We live in a time when help is needed now more than ever. COVID- 9 cases continue to rise due to the more infectious variants, and experts say this will not be the last pandemic we will experience in our lifetime. Now more than ever, it’s time for people to embrace their passion for wanting to help others through their careers and to lean into this sense of calling and advocacy.
If you want a career in the healthcare sector and dream of helping others in this way, here are some medical professions you can explore and consider:
Medical biller and coder
If you have a knack for memorization, good-decision making skills, and a keen understanding of financial processes and healthcare records, then a career in medical billing and coding might be for you. Medical coders and billers are those who aid healthcare providers in collecting payments in an organized and timely manner. They are in charge of assigning each specific procedure and diagnosis into a universal identifier, using industry codes that have been standardized.
Once the records of the patients have been coded properly, the medical billers then provide the claim or invoice to the payer or the insurance company. This is an emerging career that not a lot of people in the healthcare industry know a lot about, so if you want to get there first, now is the time to explore it further.
Medical assistant
Every medical facility has a lot of moving parts, so much so that if one aspect of the machinery falls apart, the whole thing might collapse in on itself. Some unsung heroes of any healthcare facility are those in charge of day-to-day administrative tasks, like medical office assistants.
You don’t necessarily need to be a doctor or nurse to work in the medical field. You can also be a medical assistant or someone who’s in charge of other tasks like clinical duties like jotting down patients’ medical history, removing sutures, and drawing blood, to other administrative tasks like scheduling appointments, answering phones, and emails, and updating patient records.
Medical assistants also don’t necessarily need to work in a traditional hospital or clinic, you can also find a fulfilling career in an urgent care center or a home care facility. Your duties as a medical assistant will depend largely on the specialty and size of your workplace, but you can be sure that you will do a world of good for patients and doctors alike with your presence and when you do the job well.
Occupational therapy assistant
Occupational therapists and their assistants are responsible for helping aging patients with their daily tasks. Elderly patients are not the only ones occupational therapists help; they also help out people who are in recovery from an illness or injury. There is plenty of demand for occupational therapy assistants, especially since as the aging population continues to grow, so will their medical needs. The demand for these professionals is increasing that there is an expected 34 percent growth from 2020 to 2030—so much faster than other occupations.
Health information technicians
If you are skilled in keeping data accurate, updated, and organized, you might find yourself thriving as a medical record and health information technician. You will help physicians make sound medical decisions based on an accurate and organized set of data, giving them the best chance for providing informed care. As a health information technician, you would be in charge of inputting data and finding ways to keep patient records as safe and secure as possible, at all times.
If you have excellent interpersonal abilities, analytical and technical skills, and attention to detail as well as an impeccable sense of integrity (since you will be handling a lot of classified data), this career might be worth exploring and considering.
Medical secretary
Medical secretaries are tasked with working closely with doctors and medical scientists in tasks like processing payments for insurance and working on patients’ medical histories. They’re like medical assistants, but they are mostly focused on administrative tasks. If you think you’re good at organizing digital and physical files, have an excellent command of speaking and writing, and are capable of managing private data and sensitive information, then the work of a medical secretary might be for you.
There is no shortage of jobs in the medical industry, and the world needs all the help it can get. Don’t drown out that voice in your being that says you should help people in this way—there may be challenges in the road ahead, but it can also be incredibly rewarding.
