Which Healthcare Career Is Best for Me?

Which Healthcare Career Is Best for Me? : Working in healthcare is always a rewarding job. At the end of the day, no matter what your specific role is, as a healthcare professional, you are helping to improve people’s wellbeing, and even to save patients’ lives.

There is a broad range of careers within healthcare – how do you know which position is best for you? It can take a lot of research to find the right role.

Here are a few healthcare roles and what it takes to be a good fit.

If you enjoy routine: Family Physician

As primary care providers, family physicians – also known as family doctors – don’t often practice in the kind of hectic, rapidly changing environment, found in hospitals. Because of this, it could be said that family physicians tend to have more of a routine than many other healthcare professionals, with set days and times dedicated to performing the same aspects of their job each day. This doesn’t mean, however, that the role of a family doctor isn’t varied! As well as seeing patients in their clinic, family physicians have administrative duties to keep on top of, as well as making and chasing referrals and, in many cases, teaching medical students either on the job or as part-time university lecturers.

Several years ago, the board of the Association of Family Medicine Residency Directors, came up with a long list of personality traits which make a good family doctor. These include:

compassion
great communication skills
kindness
friendliness

Arguably, these character traits are necessary in any patient-facing healthcare role. As a family doctor, however, you will get to know your patients more intimately than an ambulance paramedic, or a sonographer, for instance. Consequently, it is particularly important that you decide to become a family physician if you are confident you’ll be able to form and maintain a good rapport with your patients, even when they exhibit challenging behavior.

If you like taking charge: Nurse

Given that nurses often take orders from doctors, it might seem strange to present nursing as a good career option for those who like to be in charge. However, in practice, even registered nursing, which is the lowest rung in the nursing hierarchy, involves clinical decision-making on a daily basis. When caring for inpatients in a hospital, for example, it will be nurses who do most of the day-to-day care work, and they will need to decide when to make observations, whether to ask for assistance, and so on. Therefore, nursing would be the right career choice for you if you are happy to follow directions and work in a team, but you also need to be able to take initiative in order to be a good nurse.

Beyond working as a registered nurse, those who have a few years’ experience in the field can also advance their career to become nurse practitioners. This is a rapidly expanding field of healthcare practice, which follows the holistic and preventative care approach typical of the nursing field, but also allows nurses to diagnose and treat patients and perform a variety of other tasks, which were previously reserved for doctors. Nurse practitioners often have a lot of autonomy in their work, so this role will suit someone who is self-motivated and has the confidence to make their own decisions.

To become a nurse practitioner, you’ll need a graduate degree in nursing, which could either be a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN), or a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree (DNP). A DNP, which is longer and more in-depth than a master’s degree, will also qualify you for the next step up again – nurse manager or nurse director – or proffer the route into academia, working as a nurse researcher, or lecturer. Nurses who aspire to become managers or directors, often complete a DNP executive leadership program online while working, so they can maintain their position in their current workplace, and then use their graduate degree to gain a promotion.

If you’re good with technology: Sonographer

Sonographers are the healthcare professionals who perform ultrasound scans. To become a sonographer, you’ll need to complete either an associate degree (typically two years duration), or a bachelor’s degree (around four years duration), in sonography, and pass the examination to become a certified sonographer. Once you are working as a sonographer you can choose to specialize in one of the following areas:

abdominal ultrasounds
breast ultrasounds
neurosonography (ultrasounds of the brain and the nervous system)
obstetric and gynecological ultrasounds (including monitoring the growth of a fetus and checking for abnormalities in its development)
echochardiography (ultrasounds of the heart)
vascular sonography (ultrasounds of the blood vessels)
musculoskeletal ultrasounds

Ultrasound technology is always evolving, which is why this career might be right for you, if you like using the latest technological instruments in your work. To be a good sonographer, you will also need to pay great attention to detail and have sharp eyesight, since it can be tricky to interpret the monochrome images produced by the scan – especially when your ‘target’ is prone to moving a lot, as fetuses do!

If you thrive on adrenaline: Ambulance Paramedic

Ambulances are staffed by emergency medical technicians, (EMTs), who can have differing levels of training. The main difference between an EMT vs paramedic is that a paramedic is simply an EMT with the highest level of training and capability to help patients. As an ambulance paramedic you, and the other EMTs on your shift, will be responsible for keeping your ambulance stocked with all necessary emergency supplies, getting to the scene of an emergency in the shortest possible time, and treating casualties while keeping yourself, your colleagues and the public safe. Then it’s a matter of transporting patients to the nearest emergency room, where you’ll need to quickly and thoroughly brief the hospital staff with the emergency rundown and the treatment you’ve administered.

There are several skills you need in order to be a good paramedic; probably the most important requirement, is great mental resilience and the ability to think on your feet. As an emergency medicine practitioner, you will need to make accurate assessments and take action quickly, in the face of sometimes tragic, and often gruesome situations. Working as an ambulance paramedic is an incredibly rewarding career, but definitely not one for the faint-hearted!