If your favorite TV show is Grey’s Anatomy, you might be dreaming of a healthcare career. The healthcare industry is vast, and you have myriad options. However, before jumping into any job, you need to assess whether it’s the right one for you. While health careers can be gratifying, they can also be incredibly demanding. Most doctors work night shifts somewhat regularly and need to be available around the clock.
Before jumping into any profession, you need to consider whether it offers you an excellent work-life balance. With so many extra hours to put in, you can miss out on a great deal of your social life and can feel overburdened. Luckily, while many healthcare industry jobs can be incredibly demanding, some allow you to manage your work and life together. With the right work-life balance, the professions listed below can help you be more motivated at work and perform significantly better.
Human Development Professional
Familial dynamics are shifting faster than ever. There is a shortage of professionals equipped to understand and counter these changes. With single parent and dual-earner households becoming the norm, we raise and interact with children has altered immensely. As a Human Development Professional, you can learn the way that people interact with changing family structures. You study the impact of these changes and how they influence their physical, social and mental well-being.
Furthermore, you can explore crucial aspects of psychological development and how society affects them. Studying to work in human development also has a legal part, and you learn how laws affect families’ well-being. A career in human development prepares you for working on public health policies, as a social worker, and as a counselor, to name a few career options.
Moreover, studying for a human development degree online is incredibly flexible, allowing you to manage your social life easily while you study. Online coursework will enable you to work at your own pace, letting you learn complex social and familial dynamics with ease. A career as a human development professional is just as flexible. Whether you work in a private, governmental, or non-profit set-up, you’ll always find time for your own family.
Dental Hygienist
Dentistry is one of the most lucrative healthcare careers you can pursue. Dental hygienists are integral to the dental healthcare system. They help in taking X-rays, running tests, and assisting clients to ensure good dental health. However, dental hygienists often have very flexible schedules and can work part-time at their ease. Even if you work full time, dental hygienists typically work the 9-5 shift and don’t need to put in extra hours. However, don’t let the flexibility in the schedule fool you. Dental hygienists can make an average of $75,070 annually, and as your seniority increases, so can your pay.
A career as a dental hygienist allows you to serve the public as you educate them on oral health practices and help them maintain dental hygiene, so it can be a highly fulfilling line of education and work to pursue. At the same time, you get enough time to spend on personal commitments and family life, making this one of the best careers for your professional and personal life.
Medical Assistant
Medical assistants have a role similar to the dental hygienists and a flexible work schedule to match. The duties of a medical assistant vary according to location and the size of the organization. However, typically a medical assistant performs some basic clinical and administrative tasks. Medical assistants can perform record-taking procedures, jotting down personal and clinical history. Furthermore, they can perform essential physical examinations and administer necessary treatments.
The number of hours you’ll need to put in depends on the organization you work with, as larger clinics can be much busier. However, all medical assistants have flexible schedules where they can make enough time for personal commitments. With the healthcare system evolving, working as a medical assistant has many opportunities for professional growth too.
Registered Nurse
Nurses are vital to the healthcare system, and they play an essential role in ensuring that patients get the care they deserve. Nurses interact with patients on a much closer level than even doctors do. They can help families fight against an illness, and if needed, live with it. Nursing ranks as the most trusted profession and people hold this profession in incredibly high esteem. Nurses now fulfill increasingly clinical roles, and many are qualified enough to diagnose and treat patients without supervision.
You can find a nursing job in various settings, such as child care, geriatric care, and maternity care, to name a few. While all backgrounds are incredibly diverse, they have flexible working conditions in common. Even hospital nurses have to work only three days a week. Coupled with the crucial roles nurses play, it makes nursing a great health career for your personal and professional life.
Physical therapist aide
Physical therapy is one of the essential healthcare branches and can significantly improve patients’ life quality. Athletes and the elderly are the obvious candidates for physical therapy. However, our increasingly sedentary lifestyle opens us up to suffering chronic pain. A physical therapy aide works alongside a physical therapist, helping patients regain bodily movements and combat pain. As a physical therapist aide, you need to motivate your clients while informing them how to use the equipment properly. Additionally, the aide’s job is to answer any queries that patients have to be fully informed about treatment protocols.
A physical therapist’s aide can work in various medical settings, like training centers, private contexts, or governmental jobs. You only require an associate’s degree before entering this profession, and you do much of the learning on the job. Furthermore, as an aide, you have flexible working hours. You can even make time to work in different organizations simultaneously.
Conclusion
Healthcare careers aren’t just limited to doctors and surgeons. There is a vast range of fields you can enter, and each of them is incredibly rewarding. Furthermore, these healthcare fields can offer you the flexibility to enjoy time with your friends and family too. Maintaining the right work-life balance can help you lead more fulfilling professional and personal lives. So, make sure you check out these healthcare careers.