Explore Careers in Medicine - Part 2

Welcome to the Ask Dr. V show, brought to you by Channel of Health, where you can be informed and empowered about healthcare issues that are important to you. I'm your host, Dr. Valda Crowder, also known as Dr. V. And today we are exploring the landscape of healthcare careers that are beyond being a physician. Now, this is part two of a show that we've already done. The first part really focused on nursing, and we had a representative or a guest from the Black Nurses Association. So today we're going to actually talk about careers that are not nursing careers and also not physician careers. You'll find that some of these careers are what we call patient-focused, where you interface with the patient. And then there are some healthcare careers that are not patient-focused. In other words, you're supporting and you're providing supporting services, but you may not necessarily be interfacing with the patient directly. I think this is really important because while people actually think of doctors and nurses in healthcare, we are really just part of a broader team. And it is a very, very large team that actually comes together and provides all of the things that you experience when you go into your doctor's office or when you go into the hospital. So we're going to talk about all of it, from diagnostic testing to therapists to administrators who keep systems running to researchers that actually develop tomorrow's treatments. The reason why I'm talking about uh healthcare careers today is because I think that it in this job market where a lot of people are struggling to actually get meaningful work, working in a healthcare setting actually, one, it's it's very meaningful work and you feel like you're actually really making a difference. Um, there's often very strong job security. Uh we don't experience as many uh layoffs as other uh employment sectors do. And you also have a job where you often can have flexible hours, you often get a full set of benefits, and you really have a chance to really make a difference in people's lives, and they really do thank you. So whether or not you're a student considering your options, maybe you're someone who's actually looking for a career change, maybe you've been downsized or laid off, or maybe you're just curious about what it might look like to work in today's healthcare field, this conversation will open your eyes to an incredible range of opportunities that are available. All right, so let's dive in. If you're listening to this topic or if another health issue is important to you, reach out to me at info at astrv.us. Remember, I'm here for you. And if there is ever a time when you need to take advantage of accurate and alternative options to get your health concerns addressed, this is it. Okay, so let's let's dive right into it. When we talk about healthcare professions, I want to talk about first some of what we call the uh patient-centered or professions where you actually will be interfacing with the patient. So a couple of other professions that I think is really important to actually really take a look at are things like X-ray techs, CTEX, uh, MRI techs. Um, these are all the people that actually uh take you actually in for your imaging studies. So whether or not you're getting an ultrasound, a CT, an MRI, a mammogram, these are the these are the people that get trained on how to actually use the machine, how to actually set you up in the machine so that they actually get an appropriate or accurate image. Um when you look at this, you know, the training for uh the training for these types of uh jobs really vary. Um it can be as little as nine, nine to twelve months, um, and it can be more if you're looking at something like you want to become an MRI tech. The salaries often range uh anywhere from about 35,000, and when you get to things like an MRI tech, you could be up to$80,000 to$90,000 a year. So that is something to always sort of uh consider is imaging and helping people actually get their imaging. Another area that I think a lot of people don't really think about are physical therapist, occupational therapist, speech and language therapist. We also have respiratory therapists that help with the administration of oxygen and uh nebulizer treatments and help with the ventilators. These two are all also programs where you actually need to get some training. So when you look at a physical therapist, an occupational therapist, or a speech therapist, they will have an undergraduate degree and they will often have two to three years of training after that. They will have an income that'll be somewhere around$90,000 to$120,000, depending upon the setting that they actually work in. When you look at things like a respiratory therapist, a respiratory therapist is usually about two years of training outside of high school, and they help in the hospital setting and sometimes in uh nursing home settings if they have event-dependent patients with managing the ventilator, getting people off the ventilator, uh, giving breathing treatments. Um, and again, their salary is somewhere between uh$70,000 and$80,000. Some other patient-focused uh careers that are really important that are needed, are we have people that become a phlebotomist. A phlebotomist is usually uh four to eight months training uh outside of uh high school, and a phlebotomist can work in a hospital, they can also travel around the nursing homes, there's traveling phlebotomists, um, and again, their salaries roughly about$50,000, plus or minus. Um, the other things to always consider are paramedics and EMTs. Um, they again uh this depends upon the amount of training that you get. EMT is about three to six months worth of training, uh, usually at a community college, right outside uh right after high school. And a paramedic is a little bit more advanced and it's one to