
Healthcare careers can provide the challenge, security, and salary you’re looking for in a role, while also fulfilling your humanitarian side. Read on for nine reasons the healthcare industry can offer you the career of your dreams. The variety of occupations and settings in health care allows those in the field to change their environment without necessarily changing careers.
For instance, medical professionals typically work in doctors’ offices or hospitals, but many also work in laboratories, public health agencies, insurance companies, universities, and other varied settings.
- Job satisfaction
By and large, healthcare workers are satisfied with their jobs and don’t regret their career choices. For example, an AMN Healthcare survey revealed that 83 percent of registered nurses are satisfied with their career choice.
- Job security
While legislation will continue to change the healthcare landscape, the Affordable Care Act has increased the demand for health care, thus leading to the need for more workers in the industry. Likewise, as people age, they typically require more medical care, and America’s Baby Boomers are reaching retirement age by the millions every year.
- Positions for all education levels
While doctors still spend several years hitting the books, health care has many other careers that require far less education. In fact, you can find many positions that pay well and don’t require a bachelor’s degree. For instance, to become a surgical technologist, you only need a postsecondary non-degree award, and the job pays $22.68 an hour.
- Explosive growth
Jobs in health care are projected to grow 18 percent by 2026, much faster than the average for all occupations, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Here are the expected growth rates for a few of the fastest-growing medical professions:
- Home health aide – 41 percent
- Nurse practitioner – 31 percent
- Physical therapist assistant – 30 percent
- Dental hygienist – 20 percent
- Free schooling
Within the healthcare industry, you can find many programs that repay student loans in exchange for a certain number of years of service. For example, the National Health Service Corps asks medical residents to work for two or three years in an underserved area of the country in a primary care specialty. In exchange, the federal government will then repay as much as $120,000 of participants’ student loans.
- Generous salaries
The burgeoning demand for health care has more benefits than just job security – medical careers also pay well. The 2017 median pay for physicians and surgeons is $208,000, while nurse practitioners can make $110,930 per year, according to the BLS. As mentioned before, even healthcare careers that don’t require advanced degrees can still pay a pretty penny.
- Flexibility
The flexibility of healthcare careers is especially attractive to job seekers. Geographically, healthcare workers can go almost anywhere they want, provided they have the appropriate licensure. Some programs, like Doctors without Borders, send medical professionals abroad to deliver services where they are needed the most. Similarly, traveling nurses receive assignments all over the United States and receive benefits, such as relocation and housing allowances.
- Variety
The variety of occupations and settings in health care allows those in the field to change their environment without necessarily changing careers. For instance, medical professionals typically work in doctors’ offices or hospitals, but many also work in laboratories, public health agencies, insurance companies, universities, and other varied settings.
- The chance to make a difference
Although jobs in the medical field can be stressful because lives are often at stake, the profession is unquestionably rewarding. Healthcare professionals are desperately needed, and they use their education and training to better people’s lives.
Source: careerbuilder.com