How to Get Started in Healthcare
By Beth Dumbauld
If you’ve decided it’s time to get serious about your career, and you’re beginning to think a career in healthcare might be the best fit for your career goals, you’re in the right place. Careers in healthcare are stable, growing, and in-demand. In the last ten years, careers in healthcare have grown ten-times as fast as other careers – contributing 2.6 million jobs to the economy.1 In fact, the non-healthcare economy has grown at only 2.1% in the same ten year time period (or .2% per year). If you are looking for job growth and career opportunity, earning a degree in the healthcare field makes a lot of sense.
There’s a difference, however, between knowing a career in healthcare is for you, and knowing how to get started. Often, it’s the getting started part that can be the challenge for adults going back to college, or students just beginning to look at possible degree paths. As with any professional field, it’s important to know what the educational requirements are, and what degree path you need to pursue in order to get your dream degree.
Online Education Is the Fast Path to Your Career in Healthcare
With online education, you now have access to a flexible, convenient, and affordable way to earn a college degree that will let you have the career you want in healthcare. Additionally, you can take most of the introductory college courses required for a healthcare related degree through an online college course provider like StraighterLine, and have those low cost college courses transfer directly to the college where you plan on earning your degree.
Some of the most respected healthcare programs in the country are offered online, as well as many healthcare programs offered by regional institutions like Excelsior College, Western Governors University (WGU), Capella University, Liberty University Online, Northern Virginia Community College, University of Maryland University College. Additionally, if you take online college classes that are eligible to earn ACE Credit through an online college course provider like StraighterLine, your courses are then eligible for transfer to over 1800 colleges and universities – allowing you an enormous advantage in terms of affordability and flexibility.
What’s more, if you are looking for a speedy on-ramp into the healthcare field, many of the fastest growing jobs in healthcare don’t require a 4-year bachelors degree. For many fast-growing professional healthcare careers, you can earn a 2-year associate degree and be quickly on your way to working in a stable, growing industry.
1Thompson, Derek, A Truly Astonishing Graph of the Growth of Health Care Jobs in America, 7/1/2013, p.1
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/truly-astonishing-graph-growth-health-195816890.html