two years in training. And again, these range from$40,000 to$60,000 or so, depending upon how much actual uh training you have. Now I think it'd be important. I want to actually just transition into things that are not patient focused that maybe people might not think about. So one of the main things that I think people actually really don't think about that have a strong interest in science is working in the lab. So in the in the lab is where all of your lab tests are run. So when you go into the hospital or even when you're an outpatient and you go get your blood drawn, the phlebotomist is the one that draws your blood. But it's the lab tech or the what we call a clinical lab technician that actually runs your runs that actual machinery that actually spits out those results. Um so this is you never see these people, they're in the background, so they are not they they are not interfacing with the uh patient, and they specialize on calibrating the machines, making sure the results that they report out are accurate, and training on various advanced machines. The training for this can really vary because there's different levels of actually being a clinical lab technologist. So it can be anything from two to four years of schooling after high school. And again, the salaries also vary based upon the training, and it can be anywhere from$60,000 on upwards to about$90,000. There is also a whole area of medicine that involves research, medical robotics, uh, engineering, and kind of pursuing new technologies. And this part of medicine is really, really advancing quickly. So we have uh robotic technicians that help with um uh extremity or limb uh for patients that have extremity or limb amputation. There's a whole area now of AI where folks are looking at uh healthcare data. Um you have biomedical engineering uh that uh usually uh involves folks that have a bachelor's or a master's in engineering. Um and they're they're looking at the advances in healthcare that will be in the future. So these again require, these usually require two to four years of college, um, and the salaries can really vary anywhere from about$75,000 on up to$150,000 when folks first come out of school. So this is for those folks that want to be on the cutting edge of defining or solving the future problems in healthcare. The other careers that I think are often overlooked are folks that actually do medical billing, revenue cycle analyst, insurance claims specialist, um, and there's also what we call uh DRG or coding specialist. And DRG is the diagnostic related groups that are actually used to actually set up your bill. So if uh billing and finance is kind of your area, but you also have an interest in healthcare, um, these are are the the training for these programs vary dramatically. You can they have some certificate programs. Um, there are some folks that actually go all the way and get get an associate degree or a bachelor's, and the pay can really vary from about$50,000 on up to like$150,000 depending upon your actual training. The other thing that actually goes in the same sort of category is what we call utilization management. And utilization management is basically where we're reviewing someone's care and we're making sure that they're getting the appropriate care or they get they're able to transition from the hospital to the rehab center and um they get the proper approvals. So when you hear of things like prior authorization or we need special authorization, those are that all of that is being handled by a utilization management team and a care management team. Lastly, I kind of want to go over you have the whole area of public health, and we really saw the need for this during COVID. And these are the folks that actually analyze the data. Um, you know, how fast is the inspect infection spreading? Where is it spreading to? Um, you have uh health educators uh that may go out and actually talk to people about prevention. You have community health workers, um, you have even uh things like environmental health specialists or industrial hygienists who may actually look at how do you make a workplace safer. So there's a whole area of of there is a whole area of of public health and environmental health that is also part of the healthcare industry. All right, so what the health is happening is the real question, and it is the name of my new podcast where you can literally get life-changing advice. What the health is happening is where we give you the inside scoop on health matters and empower you with information and everything that you need from breaking healthcare news to important medical updates. What the health is happening is your dose of medical reality with me, Dr. V, and my friends from the front lines of healthcare. It can be streamed and downloaded and subscribed on all podcast platforms. So any podcast platform that you listen to has What the Health is happening and you can hear me all the time. Alright, now we're going into news you can use. 300 people have been quarantined in uh in South Carolina due to measles. South Carolina has reported 15 new cases, uh, bringing the total to 126 cases. Uh 13 of the cases are from known household exposure. Uh, one was from a neighborhood contact, and the other one was from an own unknown source. So currently, there are a total of 300 people that are under quarantine in South Carolina for measles. If in general, I tell people you want to really be careful. Measles is extremely contagious. So please make sure you and your family are vaccinated. Second story today for news you can use is that the FDA is going to put a black label on the COVID vaccines. Now, I'm I believe this is more political than medical. They have not released any information about what sort of healthcare information or what sort of new healthcare data has actually led them to actually do this. So I tell people