Posted:
Wednesday, April 15th, 2009
Category:
Healthcare
Getting into health professions may involve many different decisions. This is because there are so many different niches within the healthcare industry to choose from, and making this decision can often feel overwhelming. Some people don’t have the interest to return to school full-time or take eight years of their life to become a doctor or be on a higher professional level within the healthcare industry. That’s perfectly fine, though, because the healthcare industry needs just as many technicians and nurses as it does doctors, if not more. Here are some tips for choosing the right career within the healthcare industry if you don’t know what you want.
First, think of the work that you want to do. For example, if you like chemistry and biology, you might be more interested in working as a lab technician where you can run tests and do samples to diagnose patients, or even just for research purposes. Maybe you want to help people, and be able to do a little bit of care, but don’t want to be a doctor. You can become a nurse. And there are various levels of nursing to choose from, too. You could be an STNA, an LPN, an RN, or even a CPNA. Each one comes with its own level of educational requirements and job responsibilities. Some people might prefer working in radiology, where they can take and learn to read x-rays and other body scans and radiology tests that are performed.
After you have considered what interests you most, imagine where you would like to work. You can choose from working in hospitals and private practices to working in research labs and even nursing homes. Each different location has a different set of standards for their employees, but a nurse can work in a hospital with the same training and licensing that is needed to work in a nursing home. Choosing where you want to work might help you determine what you want to do, or even which certification you need.
Another factor, which shouldn’t be your first criteria, is the salary of these various careers. For example, RNs will make more than LPNs or STNAs. Also, technical jobs often pay better than a lot of people realize. Even though the training can sometimes be done in a very short amount of time, the technical nature of the jobs helps them to be worth more income than other less technical jobs. Finding the right job in the healthcare industry is all about knowing where you want to work, what you want to do, and how much money you want (or need) to make.
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