Healthcare Career Paths You Can Consider as You Complete Your Studies

If you need to choose a major soon or are heading off to university in the coming months and are still trying to decide which program to enroll in, it’s important to learn about a wide variety of job types and career paths, so you have a better idea of what you might be most interested in and suited to.

If you’ve always been interested in the healthcare field, perhaps you’ve thought about becoming a doctor, dentist, PT, chiropractor and so on. However, you should note that demand in healthcare is growing at a rate that’s twice as high as the national economy, so you have a range of occupations to choose from apart from the well-known ones.

For those looking for a little inspiration or some clarity, it’s time to think outside the box. Read on for some interesting healthcare jobs you might not have considered yet but which could be just the right path for you.

Phlebotomist

Are you someone who doesn’t feel faint at the first sign of blood? If so, a job as a phlebotomist might be up your alley. The term phlebotomy originates from a combination of Greek words. There is “phlebo,” which relates to a blood vessel, and “tomy,” which refers to making an incision. If you become a phlebotomist, you’ll be a medical technician who extracts blood from people with a sterilized needle. This procedure is called venipuncture. The samples of blood taken during this process are used for blood transfusion or as a means of testing to evaluate patient health.

In their jobs, phlebotomists assist doctors and nurses by taking patients’ blood. They can work in a variety of facilities, such as medical centers, labs, hospitals, clinics and dedicated blood-collection facilities. On top of collecting and testing blood, these professionals may also work with urine and other samples. A key part of the position is also setting up tests accurately, so the correct details are written on sample tubes, and blood is tested for the correct things.

Healthcare Manager

An emerging area of healthcare is one in which workers combine management skills with proactive, hands-on, day-to-day work. This is the job of healthcare manager. People working in this field must be dedicated to improving the quality of healthcare and increasing patient safety levels. This is a leadership-based position that involves managers working across administrative and leadership functions, whether covering a single department or an entire venue.

Healthcare executives, or administrators as they’re also known, must work closely with a variety of medical personnel, plus suppliers, custodial staff, potentially government employees and other types of contacts involved in the delivery of healthcare. Positions can be based within health centers, hospitals, nursing homes, rehabilitation centers or even government organizations. As such, there is plenty of diversity in potential roles.

If you become a healthcare manager, you will likely have to take care of many different aspects of a facility. For example, you’ll need to oversee the staff working at the venue or within your department, plus you’ll be required to run the center’s operations, manage its budget, handle strategic planning and act as a spokesperson when media representatives require quotes or data.

Crisis Counselor

Another healthcare role that has been growing over recent years and which seems to be required more than ever, is that of a crisis counselor. This particular type of mental health counselor helps patients who have been through some kind of traumatic, emotionally intense, and/or exhausting experience.

If you complete your counseling master’s online, you can join this specialized field and help your clients in numerous ways. You can be there to offer emotional support to sufferers, and you can help them recover from and move past a crisis, through avenues such as the sharing of information and activities.

You will help patients to understand their own limiting beliefs or feelings and assist them to create new, healthy structures in their lives. You can be there to help people find ways of restoring their sense of control after a traumatic event. Counselors in this specialization typically only work with patients for a short period, such as one to three months.