I wouldn't be worried about this. I got the vaccine, I got the COVID vaccine, I get the COVID vaccine every single year. I work in a healthcare setting, a very high-risk setting. So I see patients a lot with COVID and the flu. So I make sure I'm protected so that way I don't spread things to my family. Um, if you are in a a career where you're actually exposed to a lot of people in the public, um, then you may want to consider actually getting the COVID vaccine yearly. If you're whether you are in that type of environment or not, one of the things is you want to make sure to wear your mask when you're indoors and you're around a lot of people in the winter time. All right, we're gonna go on now to some questions. And I've got some questions that have been emailed to me, and I'm gonna uh answer them here. If you have questions that you would like to have answered on this show, please send them to me. I do read them and I do answer them. You can send them at info at askdrv.us. That's info at askdrv.us. Okay, so let's get into these, let's get into these questions. Alrighty, I have a question here that came from Alan, and Alan said, Can you please break down what is the highest paying jobs in healthcare? Uh, you know, I said, let's let's answer the money questions first, because a lot of people have a lot of questions about that. So, all right, usually the highest paying careers and jobs in healthcare are the CEOs of hospitals or the CEOs of pharmaceutical companies are large healthcare insurance companies. These are jobs where usually the salaries are uh multiple million dollars a year. There may be also uh stock options. These usually are not physicians, these usually are folks that either uh had a uh science degree and worked their way up in a pharmaceutical company, or they actually for hospitals have usually gone and gotten what we call an MHA, which is a master's of hospital administration, and they've gotten that training after undergraduate. Maybe they did a uh training or internship or mentorship program with someone that was already a hospital administrator. Um, for those types of positions, um, there are a lot of different positions. It's not just the CEO. You can be the COO, which is the chief operating officer. Um, you can be a VP of clinical affairs. There are a lot of different positions that we call at the C-suite of the hospital or of a pharmaceutical or insurance companies, but those are the highest paying jobs in healthcare. So I'm gonna deal with all the money questions first. So the next question I have is I heard anesthesiologists get paid really well. What type of money are we talking about, and what type of training is needed? So there's different types of anesthesiologists. So you can have a physician anesthesiologist, and then there's also a nurse anesthetist. So a physician anesthesiologist has actually gone to medical school, so went to undergraduate medical school and then did a residency in anesthesiology. A physician anesthesiologist will right now, they're right now in our nation in the United States, there is a shortage of uh physician anesthesiologists. Um, so their salaries are very high. They probably make roughly about$700,000 a year with a$700,000 a year package. They will often get 12 weeks of vacation, 12 weeks of paid vacation. So um, in addition to their salaries being very high, they often have a lot of uh downtime, a lot of paid, well, I shouldn't say downtime, a lot of paid vacation. Now, a nurse anesthetist is a little different. That is someone who actually has gotten their bachelor's of science in nursing. They've gone on after that to become a nurse anesthetist. That training can sometimes be about two years or so after getting uh two to three years after getting your nursing degree. A nurse anesthetist also does very well. Um, salary-wise, um they're normally right around the 300,000 range, maybe 350,000 range, um, also with paid vacation and with all their benefits. So, yes, anesthesiology is a field that we have a shortage in, and it also is a field that is well paid. All right, we got a question from Kia. She says, Is it easier to become a dentist than a doctor? Well, so it kind of depends. It may be easier to get into dental school than it is to get into medical school. So, as far as acceptance into uh a particular, into your particular schooling, I think dental school is a little bit easier to get into than medical school. Um, however, both require four years, so it is still a four-year commitment. Um, many dentists, uh, some dentists come out and do do training or a residency afterwards, and some some do not. Uh so I I think it it's more it's more about what is your interest. I think that is actually uh something that is more important. What a lot of people actually, one career that a lot of people overlook that is really, really important is oral surgery. And oral surgeons can be a lot of times they're they have their dentist that DDS and MD. Sometimes they have one or the other, um, but they are in extreme short supply. And um these are these are people who deal with uh things in the mouth that require surgical intervention, whether or not it is um uh draining of an abscess, complex fractures. Um, they also deal some with some cosmetic things as well that kind of involve your mid to lower face. So I would overall say that it is um easier certainly to get into dental school than it is to medical school. The time commitment is about the same, but you really have to look at what is it that you're interested in. All right, we have another question here from Blake. He says, with all the people losing their jobs at the CDC and HHS, what are their options now? So I think it really depends upon what did you do if you worked for the government. And I think it's really important to look at um who uses your services. So if you worked in the federal government