Have you always dreamed of getting into the healthcare industry, but hesitated for fear of high-costs and years of education? While it’s true that doctors, surgeons, registered nurses, and other healthcare professionals are required to have several years of schooling and training, not all careers in the medical field do. In fact, there are some medical careers you could jump start fairly quickly. Check out this list of career options listed below:
Medical coders are an essential part of the medical team. It is your responsibility to review patient files and charts, assess the diagnosis and treatments recommended by the physician, and enter them into the database using medical codes. If this is something that interests you, you can take a certification course and complete it in six months or less.
As a pharmacy technician, you would be assisting the pharmacists in filling patient prescriptions. You would essentially bottle, label, and stock medications for patient pickup. Other responsibilities include contacting physicians for prescriptions or questions, consulting with patients who have questions or concerns, maintaining the register, managing medication inventory, and resolving insurance issues. It takes approximately 24 weeks to complete training as a pharmacy technician.
If you’re bilingual, you might want to put your language skills to the test and become a medical interpreter. It will be your job to interpret for patients who do not speak English very well. You will be present during exams, screenings, and other medical procedures to assist with communication between the patient, doctors, and nurses. This ensures that they understand what’s going on with their health and the next steps the doctor recommends to treat it. You’ll be surprised to learn that you can complete online medical interpreter training in just 60 hours.
Front Desk Specialist
If you have general clerical knowledge and don’t mind working behind a desk, becoming a front office administrative specialist might be something you’re interested in. As the title implies, your desk is positioned at the front of the healthcare facility. Patients entering the facility will speak with you first.
Your job will be to check them in, obtain copies of insurance cards and driver’s licenses, collect payments, and direct patients on where to be seated. You also handle a bunch of other administrative tasks. You may be responsible for gathering patient files, scheduling appointments, answering phones, filing, making copies, and providing other clerical support to medical staff. You can find courses to complete in as little as 13 weeks.
Patient Care Technicians
As a patient care technician, you will work closely with nurses to ensure patients receive the treatment and care they need. Your tasks can vary from starting, monitoring, and changing, IVs to drawing blood, helping patients get around, and managing or assisting with food intake. This is a great job opportunity for someone who wants to become a nurse as it gives you in-field experience which can make obtaining an education easier. You can become a certified patient care technician in about 6 months.
Last, but certainly not least, you could become a medical or laboratory assistant. Your role would be to assist doctors and nurses in caring for patients. Though the responsibilities may vary on any given day, medical assistants are known to take patient vitals, prep medical rooms, record patient history, and medical information, and assist medical personnel with other patient and administrative tasks. Becoming a medical assistant can usually take about 8 months.
Whether you’re a college graduate looking to transition into a medical career or simply someone looking for a lucrative and rewarding career path, there are options available. As you can see, there are several medical careers you could qualify for with just a bit of training. Most certificate training programs for the above-listed positions can be completed within less than a year. If you’re worried about expense, do some online research to compare course costs for universities in your area or online.