects are incorporated somehow into your medical assisting classes.

If you find a program that is missing one of these subjects, make sure to question the academic dean or admissions representative at the school prior to enrollment. Find out the reasons why you will not get taught one of the above areas.

It’s not vital for your medical assisting career that you are taught all these classes ahead of time. Some of these subjects can get taught while on the job, or even during an internship. So it makes sense that certain medial assistant schools might not incorporate every subject here.

What’s important through this training is that you feel comfortable with the program you will enter. You want to know that upon graduation you are prepared and trained to begin working confidently in a medical facility. If you have doubts about the medical assisting program, visit other schools. In most major cities, you should find several schools offering medical assisting programs.

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How to Summarize and Paraphrase For Academic Writing

Do you know how to summarize your writing and paraphrase your content? In academic writing, summarizing and paraphrasing are very essential skills. With majority of college writing essays geared towards proving a point, you will very likely need to depend on a lot of source material to effectively argue your case.

First, a bit of refresher:

Summarizing is all about reducing a material down to its most important points, often bringing it down to roughly a third or less of the original source.

Paraphrasing, on the other hand, is about restating a passage in your own words, often as an alternative to using a direct quotation.

In the case of your college essays, you will employ both techniques to integrate evidence from previous writing into your own work. If you're struggling to put together either type, the following advice might help.

Summarizing

Scan the text.

Locate and highlight the main points. A good first place to look for are the topic sentences on each paragraph.

Rewrite the material using the main points you found, setting aside evidence and examples.

Paraphrasing

Review the source text.

Rewrite it in your own words.

Use reporting verbs and phrases to show attribution.

Put unique and author-driven phrases in quotes.

Like other parts of your essays, summaries and paraphrases are best done with the help of a competent writing software. While the thoughts you will express in them aren't original, the words you will be using are and they'll be best served with a dose of polish from such a tool.

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Do You Really Need Medical and Academic Editing Services?

Most journals today recommend that ESL authors (authors for whom English is a second language) seek the help of a professional academic editing service or a native speaker of English before submitting their manuscripts. Why has academic editing become such an integral part of the publishing process? Isn't research about the subject and not the language?

As research output the world over increases and researchers compete to publish their findings in the most reputed peer-reviewed journals, the journals themselves are raising the bar for submissions. Authors now need to ensure that apart from submitting interesting, novel research, they are submitting a well-structured, grammatically correct, and well-formatted manuscript. Moreover, several studies have revealed that "poor writing" is one of the top 10 reasons for rejection at the peer review stage. This means that if your manuscript is not written in clear English, you run the risk of rejection. That's where academic paper editing services step in-they ensure that the language and formatting within a manuscript matches international standards.

Specialized academic and medical editing services staff professional English-language editors who edit your manuscript to make sure that it is written in native English and reflects current research writing conventions. Trained editors understand not only the minutiae of grammar-punctuation, spelling, sentence construction, word choice, etc.-but also the nuances specific to your subject. They ensure that your manuscript is written in a lucid, unambiguous way that communicates the true value of the manuscript content. So hiring an academic editing service is not simply about getting a language check; it is about enhancing the overall presentation, flow, tone, and structure and ensuring that your manuscript makes a good first impression.

Given the competitive nature of journal publication, even native speakers today are seeking out professional academic editing services. Of course, that doesn't mean that every researcher requires academic or medical editing help. So how do you decide whether or not to seek professional editing help? Here are a few pointers.

• You probably don't need an editor if most of the following statements are true:

o You're an experienced researcher with published papers to your name.

o You have a good understanding of English grammar and idiomatic expressions, and are experienced when it comes to writing in English.

o You understand the publication process, academic writing conventions, and subject-specific writing conventions

o You know how to format a manuscript to meet journal requirements

• You need an editor if most of the following statements are true:

o You have not published many papers in English-language journals.

o You are not confident of your English-language writing skills.

o You are not very familiar with the journal publication process and academic writing conventions.

o You are not experienced in formatting a manuscript to meet journal requirements.

In sum, for researchers who do not have much experience publishing in English or who are not fluent in English, seeking professional academic editing help is the recommended route. An editor will enhance the language and presentation of your paper, giving you a better shot at acceptance. If you're still unsure, consider this: your decision to hire an editor might be the difference between a rejection letter and a more favorable outcome.

"Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind." Rudyard Kipling

And I am admittedly a word addict, ever enthralled by the infinite potential of words to enable people to reach out, express, forge relationships, and build our own languages, histories, and futures.

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Next Time You're Writing an Essay, Have Examples of Essays in Front of You

You may have heard the expression 'learn by example' and indeed, you probably have some idea that this may be the best way for humans to learn. But did you know that research supports learning by example as being the most effective method of learning?

What's more, putting the solution in front of the student is actually more effective than asking them to work it out for themselves. Research has shown that for novice learners, studying worked examples is more effective for learning than other types of learning methods. Learning this way is more efficient in that better learning outcomes are achieved with less investment of time and effort during acquisition. This is sometimes called 'the worked example effect' and can be explained by looking at the different cognitive processes involved when the student is asked to study examples, vs. conventional problem solving exercises.

When a novice student is required to solve conventional problems, they tend to resort to weak problem solving strategies such as means-ends analysis, in which learners continuously search for operators to reduce the difference between the current problem state and the goal state. Whilst the learner may indeed solve the problem eventually, this is not effective for learning. By contrast, worked examples prevent the use of such weak problem-solving strategies, allowing the learner instead to devote all the available cognitive capacity to studying the worked-out solution procedure (i.e., the relationship between problem states and operators) and constructing a cognitive schema for solving such problems. The learner further extracts general rules from the examples, enabling them to solve similar problems in the future (see Tamara van Gog & Nikol Rummel's 'Example-Based Learning: Integrating Cognitive and Social-Cognitive Research Perspectives', 2010). So next time you're struggling to complete an essay or problem, make sure you have examples of essays or worked problems in front of you to guide you. This is the most effective way to learn.

Aside from following examples that other students have produced, an essential way to get better at the essay writing process is to read up on what makes a good essay and ensure you don't lose marks for sloppy errors such as poor referencing, grammar, spelling or punctuation. There's no need to buy a book - there are a host of resources on the Internet to help you, and they're all free. So make sure you invest a little time in learning what makes a first class essay - from looking at others' work and by reading what's important for that coveted first class grade.

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Falling Standard Of Education In Nigeria: Who Is To Be Blame?

INTRODUCTION

The concept " falling standard of Education" is a relative term because there is no well defined instruments to measure it with utmost reliability and validity. That is why scholars' views on the concept varies. These scholars view it at different perspectives, depending on the angle each of them is looking at it.

Babalola, A (2006) sees the concept from admission of Nigerian University products in developed countries universities. That the first six Nigerian Universities (University of Ibadan, Ile Ife, Lagos, Benin, Nsukka and Zaria) had their products competing favourably with any other University in the world as their products were sought for by University of Harvard, Cambridge, Oxford and London for admission into their post-graduate courses. That these students record breaking performances and when they graduate are employed by the best multi-national companies and corporate bodies globally unlike today where no Nigerian University is among the top 6,000 Universities of the world (Adeniyi, Bello (2008) in Why no worry about rankings). He sees standard from how universities contribute to knowledge and solving problems besetting mankind.

According to Gateway to the Nation (2010), University of Ibadan is ranked 6,340th University in the world. In Africa, University of Ibadan is ranked 57th, OAU 69th and South African Universities are leading the way in Africa.

He also use written and spoken English as a yardstick for measuring standard of education which University of London conducted a research in West Africa and the result showed that teachers trained by colonial masters were better of than those trained by indigenous teachers.

He also used staffing, funding, foundation, origin and students as standard of education.

Standard of education to Dike, V. (2003) is how education contribute to the public health (or sociopolitical and economic development of a Nation).

Standard of education to either passing or failing of external examinations like WAEC, NECO, NABTEB, JAMB,(NOW UTME) among others.

Teachers without Boarders (2006) looks at educational standard from how the products of schools can be measured in terms of outcome. That is how school leavers contribute to the society in terms of cognitive affective and psychomotor. I will be using students to refer to both students and pupils, I will use head teacher to refer to both principal and headmaster.

Which ever way you may view standard of education, for you to conclude whether the standard is falling or not, you must take into consideration all the aforementioned variables including achieving educational goals.

Equally, for justice to be done while measuring these standards one has to look at reliability where all the schools to be measured must have the same infrastructure, teaching materials, quality of teachers, level and degree of learners, condition within which learning takes place, some methods of assessment and some types of contribution to the society among others.

