You want a career in healthcare, but you don’t want to start by spending a decade trying to make it through medical school. You need a paying job today, and you aren’t all that picky about what kind of healthcare work you do.
In that case, you might consider any of the following healthcare positions, which give you exceptional experience in the healthcare industry and could put you on a career path that is both rewarding and personally satisfying.
Medical Administrative Assistant
A medical administrative assistant provides valuable secretarial support to medical facilities, like doctor’s offices, clinics, and hospitals. Some administrative assistants in medical contexts will function as front-of-house staff.
Greeting patients and collecting check-in forms, and others will remain exclusively in the back office, organizing documents and communicating with other healthcare providers, especially insurance companies.
Entry-level administrative assistants do not need any special skills beyond communication and organization, but if you enjoy this work, you might eventually pursue medical administrative credentials to gain access to higher-level positions.
Professional Caregiver
Caregivers are professionals who help those with chronic and usually debilitating conditions navigate their daily lives and accomplish their daily tasks. Often, caregivers look after the elderly, who may need assistance with completing household chores, running errands, attending appointments, and more.
Caregivers can also provide the vital service of keeping individuals company while other caregivers, like family members, are away at work. Sometimes, caregivers receive formal training from caregiving organizations, but usually, they are not required to have any education or credentials beyond high school.
Home Health Aide
Similar to a professional caregiver, a home health aide provides support to those with chronic conditions who struggle to care sufficiently for themselves. However, home health aides typically focus on providing essential medical care.
Thus, home health aides may assist patients in personal grooming, cooking, exercising, and taking the correct medications, but they are less likely to perform other household chores.
More specially trained home health aides may be able to provide more specialized medical care, such as checking vital signs, inserting or changing IVs, and recording symptoms to communicate with medical professionals.
Medical Biller
Medical billers keep track of the various types of information regarding the medical bills of patients served by a healthcare provider. After receiving a transcript of services from the medical coder, the medical biller will input that information into a database and submit a bill to a patient’s insurance company and if necessary to the patient themselves.
The biller is often responsible for following up on unpaid bills and verifying the accuracy of payments received. Though this job does involve a lot of diligence, it does not require any specific qualifications in terms of certifications or degrees.
Pharmacy Technician
Pharmacy technicians provide support to pharmacists and other pharmacy workers in various ways. Often, it is pharmacy technicians who interact with patients, verifying their prescriptions and dispensing the correct medications. Additionally, pharmacy technicians may be tasked with organizing inventory and communicating with healthcare providers like doctors and insurance companies.
As with medical administrative assistants, many pharmacy technicians find entry-level jobs without any specialized credentials, but many pursue certifications and training to elevate their responsibilities within the pharmacy hierarchy.
Medical Scribe
Medical scribes are professionals who accompany physicians and other healthcare providers during patient examinations to take detailed notes which the provider can add to a patient’s medical records and use to follow up with additional treatment and care.
Often, a medical scribe’s notes help providers remember to order certain medications or tests; additionally, the notes are vital to the work of medical coders and billers. Though some smaller healthcare facilities may assign scribe duties to nurses or medical students, larger organizations will hire dedicated professional scribes, who need only demonstrate a familiarity with digital technology to get the job.
Physical Therapist Aide
Physical therapist aides are members of a physical therapy team who provide support to physical therapists and their assistants. Frequently, physical therapist aides take responsibility for the regular cleaning and maintenance of the equipment used in physical therapy, though.
In some clinics, aides may also check in patients and perform other administrative duties such as organizing records, billing insurance companies, and scheduling appointments.
This is an excellent entry-level job if you are interested in the world of physical therapy, though you will need additional training to provide hands-on care to clients as a therapist’s assistant or physical therapist.
The best careers often require specialized training and specific credentials, but you don’t necessarily need to invest in any courses before you start working. Even in healthcare, you can find entry-level jobs that you can fill today, so you can begin gaining experience and income as soon as possible while establishing yourself on a career path you love.