Explore Healthcare Careers

Hello and welcome. I'm your host, Dr. Valda Crowder, also known as Dr. V. Today we're exploring the vast landscape of healthcare careers. And I'm specifically talking about careers that are not physician careers. I had a question that came in on over the internet, and it was a question from one of the listeners that said, you know, I have some nieces and nephews that are interested in healthcare, but they're not interested in becoming a physician. I understand that. So we are talking about all the careers today in healthcare that are not a physician. So while physicians, you know, we are doing a lot in coordinating and ordering and determining people's care. Um, I think what a lot of times people don't realize is it is really a team sport. I am not able to do what I do every day as an emergency medicine physician without the other team of healthcare workers that actually work with me. So I I really am happy to do this show today to actually go into what are all of these, what are all of these different professions? I think that it's something that a lot of people should look at, especially if you are looking at uh having been downsized from your job or recently laid off. A lot of hospitals are actually looking. So we're gonna talk about everything from uh nursing to diagnostic tests to administrators to facilities maintenance folks, to everybody that actually kind of makes the whole hospital uh work. And working at a hospital is really meaningful work. Um there's a lot of job security because um we need a lot of people, um, and we often don't have a lot of people. And if you're somebody who's conscientious and diligent enough to show up on time to work, we need you. So, and for some of the professions, the training, uh the hospitals a lot of times will provide some of the training at no cost until you can actually get the training. So let's dive into it all. So if you're listening today to this topic and you want to reach me, remember I'm here for you every time to talk about accurate information around health care. All right, what the health is happening? That is the real question. 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 everything that matters about healthcare and everything that you need to empower yourself with information. What the health is happening is your dose of reality, a medical reality with me and my friends from the front lines of healthcare. It is on all streaming platforms. You can download it, subscribe, comment, and get it any way you like. All right, we're gonna bring in our guest today. Um, our guest today is Marcia Skeet. And Marcia actually has been a clinical psychiatric nurse. Um, I brought her in to speak about the careers in medicine that are not uh that are not physician related. Um, it just happens to be that we had a kind of rough weekend here with uh mental health related issues. So, Marcia, um, good to meet you. Marcia also was the past president of the Black Nurses Association's chapter in New York. So Marcia is our expert today to talk about uh careers that are that are not physician careers. Marcia, how are you?

Oh, I'm doing well, thank you. Uh just getting over the flu, which is very prevalent right now.

Absolutely. It is very prevalent right now. It is very prevalent right now. In fact, there's a lot of research out that the that the flu vaccine kind of missed the mark this year. Uh so that's a whole that's a whole nother that's a whole nother topic. But um, but uh Marcia, so I wanted to kind of I wanted to talk today about um uh you know all the careers. Are you still working or are you retired now?

I recently retired. I was caring for a nailing parent. So uh I just I retired and uh not that long ago.

Not that long ago. Okay, great. All righty. So I wanted to talk about some of the careers that are um not a physician. Um and um the biggest category obviously is nursing, right? And yeah, that's the biggest category. And so Yeah, and and for the for the black community, a lot of people don't realize that we were systematically kept out of the nursing field due to racism. Yes. And the American Nurses Association actually wrote a letter of apology during COVID.

Yes, recently. Yes, they did.

And um they acknowledged the systematic racism that they had participated in and encouraged a lot of the schools and everything to um decrease or eliminate some of these barriers. So let's talk about nursing first. So I wanted to sort of start at the, you know, at the beginning. Like, you know, I hear people talk about, you know, there they want to be a CNA, right? So um that's kind of like, is that kind of like the like if you were gonna say the entry level for nursing, would you say so?

I would say it is the assistance of nursing. Uh and and certainly it can be an entry level for many. Uh most people consider the entry level for the professional nurse as LPMs, that's the licensed practical nurse. But certainly for us in our community, the CNA, uh the certified nurse assistant, is perfectly uh entry level. Um people can get there easily. Sometimes they just have to complete a GED or something like that in order to get started. Um so that's where the used we call nurses' aides and sometimes still the same, uh, where the person learns all about the general functional and activities of daily living of a person and help them through that process on and learn more and more about the function of the body until they get into a school that teaches them uh more of the science, not only the art, but the science of nursing. So that is entry level, yes.

Okay, so so so quick question before we actually leave there. Um, so could I actually get training for a CNA or an LPN in high school?

Yes. Some places, some schools will have that uh program available where you can learn how to uh take vital signs and things of that nature. There are some schools that still have that available uh to students. Okay. And uh yes, uh, you can go for that and they will teach you all of the basics until you're able to then become certified. You you will take uh a test to be certified that that you're safe to do that kind of care. Uh after all, all of it has to do with what observations you make, what you report, and that you're recognizing if things are going in the wrong direction.

Okay, so so and that's important to note. Any of the careers that are patient-facing, where you're gonna be interfacing with the patient, you are most likely gonna have to take a test. Right? Like that's yeah, there's gonna be some yes.

I'm tested, of course. Right. Usually um several months they will take that course for, and uh you will be under the supervision of a of a clinical person. Usually an RN will teach you the basics in programs for CNAs. Yeah.

Okay. Alrighty. And I have, I just kind of looked up the median uh now. This again, this is a career you can get through, uh, you can get the training in high school. I looked up the median salary for a CNA LPN, it's right around$40,000,$45,000. So accurate. Yep. Okay, that's what my that's what my data shows. Okay, so now if we go up another step, and you know, some people say, you know, well, uh, I'm an RN versus a BSN. Can you kind of tell us what the difference is?