CAUSES OF FALLING STANDARDS

Haven discussed what makes up standard in education, may I crave your indulgence to some of the established facts that constitute falling standard of education in Nigeria.

(1) Discipline: This is one of the outstanding attributes of education when it is rightly observed.

a. Repeating: school no longer observe repeating as every student is promoted to the next class whether they understand or not gives room for falling standard.

b. Attendance: The 75% of attendance universally accepted as the bases for someone to sit for examination is no longer observed.

c. Late coming: Student that come late are no longer punished, which leads to their losing morning classes.

d. Misbehaviour: Students are no longer punished for misbehavior because of their parental influences (lost of jobs or unnecessary transfer).

e. Cultism: This could refer to rituals, usually under oath binding the members to a common course. They operate covertly in fulfillment of their objectives to the detriment of other people. Thus, planning secondary needs above primary needs.

These cults exist because of over population of students in schools, wrong admissions not based on merits, hence fear of examination failures and selfish worldly gains.

(2) Quest for paper qualification: Nigerians respect paper qualification above performance in the fields. Hence, cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains are supposed to be measured on the field.

(3) Politicizing education: Merit is no longer regarded as it is now " who you know" and not "what you can deliver" Technocrats (educationists are not appointed Commissioner of education and education board).

(4) Policy problem: Sometimes the type of policies government make on education adversely affects output. For instance, in College of Education, we have National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE), competing with JAMB for admission as the two guidelines vary.

Equally, WAEC, NECO, NABTEB, JAMB ( now UTME) compete with qualifying pre-requisites and regulation of entries into tertiary institutions.

(5) Teachers not being part of the examination bodies. One wonders whether the continuous Assessment submitted by these teachers are used or not.

(6) Accessibility of Schools: The Nigerian population boom has outnumbered the existing schools as the existing schools have to over admit.

This point can be practically seen in the following areas:

(i) Teacher / Student ratio of 1:25 is no longer there as in my class, it is 1:3900.

(ii) Students / books / Journals ratio of 1:10 is no longer feasible.

(iii) Politics of admission: Schools can no longer set targets for admission to conform with their facilities as powerful notes from above will force the school authorities to either over admit or find themselves in the labour market again. Yet it is those that are giving these notes are suppose to build more schools or provide needed infrastructure etc. to accommodate those collecting these notes.

(7) Over-dependent on cognitive domain: Schools do not give regards to affective domain that will mould characters of our young ones. Little attention is given to psychomotor while no attention is given to affective domain.

(8) Shortage of qualified teachers: Some schools in the rural areas only have the headmaster as government employee while the rest that may be secondary school drop outs are PTA staff. What miracle can these staff perform? Dike, V. (2006) observed that only 23% out of the then 400,000 primary schools in Nigeria have grade II even when NCE is now the minimum qualification for teachers at primary and Junior Secondary schools.

(9) Teachers welfare: It is no longer news that

(a) Politicians do not have negotiation council to negotiate their salary increase.

(b) There is no disparity among political office holders from the federal, state and local governments.

(c) Their salaries are increased at astronomical manner.

(d) Their salaries are increased any time without recourse to whether the nation's economy can bear it or not.

(e) But for teachers, they must negotiate the 10 to 20% of an attempt to increase their salary with consideration of the economy of the nation. How can these teachers contribute and perform miracle when their family members are in the hospitals and the O.S. syndrome is written on their cards by pharmacists while they do not have money to treat.

(10) Constant Strikes: This is an impediment to smooth covering of syllabus. Oefule (2009) explained that one Nigerian guest asked a question on strike at Oxford University community but the vice chancellor could not even remember about strike, only the registrar remembered it for 17 years back. This is what governance means to the people.

(11) Long rule of the military; Education was not properly funded by the military regimes as according to Babalola, A(2006) Obasanjos administration inherited many left over problems of the military such as non- payment of pensions and gratuities of retired University staff, poor remuneration of university staff, dilapidating buildings of schools, libraries with outdated books, obsolete laboratory equipments, bad campus roads, inadequate water and power supply among others.

(12) In the secondary and primary schools levels, schools do not even have buildings talk less` of furniture's, equipments and reading materials. This is the level where the foundation of education should be laid. Any faulty foundation will lead to faulty structures. What do you expect from the tertiary level?

(13) Lack of training of teachers: Teachers are not trained to update their knowledge with latest discoveries based on research, then how can they give what they don't have?

