Starting a career in healthcare – what you need to know

Careers in healthcare are extremely popular for a variety of reasons. Jobs in this field are gratifying as you feel like you’re making a difference in people’s lives. They also tend to be with employers that provide comfortable working environments and in many cases benefits such as insurance.  

Consequently, if you’re starting a career in healthcare, here are some things you need to know:

Many Fields Require Some Sort of Specialized Training

There are so many fields within the healthcare industry for you to get a job in. As such, you need to be aware that many areas require you to undergo some type of specialized training. Typically, this comes in the form of a diploma or associate degree.

Training can be Done Online

The good news is that a lot of the training can be completed online. You can get an online degree or an online diploma in your chosen field. There are even ways for you to attend an online school to ensure you follow the right course and graduate with the correct qualifications. This is great as it means you can train for a career in healthcare without having to commute to a campus. You can even take online courses around your schedule if you are working or caring for a family – you may not need to leave home.

There are plenty of cool and exciting fields that have online degree programs. Here are three of note:

• • Medical Records Technician: you can train to get an associate degree that enables you to search for jobs as a Medical Records Technician. This line of work means you will spend your time managing all the medical records in a system to ensure everything is in-check, the right payments have been made, and they all have the correct codes for billing and treatment. Typically, this means transferring paper records to digital computer systems and retrieving records from computers.

• • Medical Insurance Billing and Coding: This healthcare job is all about classifying diagnoses or medical procedures to get them ready for billing purposes. You’ll typically work in an office environment and spend most of your time on a computer pouring through various medical terminology and then submitting paperwork (digitally) to insurance companies for billing and reimbursement.

• Medical Office Administrator: if you want to help other while still operating in an office environment, then look for an online degree as a Medical Office Administrator. Here, you’ll typically work alongside other members of the medical office to help ensure the hospital, clinic or healthcare office runs smoothly. You’ll be in charge of booking people in for appointments, answering phone calls, organizing essential documents, and preparing files for the doctors to review. You might also be responsible for ordering and restocking supplies.

The Job Prospects are Positive

Finally, it’s worth noting that the job prospects are pretty good once you’ve got the right training under your belt. Careers in healthcare are popular because there typically is always a company or medical institution somewhere that’s in need of additional staff. What’s more, it’s an industry that will continue to grow. In short; it’s a great career path. Looking at the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, for example, it is expected that 27,800 new jobs in medical records technology will be created between 2016 and 2026. As of 2016, there were approximately 206,300 people employed in this field.

If you’re keen to kickstart your healthcare career, then think about everything mentioned above. Ensure you get the right training, then go out and find the job of your dreams!