What Healthcare Careers Are in High Demand

Healthcare is a multi-trillion-dollar industry, expected to experience booming growth of nearly 1.8 million job openings within the next 10 years¹. Qualified professionals are needed to fill several roles within the sector. And while this is a shortage of doctors² and nurses³, there are several other career paths you could take into the healthcare industry. In fact, there are several healthcare support staff openings that require only short-term training and a passion to help others. Does that sound like you? Check out 5 healthcare careers that need employees now.

Why Is there Such Demand for Healthcare Professionals?

Aging Population Needs Healthcare

While there are several contributing factors to the increased demand for healthcare workers, an aging population plays a significant role. As the baby boomer generation rapidly approaches retirement age, the jobs they once held become vacant. More importantly, as boomers age, their healthcare needs escalate, creating a heightened demand for medical services and specialized care-and the workers that provide them. Baby boomers are also living longer than previous generations⁴, which means they'll need care longer.

Increased Healthcare Access

Those baby boomers and others also have more access to healthcare thanks to initiatives such as the Affordable Care Act. The legislation expanded Medicaid coverage to encompass all adults with incomes below 138% of the Federal Poverty Level⁵. When you expand coverage and affordability, more people seek care when they're sick or injured, driving up the demand for qualified healthcare workers to meet the needs of this newly covered population.

COVID 19's Impact on Healthcare

The pandemic had an enormous impact on hospitals and healthcare facilities across the country. While healthcare workers were heroes in their work to save lives, provide treatment, and offer solace in the worst of times, they were also subject to working conditions unlike anything they'd ever experienced. When COVID 19 subsided, many of them left their professions and did not return, leaving vacancies.

Medical Advancements

Advancements in medical technology have revolutionized the healthcare landscape. First, they allow people who otherwise may have died, to live longer, healthier lives, and avail themselves of healthcare services. But technology also creates the need for highly skilled professionals who can operate and maintain constantly evolving equipment, systems, and methodologies. These factors collectively point to the need for a well-trained and adaptable healthcare workforce equipped to meet the evolving needs of our society.

5 In-Demand Healthcare Careers

Support specialists who help doctors, nurses, and dentists, working in all kinds of healthcare facilities, are especially in demand. Among the jobs with high demand are medical assistants⁶, EKG technicians⁷, home health aides⁸, dental assistants⁹, and massage therapists¹⁰.

Medical Assistant

As a medical assistant, you perform clinical and administrative tasks in healthcare settings. You might schedule appointments, take patient histories, measure vital signs, assist with examinations, administer injections, and manage the office or department. Your overall job is to help ensure smooth operations and quality patient care.

EKG Technician

Working as an EKG technician means you operate equipment that measures and records heart activity. You prepare patients for procedures, explain the process, conduct the test, monitor the printout for abnormalities, and hand over the results to physicians who diagnose heart illness and diseases.

Home Health Aide

Home health aides are in especially high demand⁸.In this role, you assist patients with daily living activities, like bathing, dressing, and eating. You also administer medications, monitor vital signs, support patients with mobility and exercise, and ensure their comfort and well-being at home. And you provide often much-needed companionship and kindness.

Dental Assistant

As a dental assistant, you support the dentist, patients, and dental team. You prepare treatment rooms, sterilize surfaces and instruments, assist during procedures, participate in four-handed dentistry, take x-rays, manage patient records, and provide patient care instructions. You also help run the dental office to ensure efficient and effective dental care.

Massage Therapist

When you work as a massage therapist, you use hands-on techniques to manipulate muscles and soft tissue. Your expertise can help relieve pain, improve circulation, reduce stress, and promote relaxation. You listen to clients to create treatment plans and provide therapeutic massages tailored to individual conditions.

Why Choose a Healthcare Career?

Ask anyone who works at a hospital, clinic, or at the bedside of a dying patient, and they'll likely tell you they do it because their work matters. They feel like what they do is important, impactful, and worthy of a life well-lived.

If you want a career that offers rewards that extend far beyond your paycheck, there are few paths you can take that fit the bill more than one within the healthcare industry. But when you choose a high-demand healthcare career, you may also have the added benefits of job security, dependability, and consistency. Healthcare positions provide predictable and stable work schedules. They often include comprehensive benefit packages that may provide health insurance, retirement plans, and paid time off.

Begin Your Healthcare Journey

Are you ready to pursue a career where you can impact the lives of others and your own? It's time to take a step forward. Lincoln Technical Institute offers a variety of health sciences programs that can provide you with training that will immerse you in your new healthcare career. Explore our programs in medical assistant training, patient care, medical assistant technology, and dental assistant, and then contact one of our admissions advisors. Fill out the form today.

References:

¹ U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/home.htm retrieved July 1, 2024.

² Association of American Medical Colleges https://www.aamc.org/news/press-releases/new-aamc-report-shows-continuing-projected-physician-shortage retrieved July 1, 2024.

³ American Association of Colleges of Nursing https://www.aacnnursing.org/news-data/fact-sheets/nursing-shortage retrieved July 1, 2024.

⁴ Population Reference Bureau https://www.prb.org/resources/aging-baby-boomers-to-face-caregiving-obesity-inequality-challenges/ retrieved July 1, 2024.

⁵ Healthcare.Gov https://www.healthcare.gov/glossary/federal-poverty-level-fpl/ retrieved July 1, 2024.

⁶ Bureau of Labor Statistics https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/medical-assistants.htm retrieved July 1, 2024.

⁷ Bureau of Labor Statistics https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/diagnostic-medical-sonographers.htm retrieved July 1, 2024.

⁸ Bureau of Labor Statistics https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/home-health-aides-and-personal-care-aides.htm retrieved July 1, 2024.

⁹ Bureau of Labor Statistics https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/dental-assistants.htm retrieved July 1, 2024.

¹⁰ Bureau of Labor Statistics https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/massage-therapists.htm retrieved July 1, 2024.

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