(14) Poor state of Educational teaching facilities: Dike V. (2006) reported that research result shows that over 2015 primary schools in Nigeria do not have building but study under trees, talk less of teaching materials.

(15) Corruption: leaders of the schools and some Government officials either connive to buy equipments with loan money that cannot be of any use to the school or take such loans and do not even do anything with it.

(16) Poor budgetary allocation to education: A research work of 2001 shows that Nigeria only, allocate less than 20% to education it further reveals that Nigeria spends 0.76% to education as against Uganda 2.6%, Tanzania3.4%, Mozambique 4.1%, Angola 4.9%, Coted Ivore 5% Kenya 6.5% and South Africa 7.9% among others.

WHO IS TO BE BLAMED?

We have seen the causes of falling standards and from these causes we can deduce that the following are to be blamed:

1. Government suppose to carry the lion share of the blame because all the other variables are dependent variables to it.

2. Teachers also have their shares of the blame with regards to their diligent duties.

3. Parents: feeding has to be provided by parents. This is because parents do not leave schools to operate without interference.

4. Students: students who do not abide by school rules and regulations nor pay attention to their studies also contribute to falling standards. Students also seek for paper qualification and disregards to performance they also participate in cult activities that derail the progress of the academy.

5. The society is not left out as it is the way it sees and respects the products of these schools that recycles back again.

SOLUTION

Based on the problems or causes identified above, the following solutions are proffered: Schools should respect and restore back discipline to bring back the lost glory of our educational standards.

Performance should be regarded and respected more than just paper qualification. Equally, education should not be politicized for whatever reason.

Policy makers should be mindful of policies that affect education .eg JAMB(UTME) regulation in admissions.

Teachers should be involved in examination activities and examination bodies should always publish examination reports and distribute it to various schools for them to hold school workshop for training of subject teachers on their areas of weaknesses observed in the students' scripts with regards to following the marking scheme.

More schools should be built to increase accessibility by all. Cognitive, affective and psychomotor domain should be used for assessment of students.

Teachers' welfare should be given priority by government to avoid unnecessary strikes in our educational sector while more qualified teachers should be employed to curb the present shortage of teachers in our schools.

Our civilian government should prove to the people that they are better than military government.

Teachers should be trained so that they can meet up with any new challenges Educational facilities should be upgraded to modern standards while teaching facilities should be adequately provided.

Corruption should be eliminated to the barest minimum by all stakeholders while government should increase its budgetary allocations to education to improve the standard of education in Nigeria.

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Scholarship Essay Competitions - Three Options

People looking to get funds for higher education have multiple opportunities. If writing is one of your strengths, then you may consider scholarship essay contests. The amount provided will vary from award to award. However, there are several essay contest scholarships.

Student-specific options for financial aid include scholarships and grants. These are given on the basis of athletic ability, ethnicity. Essay contests are also such an award. The person entering the contest must have the ability to write an essay. Here are three ways to obtain money for your education:

Scholarship Essay Contests

1. Ayn Rand Institute Scholarships

This contest requires you to write on the work of Ayn Rand. The institute runs multiple competitions. Here are the details of a few of them:

Anthem: Open to Grade 8, 9 and 10 students. The first place winner gets $2000.

Atlas Shrugged: Open to Grade 12 students as well as college graduates and undergraduates. The top prize is $10,000.

Fountainhead: Open to grade 11 and 12 students. The first place award is $10,000.

Eligible Countries: Worldwide

Students looking for scholarships with essays have many options. Within the Ayn Rand institute, there are several competitions being run. Two of the ones mentioned above are open to high school students, while one is open to both school and college students. Also, the Atlas Shrugged essay contest is open to those who have graduated from college. More information about these opportunities can be found at aynrandnovels.org/essay-contests.html

2. National Peace Essay Contest

NPEC is one of the essay contest scholarships that is open to high school students. The purpose of the program is to encourage activities that build peace. The details of NPEC are available at usip.org/category/course-type/national-peace-essay-contest/

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The Story of Lynne and Dave - Investment Advisors Who Issue Newsletters

(Note to reader: This is the actual story as created and told by Glenn Harrington of Articulate Consultants Inc. Other renditions of this story are in circulation, especially in Western Canada. This is the original.)

Lynne and Dave are two successful retail investment advisors, both of whom used a Harrington newsletter, and one of whom remains a successful investment advisor.