and you were downsized as a result of everything uh that happened, you have either vendors or states or public health departments, you may even have companies that are interested in your skill set. And so you want to look broadly at your skills. Specifically, you know, were you someone who analyzed data? Were you someone that actually educated communities? What was the actual skill set of the work that you actually did? Because I can guarantee you there are hospitals, clinics, or even state health departments that actually need the skills that you have. I would be very surprised if any of the folks that were downsized out of the National Science Foundation, CDC, HHS, or even NASA, those are all department divisions where those people should have a very easy time finding a new job. And you have to, but you do have to think a little bit more broadly about your skill set, who needs it, and who actually could use what you actually know how to do. Okay, Tracy said I've noticed that doctors and nurses all over the place are doing Botox and facial fillers. What qualifies them to do this these injections? Very, very good. So this is uh a very good question, uh Tracy. So this is a certificate program, um, and it is a certificate program uh that you can do as a physician or a nurse, um, and you can literally shut up shop. And a lot of folks are doing it because people want the Botox, they want the facial fillers, and they're paying cash. And they don't have to actually interface with the um insurance companies. Um, a lot of these certificate programs will uh work around your around your schedule. I know for some physicians, you can literally get it done in a matter of about a week. I'm not sure as far as nurses what type of what type of what type of uh training they have to get. It really kind of depends upon what type of physician are you and what type of nurse have you been. So it is really geared towards what has been your experience in dealing with patients, and it's it's geared towards that. Um but a lot of these programs are not very long at all. Um, and then people do set up do set up uh shops where they actually begin to then offer these uh services. Shane said, I wanted to know. How long does it take to become a phlebotomist? And is there any growth in that field? So great question. It is very quick to become a phlebotomist. You can actually learn how to become a phlebotomist within about four to six months. The other thing that is really important, and I know this happens at my emergency department, once we have an emergency medicine technician that has actually been working for us for a year or two, we actually train them on phlebotomy skills for free. So this is something that I think is really important that a lot of people don't realize. You can actually take a job in healthcare that might be lower than the job that you want. And the hospital will actually train you for free to get to the next position. And so this is another reason why you'll see people actually get a job in healthcare and actually get trained while they're on the job. So getting trained in phlebotomy is a matter of a four to six months or so. If you're already working in the field, they may even have a shorter training program. Alrighty, we've got a question from Kyle who says, I've been trying to get into pharmaceutical sales for a long time, but it's very competitive. I know pharma reps are always reaching out to physicians. Do you have any insight or can you give me any pointers? So this is um this is another area that's really, really important. Um a lot of people don't realize. Sometimes it's a pharmaceutical sales rep that actually trains the physician on new technology or new instruments that may come out. It's really important that you have a strong science background. You have to have a bachelor's or a master's in a science area. Um, it's also important that you have a sales background or some sort of business understanding of business marketing and have taken some coursework on that. Almost all pharmaceutical sales jobs require a bachelor's. Some of them actually want even more than a bachelor's. It is it is a very competitive industry. I tell people if you want to go into pharmaceutical sales, it would be really, really important to network and go to their conferences and meet people that are already in the business, have them review your resume and have them look for what is actually needed, what do you have that works and what do you actually need? All right. I want to I want to thank you guys to uh today for um listening and uh being with me while we discuss this topic. As you can see from part one and part two, there are a lot of different ways uh to enter and be a part of the healthcare industry. Um and um I didn't even talk about folks that are in marketing and finance and they're all on the business side uh of healthcare, but but almost anything that you do, um you can actually almost any um almost any skill set that you have is actually something that can be used in the healthcare field. So I want to thank you for joining us today. The Ask Dr. V show is produced by the nonprofit Channel of Health. The mission of Channel of Health is to inform, educate, and empower communities about pressing health and healthcare issues. We also provide scholarships for MCAT Prep and school scholarships for promising students majoring in science and medical-related careers. You can support our efforts to educate and empower our community. Go to askdoctorv.us and donate today. Thank you for joining me for the Ask Dr. V Show. We are here on WOL 1450 a.m. every Monday at 10 a.m. to answer your most pressing healthcare issues. Be sure to email me or send me an audio message to info at asdrv.us. That's info at askdrv.us. We'll be right back here next week on the Dr. V show where you can be informed and empowered about your health.