Considering a Career in Healthcare?

We’re living through some pretty unprecedented times. The spread of a worldwide pandemic has seen many of us encouraged to stay home, not go to work and self isolate for the sake of protecting both our own health and others’ health. This has caused many of us to have a little extra time on our hands to actually think about our lives and how we’re spending them. Some of us can’t wait to get back to work. We have projects we want to resume, colleagues we want to see and we just want to get the ball rolling again. But many of us have realised that we’re essentially living nine to fives that we can’t stand and really aren’t finding all too fulfilling. At the same time as potentially planning a new career, we’re seeing the amazing things that the world’s medical and healthcare workers are doing to help those suffering from coronavirus and Covid-19 around the world. You may have been inspired! If you’re considering a medical career once things get back to usual, here are a few things you should take into account.

Education

Any medical or healthcare role requires extensive education. This makes sense. When you take on these roles, you bear a huge weight of responsibility. You need to be able to complete your role properly and accurately each and every time – otherwise, you could be putting someone at risk. You’re going to need an in-depth knowledge and understanding of whatever it may be that you need to know. Perhaps the longest degree is a degree to practice medicine. This can last seven years and you may even need to take further time after to specialise and train. There are a number of other healthcare degrees out there. Once you’ve concluded your studies, you may want to progress onto further study, such as a post- graduate degree in occupational therapy. Whatever medical role you’re considering taking on, it’s a good idea to take a look at how long it takes to study and train before you’ll be working in the role you’re eyeing up. Then, you can decide whether this is something you definitely want to commit to.

Emotional Elements

Of course, medical jobs are bound to be highly emotional jobs. After all, you’ll often find yourself caring for some of the most vulnerable individuals in society. You are likely (at some point or another) to go through heartbreaking experiences. Some roles have higher levels of these than others. For example, if you work with the elderly, in emergency departments, or departments of hospitals for the terminally ill, you are bound to witness more immediate and intense suffering than if you were to work in a general practitioner’s surgery. This, of course, can be mentally testing and emotionally draining – especially seeing as you have to maintain a professional composure throughout these scenarios. So, you need to be sure that you can handle this. It is bound to be difficult for most, but may not be appropriate for the particularly sensitive amongst us.

These are just a couple of elements of a healthcare role that you should consider if you’re planning a step into this field!