Lynne issued a Harrington newsletter for five bull-market years, then stopped it when the stock market turned in a bear run. She retired a few months later. Dave's story has a rebound, but not of the stock market. He really found the source of resilience in client relationships - heart.

The Story of Lynne and Dave is a story of differing approaches or philosophies about newsletters and client relationships. It also reflects how people's characters show in their businesses. I'm a strong believer that it's rewarding to let your character shine through in business - even if some people don't take to your true colours. We'll see, at the end of this story, what conclusions Lynne and Dave might have drawn.

When Lynne signed up with Glenn Harrington, she was a high-volume, top-grossing investment advisor. She put on seminars regularly. She did frequent advertising. She provided good performance to her clients. Her clients were pleased with their investment returns. Lynne accordingly put emphasis on her stock-picking acumen when she presented herself to the world.

It's a common principle in marketing to focus on what you're best at, or what makes you unique. Lynne regarded this as the stock-picking performance that her clients enjoyed. So, she made that her sales proposition.

Dave differed. He came to us a couple years after Lynne did. Dave was more modest. He seldom made performance claims. In terms of what was important to Lynne, Dave did speak of getting good returns for his investors. Yet, he didn't take a lot of personal pride in his ability to generate competitive returns for people. More importantly, he gave people confidence that he would make sure their money was well cared for, then delivered on that.

Lynne was a higher-profile investment advisor. One of the reasons why she came to us - actually, the main reason why Lynne came to us - was that she basically rejected the corporate newsletter. Lynne did not want a head-office newsletter that would include stock-picking advice, with her name and photo pasted onto it. Stock picking she regarded as her own specialty.

It was important to Lynne that she had her own claims to make. She had a reputation to maintain and build upon. It was important to her that her newsletter was authentically her own. Her ideas were expressed through her newsletter by us, with some value-add from us. We did newsletters for Lynne for about five years - that is, before she retired.

Dave started dealing with us because he was buying what's sometimes called the "off-the-shelf" newsletter or "canned" newsletter from a newsletter service. Not from his head office. His firm didn't have a head-office newsletter that he would even consider, though his head office did encourage advisors to use newsletters.

So, Dave subscribed to a newsletter service, where his name, photo, and phone number were pasted in with pre-written, pre-approved content and his firm's logo and disclaimer. He even had some choice as to which articles would go into those newsletters. The service gave him a small menu each, so that he could choose what articles he wanted in his newsletter - each time, if he wanted.

In any case, even though Dave regarded the off-the-shelf service as better than a corporate newsletter, he came to us because, frankly, he felt embarrassed sending a newsletter where the content was not from him. He felt uncomfortable that there was a lack of authenticity in that newsletter. He was concerned that someday, somebody would have a question and he could give an answer contradicting what the newsletter said. So, Dave was seeking authenticity and a more genuine connection with people who would listen to his newsletter as his voice.

Over the five years that we created newsletters for Lynne, I advised her several times that there was more to a client relationship than providing stock-picking advice and generating investment returns. She, as a woman in the investment business, considered it very important to come across as professional rather than personal. Her philosophy: Why show a caring side when you have edge?

Lynne decided that the colours of her newsletter would be a dark blue and black. She considered the blue to be professional. The paper she would print her newsletter on was a standard white bond: a very normal, unnoticeable paper for any newsletter.

The combination of black and blue on white paper led to a somewhat cold newsletter. When I told Lynne this, she replied that professionalism is a little bit cold; it wasn't her responsibility to be personal or luxurious with her clients, but rather to make sure that they get good returns.

Lynne did actually follow my advice in a few issues. For example, she ran a little story about her son and a little story about her daughter. She also started a lending library of business books that she made available to her clients as announced in two or three issues. Then, she basically told me that she decided to can this attempt at including personal content, because it did not get the phone ringing or increase her income. Nobody was borrowing books from the lending library, except for two people who borrowed books that they never returned. Lynne regarded these as failures. So, she would continue focusing in her newsletter on stock-picking and providing investment returns.

Dave, on the other hand, really took the advice to include some personal content. We ran stories about his family (which would be safe in the hands of people who were not his clients). We ran some stories that reflected Dave's personality. Also in photos of his client events, we let Dave's character show through.

Dave's involvement in the newsletter (in supplying source material) made that really easy - so that we did not have to do any guesswork. We worked together with Dave in a collaborative way, as we did with Lynne. Lynne and Dave each had their character showing in story angles and in other ways because of this.

