The Merits of Working in Healthcare - Granite Grok

The Merits of Working in Healthcare

LRGH

When you are considering changing career paths or deciding what to study at college, you need to decide what you would like from your job. This article maps out the joys of choosing a healthcare career path. Weighing up financial benefits against enjoyment, or reliability against excitement is not an issue when you are considering a career in medicine because there is such a high degree of variety. Healthcare is one of the most dynamic fields, with interesting individuals that you’ll work alongside each day. It’s true – you may have to work unusual hours – but to know that your actions could save a life, or bring a family back together makes working in the medical sector one of the most rewarding and warming roles in the world.

Social Environment

It is an unfortunate reality that many careers in the twenty-first century require people to work at desks in large office blocks where they are rarely able to move around and converse with their colleagues. Happily, a career in healthcare will enable you to genuinely support and connect with patients while carrying out practical tasks in a tight-knit team. Depending on your area of expertise, you will be helping to support people of all ages and abilities.

During difficult moments at work, you will never be alone: a team of doctors, nurses, radiographers, and experts will be there to encourage, support, and listen to you. It’s this team – and the patients themselves – who will cheer you up on a long shift, or who’ll impart some valuable wisdom on you that makes the long hours and fast-paced work well worth it. If you want to have a career where you make friends for life, healthcare is for you.

Working in a Supportive Team

As mentioned in the previous section, a social environment is extremely beneficial for one’s happiness in a job. Individuals who choose to work in this sector are often very well suited to friendships within their team because they decided to work in healthcare out of their desire to look after others and support them in a difficult time. If they are willing to do this with patients, you know that they will be more than happy to do this with their friends and colleagues, too.

Working in a team is a brilliant way to achieve the best results because instead of just one person being left to solve a problem, a group can come together and solve it faster, better and, often, in a much more enjoyable manner. Not only that, but the very functioning of a hospital requires you to ‘muck in’ together, creating a tight bond between you and your fellow hospital staff that will last a lifetime. You go through the highs and the lows together as a team – something you’ll relish in your role.

Good Pay

When deciding whether or not to work in the healthcare sector, it is unlikely that the subject of pay will be the first element you consider – as the driving motive to work at a hospital is usually to care for others when they are unwell. However, careers in medicine can be lucrative if you study a degree before beginning your career. Nowadays, it is even possible to study a medical degree online: one example is distance learning at midwifery schools in Texas to achieve a degree. One benefit of studying online is that you will be able to learn from anywhere in the country and at any time. Studying online is unbelievably flexible; you can even maintain a full-time job while studying a college degree. This is ideal for people who would like to change careers.

Guaranteed Work

There is another financial benefit to having a career in healthcare, the fact that despite job stability being a thing of the past for most job sectors, careers in healthcare are still a financially secure option in the 21st century because hospitals are becoming increasingly busy. As the population grows and ages, more professionals are required to administer new medical treatments. Not only does this make the job extremely exciting, but it means that no matter where you travel to or how long you spend out of work, you can still have a job within healthcare if you have the relevant qualifications and experience.

One thing to note, however, is that if your driving motive to work in the healthcare industry is money, it is worth contemplating whether this is truly the career for you. Yes, it can be a potentially lucrative career path, but it is also hard work, and it requires individuals who genuinely want to improve others’ lives and are not driven by financial profit. Healthcare rewards monetarily after a long time in the industry, but it’s the emotional and social rewards that’ll have you coming back for more.

Variety

You will never live the same day twice when you are working in healthcare, that’s a fact. Many people do the same thing every day in a monotonous job that they hate, but when you are working in the medical field, there will be a constant flow of new patients, families, visiting experts, colleagues, and problems to solve. This is a career that will really keep you on your toes, and often you’ll simply be too busy to contemplate being bored or upset with any kind of part of your job.

It has been proven that leaving your comfort zone regularly can help you live longer because you will be experiencing so many new things that life becomes much more exciting and worth living. Don’t accept anything less than a dynamic and satisfying career if you do choose healthcare – it doesn’t matter whether you are twenty or fifty, everyone deserves a career that makes them feel valued – and to feel excited about every morning when they wake up.

