With the US job market in a serious downtrend in recent years, it’s good to get a picture of the employment landscape for the next 10 to 20 years. This can help alleviate financial shortcomings, especially if you plan to start a family.
One area to watch out for is healthcare. As the Obama administration and Congress get closer to passing health care reform legislation, keep in mind that a career in health care is a possible avenue. It might even be the best way to go if you’re not sure what to do yet.
Now, a healthcare job could mean anything. You don’t have to be a doctor or nurse. These jobs are exactly what most people think of when they think of healthcare. So you could be a techie and work in healthcare. They could be in office administration and healthcare. You could be in marketing and healthcare. There are enough different responsibilities to make the healthcare system work.
Below are two healthcare careers that are traditional and very doable for the majority of young people and recent high school seniors who are still unsure of how they will shape their future.
Nurses: work with patients in the hospitals and clinics
Nursing is the most popular healthcare job and has been for the past several years. As key workers in hospitals, they have very busy schedules, mostly working three to four days in a row in shifts of 10 to 12 hours at a time. Nurses do a lot of testing, monitoring, medication application, etc. Your hands get dirty, so to speak.
As a result, they are handsomely paid for their skills. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (USBLS), the average salary for a registered nurse in 2008 was $31.31 per hour. Put that into a 40-hour week plus overtime and the annual salary for nurses skyrockets. According to USBLS, the highest paid nurses earned $92,240 per year in 2008. This salary is more than reasonable for most US workers.
To become a registered nurse, you must graduate from nursing school with a bachelor’s (BSN) or associate’s degree (ADN). Then you must pass the NCLEX-RN, the standardized national test to become a registered nurse.
Physiotherapist: Working with patients outside of hospitals
When a patient is discharged from the hospital, their medical care does not necessarily end. There are follow-up tests that need to be done so that the illness she had that brought her to the hospital in the first place doesn’t come back. Care outside of the hospital is called outpatient care.
For some complaints, physiotherapy is one of the outpatient follow-up examinations. This is done to ensure that the patient becomes stronger both physically and mentally. Often, therapy is performed in the patient’s home while he or she is recovering.
If you’re familiar with working out in gyms, then a physical therapist is like a trainer. Only the physiotherapist also documents the patient’s progress with instructions from the outpatient doctor.
A physical therapist will usually ask the patient to do light exercises like leg raises, stretches, and walking. Sometimes they offer a short massage therapy if needed. Visits can be regular or just a one-off event.
Physical therapists don’t get as dirty as nurses, but they still work directly with patients. However, the patients they work with are already out of the way. You should have great social skills alongside other skills that might come in handy. Attending a massage therapy school is something that might help.
If you want to get into healthcare, you need to be aware that most job openings require some form of direct interaction with patients. This is what healthcare is all about, caring for the well-being of another person. Healthcare is one of those subjects where consumers turn to experts who are well educated and experienced in their field. You have to be human to be successful.
Thanks to Curtis Sakai | #healthcare #jobs