One of the advantages of the collaboration with Dave was that we were able to get Dave's likeable, trustworthy character to show through in the newsletter - including the fact that he was modest about investment returns. We plainly implied (rather than explicitly stated) in his newsletter that people who want incredible stock-picking performance basically don't belong with him.

On the other hand, people belong with him who simply want to feel that their life savings are safe, being cared for by a trustworthy, likable, conscientious professional. This was the underlying message in every issue of Dave's newsletter.

Eventually, Lynne's business became strong enough that she continued to follow basically her own formula for her newsletter. We were mainly wordsmithing Lynne's ideas and doing assembly work for layout. I was concerned that her approach took unnecessary risk for her reputation, with transaction- and returns-based client relationships. It turned out that these concerns were justified.

When the stock market turned bearish in 1999-2000, Lynne lost clients. In fact, even though her stock-picking saved many of her clients from suffering as badly as the stock indices, over years Lynne had created a reputation for herself as somebody who would get people incredible stock returns. Her clients were not getting incredible stock returns - her clients or anybody else's. Because Lynne implicitly promised that they would get incredible stock returns with her, when they did not get incredible stock returns, she lost clients. In fact, Lynne lost so many clients that, in the first-quarter of 2001, she retired.

Lynne had just stopped issuing her newsletter, because she didn't think that the newsletter could make a difference on her main problem: client attrition. The attrition continued to a point where she basically would have had to rebuild for years - and those years of rebuilding could only start after the stock market had an upward trend again.

Lynne now spends much more time with her children. (The children that her clients barely knew about.) Dave, on the other hand, suffered very little attrition during those bear market days. Basically, the only attrition he endured was from clients who died, or in other cases, people who were leaving the country.

Dave actually managed to maintain normal attrition, even though other investment advisors (such as Lynne) were basically losing their book. Not only did Dave continue to maintain his clientele through periods of low investment returns, but he actually received new referrals. He continues to receive referrals.

In fact, Dave's business continued to grow so healthily after the bear market that he said, "My business is so successful that I don't need a newsletter anymore." Dave stopped his newsletter in the summer of 2003. By the summer of 2004, he had received so many expressions of concern from his clients that he felt he had to resume the newsletter to maintain that connection with them.

After he stopped his newsletter, Dave's clients became concerned that he was not successful. The truth is that he was so successful that he didn't think he needed a newsletter anymore.

They, however, were concerned they had lost their connection with their liked and trusted investment advisor. They were wondering, "Is my portfolio so small that I don't qualify to receive your newsletter anymore?" or "Are you not focused on people like me anymore?" or "Are you still in the business? What happened to you?" or "Have you been sick?" Dave received so many inquiries like this that he resumed his newsletter with us in the summer of 2005.

He found that attendances at client events became healthy again quickly. After the newsletter began again, attrition remained low and new referrals began again. Dave just recently announced to me that he has brought on a partner to help manage his business, because he has so many investors that he needs somebody else's help to serve them. He already had a full-time, licensed assistant with experience.

In summary, we can say that both Lynne and Dave rejected the conventional idea that any good newsletter sent regularly will work (in Lynne's case, the corporate newsletter; in Dave's case, the off-the-shelf newsletter). They came to us wanting their own voice with Harrington's value-add (writing, layout, arranging printing and delivery on schedule).

In Lynne's case, her main show of character was her pride in her stock-market performance. Lynne's pride and her career performance both turned southward quickly when the stock market did, because she failed to develop more actual relationship with people, rather than relationship with their money. When her performance sucked by the standard she had set, she lost clients.

Dave learned that when people like you and trust you, they stay with you and they bring more money to you. Let me say that again. When people like you and trust you, they stay with you, and they bring more money to you.

We have discovered with Dave, and learned the hard way with Lynne, that professionals who show their character, get involved, and put heart into their newsletter, enjoy a loyal clientele with good depth of relationship, low attrition, and good referrals. Dave's business was so healthy that he had to bring on a partner in early 2006.

These contrasting stories each represent an approach to a newsletter and to CRM. Two successful investment advisors. One built resilience into client relationships with help from Glenn Harrington and found resilience in his own career. One regarded client relationships as transactional, and so gave only passing attention to connectedness with investors in her client newsletter. She left her career seeking greener pastures.

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