Healthcare Fields with Great Nursing Career Options
A vast range of careers in healthcare has sprung up in America. There a quite a few factors that have triggered this type of growth like retirement of "baby boomers" that are the largest segment of population in the country and advancement of medical technology and treatment that is causing people to live longer. Added to it, many of the universities providing healthcare education do not have enough teachers to provide training to new employees.
In patient care category, there are 3 main healthcare professions namely dental hygiene, nursing and medical assistance. Nursing mainly comprises of direct care of the patients, which can take place in a doctor's private office, a hospital or an institution like school, cruise ship or ski resort. Nurses can upgrade themselves to nurse managers, epidemiologists, shift supervisors or counsel at law offices and insurance agencies, with additional education.
Patient care is the primary job of medical assistants. They perform routine medical functions so that doctors can concentrate only on the real problem. Medical assistants update medical history of a patient, administer medicines and document vital signs. Dental hygiene has a similar type of job profile, but in a dentist's office. A hygienist is supposed to clean teeth, advice patients on dental health care and assist dentists in complex procedures. And given to the fact that supply of dental hygienists is far lesser than required at the moment, it seems to be a lucrative career option.
There are quite a few options in the healthcare field which do not involve patient care. One such profession is medical coding. It involves having knowledge of medical terminology and knowing how to read a patient's chart. Every time a patient receives healthcare, a medical coder updates the patient's medical record. A job of a medical coder helps to subsidize further medical education and also gain upward mobility in management.
