Healthcare workers are sworn to save a life or contribute to the diagnosis and recovery of an ailing patient. They go to great lengths to preserve people’s lives in dire situations.
At the front line in the global fight against the coronavirus pandemic, healthcare workers are highly commended for their commitment and firm resolve. This job is very fulfilling for people who are empathic and caring and excel at staying focused despite the stress of working through emergencies.
Compelling Reasons Why You Need to Work in The Healthcare Sector
The healthcare sector is one of the most resilient, and if you decide to refocus your career in this industry, you won’t be disappointed with your prospects.
1. Laddered and varied career specializations
Perhaps due to an increasing demand that the sector finds hard to fill, an individual can start a career in the healthcare sector right after high school as a volunteer or an assistant. It may not be exceptionally high–paying, but it can give you a glimpse of what healthcare workers do daily. If you decide to advance your career, you can go back to school and complete college-level programs, depending on the position requirements you’re looking at.
The healthcare industry also offers a vast range of specializations. For instance, if you’re a radiologic technologist, you can attend training to specialize in cardiovascular-interventional radiography, mammography, or sonography.
Hospitals and healthcare facilities provide opportunities for their employees to pursue advanced training and education if they want to develop their careers without losing their current positions. Healthcare workers can switch to other positions if they change their mind about the career path they want to pursue, and many of these transfers can be easy to manage.
2. Medical professionals can fit in a variety of work environments
The healthcare industry’s variety of settings and occupations allows healthcare workers to change their work environment without necessarily changing careers. Medical professionals typically work in hospitals or doctor’s offices, but many also work in universities, insurance companies, public health agencies, laboratories, and other settings.
3. Stable jobs and steady earnings
Medical and healthcare facilities are usually open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, which is one of the primary reasons why the industry needs many workers on a full-time, part-time, or on-call basis. Most healthcare workers are full-time employees, often taking overtime due to the high demand for their services.
While the work can sometimes be demanding, the healthcare sector offers high paying medical careers, especially if one has a bachelor’s degree. Workers are usually noticed and rewarded with a promotion when they display commendable performance and ethics.
4. Competitive benefits
Most employers nowadays offer good benefits to attract and retain the best workers. That’s because of the growing demand and competition for qualified medical personnel. Paid sick time, vacation, vision care, life insurance, dental insurance, and health insurance are just some of the many benefits employees in the healthcare industry can expect.
5. Eligibility for various discount schemes
Medical careers are among the most respected jobs in the world. From workers who keep hospitals clean to doctors who perform life-saving operations on patients, healthcare professionals play a key role in improving the lives of everyone on the planet. It’s no wonder why many organizations show respect and thank them for what they’re doing by offering discount schemes. You can make good savings on your car insurance, clothing, and meals at restaurants, among many other things.
6. There are positions for all educational levels
The healthcare sector offers numerous opportunities and positions for individuals with a high school diploma, a bachelor’s degree or a specialized medical or nursing degree.
Most nurses start as certified nursing assistants (CNAs), where only a high school or a General Education Development (GED) diploma, six months of training, and state certification are needed. They can then move on to become a licensed practical nurse or get ahead of others by advancing to get an Associate Nursing Diploma in two years or a Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing in four.
For more opportunities and much higher pay, registered nurses can get into a graduate program to advance as nurse practitioners—a specialty that can help them secure more in-demand jobs as nurse anesthetists, nurse midwives, certified nurse practitioners, and clinical nurse specialists.
7. There are also positions for all personality types
As already mentioned, healthcare offers an extensive selection of careers. Whatever your personality type, there’s something for you – from medical roles for individuals who don’t like blood to more demanding nursing jobs.
Consider a patient-facing position role like nursing if being around people makes you feel good. You can also put your planning skills to use by becoming a health information technician if you’re an organization genius. The sky is the limit when searching for a healthcare career that perfectly matches your personality and interests.
8. Self-fulfilling jobs that contribute to society
Working for the healthcare sector makes you a contributor to the well-being of society as a whole. There’s no question that the community depends on the healthcare sector to address their hospital admissions, consultations, and other routine and emergency care needs.
If you’re a natural at helping people and if making them feel better gives you a “high,” then the healthcare sector is for you. Every working day, you will face or care for different types of people – typically patients and their families under immense emotional and psychological pressure. Besides the emotional component, nurses also need to assist patients physically, and administrative workers must also communicate with families. It can be a stressful and physically demanding job, but at the end of the day, the whole community is thankful for the hard work and dedication of healthcare workers.
Take the case of health workers working amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Donations from the private sector poured in once the hospitals alerted authorities of depleting physical protective equipment (PPE) supplies. After providing care to the community for several years, society’s turn to give back has been society’s turn.
9. Stimulating work environment
Healthcare facilities, especially hospitals, are one of the busiest workplaces. Even if you’re not handling emergency cases round-the-clock, there are always plenty of things to do, especially if you’re a nurse.
Besides regularly checking up on patients, you need to review and analyze charts and convey valuable information to the doctor so that they can develop an effective treatment plan.
Being in the healthcare sector also allows you to stay updated on medical advancements and contribute to ongoing research.
