Healthcare Jobs You Might Not Know About

Healthcare careers provide the chance to help people, do interesting technical work, and earn relatively high salaries. But that's not all. The healthcare industry also offers some of the best employment opportunities in the economy. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), wage and salary employment in the healthcare industry is projected to grow 22 percent between 2006 and 2016. That translates into about 3 million new jobs-nearly 20 percent of the total number of jobs expected to be added to the economy over the projections decade.

Of the dozens of different healthcare occupations, however, many people are familiar with only a few, such as nurse, doctor, and physical therapist.

Biostatisticians

If you like working with numbers and want to work in healthcare, you might want to be a biostatistician. Biostatisticians apply statistics to medical and public-health research. Almost daily, the media report new research findings related to human health. Maybe an experimental treatment for HIV has been found to work better than current therapies. New data might reinforce the link between high blood pressure and heart disease. Or perhaps a report reveals dangers in treatment options, such as the risk in using smoking cessation drugs. Health-related findings such as these, or others concerning healthcare costs and quality, are usually based on the work of biostatisticians.

BLS collects data on statisticians as a whole. According to BLS, statisticians held 20,270 wage and salary jobs in May 2007. Twenty-five percent of these jobs were with colleges, universities, and professional schools; State governments; and insurance carriers. Another 20 percent were in the Federal Government, where statisticians were concentrated in the U.S. Departments of Commerce, Agriculture, and Health and Human Services. Nearly 15 percent more worked in private industry in scientific research and development services.

Median annual wages for statisticians were $69,900 in May 2007, according to BLS. The middle 50 percent earned between $50,520 and $91,840. The highest earning 10 percent made more than $112,880, and the lowest earning 10 percent made less than $38,140.

High school students can start to explore the occupation by getting a solid background in science, mathematics, statistics, and computer science. Not surprisingly, statistical knowledge is essential for these workers, as is familiarity with common statistical programming software. A bachelor's degree with a major in biostatistics, statistics, or mathematics is usually the minimum requirement for entry-level positions. Most jobs, however, require biostatisticians to have a master's or doctoral degree.

Cytotechnologists

Cytotechnologists are disease detectives, spending much of their time peering through microscopes for clues to disease within cells. They study cells from nearly every organ of the body. These workers search for patterns and abnormalities that might be evidence of cancer or other medical conditions, such as viral or bacterial infections. Cytotechnologists work closely with pathologists, the medical doctors who diagnose the causes and nature of disease. The information cytotechnologists provide is vital to the specialists responsible for making an accurate diagnosis and for developing an appropriate treatment plan. For example, a cytotechnologist might discover that a cell sample is benign or, if cancerous, the type of cancer.

BLS does not collect data on cytotechnologists specifically. But cytotechnologists are included under the broader occupational group of medical and clinical laboratory technologists. These workers collectively held 163,270 wage and salary jobs in May 2007, according to BLS. More than half of these jobs were in hospitals. Most of the remaining jobs were in offices of physicians and in medical and diagnostic laboratories. A small proportion of jobs were in colleges, universities, and professional schools and in all other ambulatory healthcare services. According to BLS, median annual wages of medical and clinical laboratory technologists were $51,720 in May 2007. The middle 50 percent of workers earned between $43,200 and $61,140. The highest earning 10 percent made more than $72,040, and the lowest earning 10 percent made less than $35,460.

Entry-level cytotechnologists usually need at least a bachelor's degree in cytotechnology or a related subject. Some States require cytotechnologists to be licensed, but licensure requirements vary by State.

Many employers prefer to hire cytotechnologists who are certified by the American Society of Clinical Pathology, which requires either a bachelor's degree in cytotechnology or a degree in another subject and a certificate in cytotechnology, as well as a passing score on a board-of-registry exam. Certificate programs are offered by universities, colleges, and hospitals and last about 1 to 2 years.

Surgical technologists

Surgical technologists assist in surgical operations. They work under the supervision of surgeons, registered nurses, anesthesiologists, or other surgical personnel. The scope of their work depends on the laws of the State and the policies of the facility in which they work, but most do a variety of tasks before, during, and after an operation. Before an operation, surgical technologists help to prepare the operating room. They gather equipment and check to make sure that everything is working properly. They also help to prepare patients for surgery, transport them to the operating room, position them on the operating table, and cover them with sterile surgical drapes. As the time for surgery approaches, these technologists observe patients' vital signs, check charts, and assist the surgical team with putting on sterile gowns and gloves. During the operation, surgical technologists pass instruments and other sterile supplies to surgeons and surgical assistants.

According to BLS, surgical technologists held 86,000. About 70 percent of these jobs were in hospitals, mainly in operating and delivery rooms. Other jobs were in outpatient care centers, including ambulatory surgical centers, and in the offices of physicians or dentists who perform outpatient surgery. A few technologists worked directly for surgeons who had their own surgical teams. Median annual wages of surgical technologists were $37,540 in May 2007. The middle 50 percent of workers earned between $31,410 and $45,250. The highest earning 10 percent made more than $52,550, and the lowest earning 10 percent made less than $26,650.

Most surgical technologists receive formal training in vocational and technical schools, hospitals, or community colleges. These programs, which provide both classroom training and supervised clinical experience, usually take from 9 months to 2 years to complete and lead to a certificate or a degree in surgical technology.

Source: Occupational Outlook Quarterly, Tamara Dillon, 8/2008