Healthcare Career Guides
Prepare for your future.
Understanding Careers in Healthcare
The healthcare field offers many opportunities to contribute diverse skillsets and knowledge toward strong patient outcomes. From conducting research to helping a patient coordinate care, careers in healthcare make a daily impact on individual, community and global wellness.
Healthcare career paths are often categorized as clinical or non-clinical based on responsibilities. No matter the specific position, however, healthcare professionals make an impact that lasts beyond treatment and into daily life. Such responsibility is naturally in demand, with various roles available nationwide.
What Does a Career in Healthcare Look Like?
Healthcare careers support individual and population health, an essential component of societal well-being. It’s an industry where teamwork, critical thinking and empathy intersect to explore, identify and strengthen patient outcomes.
There are many positions that involve patient interaction while others keep the system moving behind the scenes. Even though a day in the life looks different for each role, the thread weaving them all together is leading others toward greater health and wellness.
Types of Healthcare Careers
The healthcare industry is comprised of multifaceted teams of experts supporting a large system. The first step of a healthcare career path is exploring different roles and determining what interests you most.
American College of Education (ACE) offers healthcare career guides that showcase various roles in the field with key information like responsibilities, salary potential, job outlook and steps to qualify for the job.
Clinical and Patient Care Roles
With direct patient interaction at the forefront, clinical and patient care roles involve responsibilities such as diagnosing health conditions, conducting medical tests, executing therapeutic procedures, coordinating care and more.
Healthcare Administration Roles
Administrative roles in healthcare involve operational oversight, leadership, team management and less direct interaction with patients.
Public Health Roles
Public health contributes to assessing disease outbreaks, educating communities and crafting preventative measures.
Education Requirements
Some healthcare career paths prefer you earn a degree in healthcare, but education requirements are not the same across roles. For example, a physical therapist must attend physical therapy school.
Clinical vs. Non-Clinical Paths
Careers in healthcare can follow either clinical or non-clinical paths with the key differentiator being time spent with patients.
Related Healthcare Programs at ACE
ACE recognizes the critical need for healthcare professionals, no matter the setting or role, and that quality preparation is essential. That’s why we offer affordable programs with flexible coursework that equip you with relevant, effective and evidence-based knowledge that sets you up for success.
How to Start a Career in Healthcare
Each healthcare career will follow a different pathway based on the role you’re working toward. Once you explore options through our healthcare career guides, you can review steps to reach your goals including skills you need, education or licensure requirements, salary potential, and more.
FAQs
What are the fastest-growing careers in healthcare?
Reflecting various needs, fast-growing roles include but are not limited to:
Physician assistants
Medical and health services managers
Physical therapy assistants
Physician assistants
Psychiatric technicians
Can I work in healthcare without a clinical degree?
Yes! There are many non-clinical healthcare roles that focus on administration, operations or support rather than direct patient care. These positions – medical billing and coding specialists, healthcare administrators, patient service representatives, etc. – don’t require a clinical degree.
How long does it take to start a career in healthcare?
The amount of time it takes to launch a healthcare career largely depends on the role you’re aspiring to and its corresponding education requirements. For example, you may be able to start an entry-level job with one year of training, but reaching management and leadership roles may take a minimum of four years.
Are there entry-level healthcare careers?
Yes! There are extensive entry-level healthcare jobs that often provide foundational knowledge and experience. A great example is a medical assistant position.
What healthcare careers don’t involve direct patient care?
There are many healthcare jobs that don’t require direct patient care, like:
Medical billing and coding specialists
Health information managers
Healthcare administrators
Clinical research coordinators
Medical writers
Healthcare technologists
What skills are most important for success in healthcare careers?
Those with successful healthcare careers have a strong combination of technical and soft skills. Among those, some of the most important abilities include attention to detail, understanding medical terminology, problem-solving, critical thinking, empathy, emotional intelligence, adaptability, teamwork and more.