10. Great travel opportunities
As a healthcare professional, your skills and work are not limited to the state or country you are currently working in. As the demand for skilled workers globally continues to increase, so do the opportunities to travel to greener pastures.
In the United States, nursing salaries vary per state, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics. If you’re a registered nurse who wants to relocate for various reasons, you can check out the employment status in your field to know what to expect.
If you want to travel the world while addressing the demands of people in dire situations, you can go as a healthcare professional and apply to international nonprofit groups, such as Doctors Without Borders or the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
11. Flexible working hours
If you’re a parent or have other obligations but still need to work, the healthcare industry will be friendly to you. As healthcare and medical facilities are open at any time of the day (or night), working hours are never fixed at nine to five.
Apart from fulfilling your family duties during the day, you can also advance your education by studying during the day and working at night.
Some healthcare positions even allow employees to work remotely, thanks to flexible schedules and advancing technology. Assigning medical codes and submitting them can often be done by medical coders anywhere in the world. Medical transcriptionists can also translate abbreviations and check patient files for errors from home.
Non-patient-facing roles have become possible to carry out from home, thanks to how powerful internet technology has become. But are there work-from-home opportunities for healthcare jobs that require direct patient care? Yes, there are. In fact, because of roles like nursing case manager and nurse advocate, even registered nurses can now work remotely.
12. Explosive industry growth
From 2016 to 2026, healthcare jobs will grow by 18%, as projected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It’s a much faster rate compared to the average for all other occupations. Some of the fastest-growing medical professions are nurse practitioner, dental hygienist, home health aide, and physical therapist assistant.
As a healthcare worker, this means more career opportunities for you. The explosive growth of healthcare jobs also means you’ll find employment more quickly than jobseekers in other industries.
The chances of medical professionals remaining employed are also much greater than in other fields. This is largely due to an aging population and advances in medicine. In the US alone, the aging population is growing at an extraordinary rate, boosting demand for medical workers across the board.
The passage and implementation of the Affordable Care Act in the US also increased the demand for medical professionals. This health reform legislation provides medical insurance to millions more American citizens, revolutionizing access to care and creating additional jobs for healthcare professionals
5 Pathways in the Healthcare Profession
There are numerous opportunities and various specialties in the healthcare sector. The industry, though, is divided in five basic career pathways:
- Diagnostic Services Pathway offers jobs that help identify a disease or condition by analyzing the health status of patients. This pathway includes workers who use tests to detect, diagnose, and treat diseases, injuries, and other physical conditions, with the help of various medical tools and equipment. Radiologic or X-ray and ultrasound technicians and cardiovascular and medical laboratory technicians are few of the jobs in this category.
- Therapeutic Services Pathways offers occupations that strive to improve the health status of a patient. Occupational and respiratory therapists, paramedics, pharmacists and registered nurses are few of the jobs under this category.
- Support Services Pathway offers a wide range of jobs assignments that help keep the sector running. Support service employees are typically working behind the scenes. They’re the dietary technicians, biomedical equipment technicians, and hospital maintenance engineers, among other healthcare facility maintenance staff.
- Health Informatics Pathway offers careers involving patient care documentation. It covers a wide variety of occupations, made up of people responsible for managing patient information, financial information, and computer applications related to health care. Roles include medical administrative assistant, nurse managers and healthcare administrators.
- The Biotechnology Research and Development Pathway offers careers that typically require a higher level of specialties, aimed at using scientific and technical enhancements to improve diagnostic and therapeutic activities in health care. Toxicologists, biomedical engineers, and epidemiologists fall under this category.
High Paying and In-demand Jobs in the Healthcare Industry 2021
The healthcare sector is currently in need of these professionals, according to industry estimates:
- Physician assistants: Aver.age yearly wage of $108,610, expected to increase by 37%.
- Nurse practitioners: Average yearly wage of $107,030, forecasted to increase by 36%.
- Speech-language therapists: Average yearly annual wage of $77,510, presumed to increase by 18%.
- Nurse anesthetists: Average yearly wage of $167,950, projected to grow by 16%.
- Nuclear medicine technologists: Average yearly wage of $76,820, projected to grow by 10%
Explosive Industry Growth and High-Demand Jobs (2025 Data)
According to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics:
- Physician Assistants: Median annual wages now range from approximately $115,000 to $120,000, with robust growth projections.
- Nurse Practitioners: With median wages around $120,000, this field continues to see significant demand.
- Speech-Language Therapists: Earn a median annual wage of about $80,000, with steady growth.
- Nurse Anesthetists: Median annual wages are approaching $190,000–$200,000, reflecting their high level of expertise.
- Nuclear Medicine Technologists: Earn a median annual wage in the low $80,000 range.
These figures underscore the explosive growth in healthcare jobs. With an aging population and advances in medical technology, the demand for skilled healthcare workers is set to increase even further, ensuring that employment in this sector remains both secure and financially rewarding.
Final Thoughts
The healthcare sector covers a wide-ranging set of career pathways that are quite flexible. Besides job security and a stable pay, working in the industry offers excellent opportunities for individuals who want to work even while pursing higher education or fulfilling personal and family obligations.
Because of the fast-paced environment and need for multi-tasking, working in the healthcare sector may be physical and mentally challenging, but at the end of the day, it can be highly fulfilling and rewarding, too.