To all nurses working in any setting of the healthcare field

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Hi,

This post is just to ask a couple of questions so forgive me for the rambling.

My questions are: where you work, what type of positions are in need or have a shortage of personnel? Where are you located?

I am asking this because I want to make a career in the healthcare field but don't want to waste money and time on a degree that won't help me land a job (I already did that, I hold a BBA but have yet to find a job and I graduated a very long time ago).

I know many of you will tell me to follow my dreams or what I like, but the truth is that my dream or what I like won't help me pay my bills. I also won't say that I am not going into it for the money, because reality is that nobody will work for free even if you are passionate about it. Unfortunately, nowadays one has to choose carefully a degree. It is not like in the past, when with just any college degree you had a job.

I have done some research online about different careers in the healthcare field but I am not sure which ones are high in demand or have a shortage. I also know that there are many more different careers unheard of on the internet in the healthcare field. Here are some that I found online: Histotechnologist, Medical Records and Health Information Technician, Radiology, Radiation Therapist, Medical Billing and Coding, Medical Assistant, Ultrasound Technician, Medical Transcriptionist, Nuclear Medicine Technologist, Medical Laboratory Technician, Physical or Occupational Therapist, Surgical Technician.

Please bear with me. I posted here for advice and help, I am not looking for an easy way out. Thank you in advance for those who understand.

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Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.

For me: RN. Work in acute care PCU in a busy community hospital. We are short nurses. Unfortunately this does not equate to actually hiring more.

Don't go for medical transcription. It is a dying industry.

If you can get work out of school, there is still plenty of work in many areas of the country for an experienced RN with a BSN degree. The challenge is finding a new grad, no experience opportunity. Once you are over that hump and have 2 years of experience under your belt life gets easier. Not everywhere but in many places.

Anything you do these days will take some element of risk. The world is changing. College graduates of all majors are out of work everywhere. Pick what you love (if you happen to know what you love) and pursue it passionately. Best of luck to you.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

If anyone here on AN could accurately predict job prospects in the future - they would probably be independently wealthy & not interested in working any longer - LOL.

The largest ongoing analysis of career/job outlook is maintained by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics - this is aggregate data for the entire nation, so obviously there are differences among different geographic areas. Here is the web site Healthcare Occupations : Occupational Outlook Handbook : U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

No one really knows how Health Care Reform will impact health care jobs. The people who predicted the Nursing Shortage were waaay off base because they hadn't factored in the recession or effect of declining reimbursement on health care providers. There are no iron clad guarantees. You're going about it the right way.... obtaining information and analyzing it to see what is right for you. But there will always be an element of risk.

Best of luck to you in your decision.

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Specializes in Ortho/Spine, Telemetry, SNF/Rehab.

Any of those "technician" jobs aren't really going to pay the bills. Well, they will but they don't leave much money left for much else! I was a Medical Assistant for 13 years; basically you work in a doctors office. Taking vital signs, rooming patients for the docs, assisting in minor procedures and doing some scheduling and billing. I worked for a private pediatric office for ten years and gained a TON of medical experience that helped me immensely when I finally went to nursing school...but the pay isn't great. I graduated this past December with my BSN and have been working as an RN in a Skilled Nursing/LTC/Rehab facility. Being an RN with a BSN, I have the potential to go into a plethora of different fields in healthcare, but right now I'm "paying my dues" in the facility I'm at, biding my time until I can do what I initially went to nursing school for - and for me, that is Women's Health. So basically, if you are passionate about the healthcare field, nursing (in my opinion) is the best route to take, but just know that finding your first job will be an extremely frustrating process, just to find something you're settling for....but if you are patient, you will get your dream job. Good luck to you!

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Specializes in Hospice, Case Mgt., RN Consultant, ICU.

You might look into occupational therapy or physical therapy and specialize in lymphedema therapy. There are not enough LE therapists and with the incidence of breast cancer increasing all the time there sure is a need!

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Specializes in Critical Care.

I'm currently a nursing student so I can't give you too much insight on that front; however I've been working in a pathology laboratory for over 5 years and I can tell you that while the compensation is decent (at least where I live in CA) the number of full-time lab tech positions have dwindled. Due to a combination of factors (increasingly automated specimen processing, decreases in reimbursement for lab services, consolidation of labs under larger corporations, blah blah blah) the trend seems to be toward hiring part-timers and paying them the bare minimum. Lab work looks great on a resume but I don't know that I'd recommend making a career of it.

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Thanks to all who replied. I am taking into consideration all of your advice. I forgot to mention that I like to learn new things every chance I get, I get bored easily so that's why I am considering a profession in healthcare, it is very dynamic.

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