Reap the Benefits of Altruism

Working within the medical field requires a great deal of kindness, patience, and understanding. You will need to support people through some of the hardest moments of their lives, and although this can be incredibly rewarding, it will also come with its challenges. It is well-renowned that being kind to others has benefits for your mental health, and if your career revolves around the principle of altruism, you can be sure that you will receive these benefits in addition to your monthly pay packet. Some ways that being kind to others can benefit your life include:

  • It improves your self-esteem
  • It can help you cope with stress
  • You can boost your social skills
  • It can benefit your immune system
  • It can ease anxiety or depression
  • It can help you make new friends
  • It’ll make you a more loving long-term partner

Career Progression

There are many jobs in the modern day that seem to be exceedingly limited, meaning that career progression beyond a certain point is impossible and that people who like to be challenged in their jobs, or rewarded for hard work, are unable to progress within the workplace. When this happens, it can be extremely challenging to imagine leaving your place of work. However, in the modern world, people are increasingly swapping jobs after short periods of time – partly because there are so many benefits of changing your job. It’s never too late to retrain and start working within a more fulfilling job.

In addition to the healthcare system being a very accessible career, there are unlimited ways that you can reach your potential in the field. By working in both the private and public sector, you can push yourself to achieve more than you previously thought was possible to achieve. Everything from promotions to national awards and research grants, means there are a wide variety of ways to excel in the industry that will take advantage of your natural knack for a certain sliver of your role, and propel you towards the opportunities inside that sliver. But another way, you’ll have all the options to specialize, which means you’ll have the chance to become a world-leading specialist within your career.

Employee Benefits

Working within a hospital means that you will be a member of a very large community, often run by a respected corporation or government body. This will grant you guaranteed medical care, maternity leave, holiday and sick pay, in addition to bonuses when you perform in an outstanding manner. Healthcare is a very diverse field, and if you manage to progress to the level of a consultant or a manager, there will be opportunities to travel across the world for conferences and medical consultations – and these will be paid for by your work or associated bodies.

When you work in healthcare, you can rest assured that there will be a whole host of employee perks waiting for you in your new job, from fitness and health incentives to wellness and professional emotional support. But, as so many working in the field will tell you, these benefits are nothing compared to the genuine feeling of doing something for the good of humanity, day-in, and day-out. Of course doctors, nurses, and surgeons have a hard time of it – to the extent that they sometimes have to sleep in the hospital, and that their social life suffers – but overall there’s a reason why some of the smartest, kindest and most dedicated people are to be found in these roles. It’s because they value what they get out of the job, calling to mind the maxim ‘what you put into a job you’ll get out of it too.’

Opportunity to Travel

The medical community is a global one, with the same standards of practice taking place all over the world. This global collaboration requires medical experts to travel around the globe in order to gain and share knowledge with their counterparts. Working at any level within the medical industry will give you a qualification that will be valuable in the global job market. Healthcare needs vary from country to country, and visas are much easier for certain medical professionals to attain in order to fill vacant positions that a certain country can require.

There are many jobs that are only valid in one country, and sometimes in only one state or company. Healthcare practices are extremely well-regarded throughout the globe and if you did want to give something back to the global community, you can easily travel throughout the world for free as you donate your time and skills to organizations that help people who are injured as a result of war or sick due to a lack of clean water. A career in the medical field is only as limiting as you make it – and one path to consider is to work for ‘Doctors Without Borders’ who administer for patients in some of those places in the world where it’s hardest to access quality healthcare.

Flexible Hours

If there’s one thing you can be sure about when you work in healthcare, it’s that you will never be stuck in the hopeless grind of a ‘9 to 5’ routine. Doctors and nurses work in a shift pattern throughout the night to ensure patients’ wellbeing. If you have childcare commitments or even another job, you will still be able to support and help people during weekends and evenings. Hours in a hospital are ultimately flexible, so it may suit you if you hate to get up early every morning and work better late at night.

The hours of work are flexible – but so too are the days. If you wish, you can become something of a domestic traveler by slowly working through the hospitals around your country, staying for a month or so before moving along to new digs. Not only will this flexibility suit young people who just want experience and interesting locations to work in, but it’s also a great way to build a network that you might come to depend upon later in your career.

Regardless of your age and experience, a career in the medical field is achievable and rewarding. The diversity of working in healthcare means that you are guaranteed to find a job to suit you and one that you really enjoy attending every day.

We spend most of our lives working, so if you are looking for a career path that is more fulfilling, and one in which you are helping people during one of the most difficult, exciting, heartbreaking or exhilarating moments of their lives, then you will excel in this field.

*****

From time to time, GraniteGrok accepts content from third parties from which we may or may not receive compensation

>