Have you ever thought about becoming a doctor? Is your passion helping others? Perhaps you just think that healthcare is profitable and easy to get employed in. Whatever your reasons may be, here we will discuss the more in-depth aspects of healthcare. Some of these might break a bubble or two, but it has to be done if you want to consider this as a serious career option.
What is Your Motivation in Pursuing a Career in Health?
People, generally, have very different understandings of what it means to be in healthcare. Maybe you are a fan of hospital shows and imagine yourself being the doctor that everyone praises and go home in a deluxe car. Unfortunately, this is highly romanticized. Workers in healthcare suffer from huge amounts of stress in the workplace, this negatively influences both their physical and mental well-being. So ask yourself, are you capable of withstanding highly stressful situations on a daily level?
Maybe your motivation is money, which you can certainly get, but nothing comes without a price. You will have to live with those decisions that you make so think over how much the lust for money is worth. If your main goal is an altruistic one – helping others, then you have to be aware of the hardships ahead because there are other jobs that can help others, but a career in health will be one of the most demanding ones.
Are You the Right Fit for Healthcare?
Each branch of healthcare requires different skills and different optimizations. Not everyone in the line of work is a surgeon. When approaching healthcare you need to think about yourself and what you are don’t excel at or are afraid of. Wanting to become a surgeon while having shaky hands or disliking the sight of blood is an absurd thought. Same with wanting to study medicine but disliking chemistry or wanting to be a physician but not wanting to devote around 15 years of your life to education and training. You can see that there are different requirements for different fields, so think hard about what you want to accomplish and your limitations, and whether you can overcome them.
Financial Limitations for Education
This will undoubtedly, be the hardest barrier to cross for most people – the financial limitations. Pursuing a degree in health is expensive. Just in the US, as stated by the mdjourney: “The average cost of public medical school is $36,755 per year for in-state students and $60,802 for out-of-state students.” And this is without taking into account the costs of living, travel, and other bare necessities. In 2018, the median debt accumulated per student was $200,000.
The financial limitations are painfully obvious at this point, and we haven’t even taken further training or flunking a year into account. Pursuing a career in healthcare will require a lot of time and money. If you are not well off financially and don’t have a way of financing your education, odds are that you will not be able to pursue this line of work… If you are reading this still a year or two before you make the decision to pursue this line of work, and still have your heart set on pursuing this dream, then it’s better to start immediately on saving money for your education.
What Line of Specialization in Healthcare do You Wish to Follow?
Thankfully, there is a variety of options in healthcare for people to choose from. Each requires their own skillset and all of them have their ups and downs. If you adore working with kids, then becoming a pediatrician would be a great fit. If you are fascinated by the heart, then you can pursue a career in cardiology. You can even opt for health management and be in charge of medical staff recruitment. All of these careers have different requirements for levels of education as well (and with that, the amount of money you need to spend in education), so it pays off to research the universities you are interested in and compare the program pricing.
Be Aware of the Hardships
Finishing your degree and training is an exhausting and time-consuming process, one that will affect both your family and friends. And it doesn’t get any easier once you become employed. Sacrifices will need to be made, and you have to be aware of this fact before you fully commit yourself to a career in health. You don’t want to wake up one day after 10 years and say that you can’t do this. You will work during a lot of weekends and night shifts, it is inevitable. Another aspect that you need to consider is whether the jobs you want are available in your area, and if they aren’t, you will need to move to a different location and start life over again.
If you have read this entire article and saw some factors that can hinder your passion significantly, then it’s better to think hard about this. If you still want to pursue a career in health, then, by all means, you should chase after that dream of yours and make it a reality. Best of luck!