Oh, certainly. Um, an RN goes to school for about two years. Okay. Um, you don't have to go to a college to to be an RN. When I say that, you you go to a s a school where you can go for two years and you're educated in all of the clinical things that go with being an a nurse, a professional nurse. You learn all of the uh intricacies of that, and you're able to go and take care of patients uh in settings and you're licensed to look at them from all of the parameters that go with your health. Some of the RN programs or two year programs that prepare you to become an RN uh and that track is usually considered the the nursing profession uh basic track, and that's done in community colleges and and some universities will teach you that. But a BSN you have to not only do nursing, but you must do all of a school curriculum where you will be taught in a university or a college a four-year college, and um that's considered the gold standard in nursing when you become a BSN. When you become a you are a professional licensed uh nurse and you have more than nursing under your belt. You you're taught all of all of the other prof uh courses that uh a student who is a who is a bachelor's prepared student would learn. So you're you're you know, you might do it a little faster than four years, but that's rare. Uh it's a a four-year college and you learn all of the things, all of the sciences, all of the uh humanities, as well as your nursing.

So you're a fully full a full or a full a full practicing a full practicing nurse at that point. Okay.

And so and you can also do more than bedside uh care. You're given more opportunity to manage units and uh take care of lots of um processes, you become a very big part of all of the things that uh help the hospital to function uh uh effectively.

So um we talked about an LPN and CNA, which you can get that training in high school, and the salaries are about 40,000. So if you go up and you become a RN, which is about two years worth of training after high school, then you're looking at a salary I have here about a median salary of about ninety thousand, right? Close to that, yes.

Yes, yes, that's a median average pay. Yes. It could be as low as sixty-five thousand or sixty-six thousand in a state like Florida, where uh part of it might be influenced by the fact that you don't pay state taxes in Florida, so they feel comfortable to pay you less. Uh location can affect your location can affect your uh pay.

Okay.

You want to go to a place where there is a high population, um where there are people moving to that place a lot, uh and and then the lower the number of people in your location, the less pay you often receive. So you want to go to a populous place, um and you also want to look before you even get there, like what is it gonna pay and how is it gonna pay? Right. What matters to you also? What is your quality of life indicated in the area in our day?

So now if we go a step above the RN and the BSN, then we're starting to get into the area where we have like a nurse practitioner. So can you kind of explain because nurse practitioners now are almost setting offices up like primary care doctors, and they're seeing patients um completely um independently. So so what sort of training do you have to have to be a nurse practitioner?

Uh beyond beyond your bachelor's of science, you would then need a master's, uh, a masters of arts or a masters of of science in nursing. And you uh that's another eighteen months or so. Um you also have to have many more indicators uh when you study pharmacologically and um for your your your examination skills have to be more increased. You're you're pretty much learning a lot of the things that your physician would learn uh in order to be a nurse practitioner. You can open your business, but you must have a master's, you must take certification courses, uh you must take certification um examinations in order to do that. Uh some of them are extremely demanding, but you do that because you're taking care of pe people's health. Right. And you're doing that uh pretty much independently. Uh lots of NP uh to be a nurse practitioner you at least have to collaborate with a physician in your role. Uh some people are specialists, they not um prescribing, like clinical nurses uh do not prescribe but they are very much educators. They educate everybody in the system. Often they educate the physicians that come in, they educate all of the people at uh every level and uh but nurse practitioners they they uh are licensed to give certain medications in certain states and they do open their own practice and they do very well. But they do have a lot of education that they must uh uh complete.

Complete, yes. Yes. Uh-huh. So so um in the emergency department, um, I work alongside a lot of nurse practitioners. So I tell people in the emergency department you may be seen by a physician or you may be seen by a nurse practitioner. They will usually introduce themselves and actually give their um exact title. Um I know in at our location, um, I think our nurse practitioners are getting paid about a about a hundred dollars an hour, roughly. Um and then they also get and they also get benefits. So that's kind of like the additional level of training. Now I always I I knew I was gonna get a question about this, so I'm I'm gonna read you the question. So this is a question from uh James. Um he said that I heard anesthesiologists get paid very well. What type of people, what type of money are people talking about, and what type of training is needed? So I wanted to actually talk about this because I often get asked about uh nurse anesthetists and also anesthesiology, right? So now anesthesiologists are physicians, nurse anesthetists are nurses that all and both actually work in the operating room and actually put people to sleep and manage them during surgery. A nurse anesthetist is usually supervised by a physician anesthesiologist. So can you talk a little bit about nurse anesthetists? Because I get a lot of I think a lot of and and then I'll go on and talk about the salary.

Well, I most situations where you have the nurse uh functioning in in roles like these. The nursing background, if they have a nursing background, they will be pretty much after their certifications able to function independently because they have such a grasp of all of what goes on. Nursing incorporates all of the other disciplines. If somebody else comes to your unit, they can't do certain things without discussing it with the nurse because they coordinate what happens but they see what is happening with the patient. And nursing incorporates all of the disciplines. You have to have a little bit of every person's discipline in your rotation. So usually when you have an NP, a nurse practitioner or a nurse anesthetist or someone it with the nurse part in their title, if that means that they're licensed in that way. They're expected to know certain things. And so when they take on the other parts that are specif discipline specific, such as an anesthesia or care of a person, otherwise, they don't necessarily have to be under the supervision of the physician because they're expected to know enough to be uh independent. To manage the case by uh something like a PA, someone like a PA works under um but PA meaning physician assistant works under the physician, while a nurse practitioner works in collaboration with the physician.

Physician, right, and can work independently.

And works independently. Right. That's why this there's a difference.

So let me ask you this if any of the what sort of resources does the Black Nursing Association provide that would help people if they have any interest in these careers? If you could kind of share that. And then I wanted to quickly go through some other things that I think are important, some other careers to kind of take a look at. So do you guys offer scholarships? How do they reach you? Where I don't know if people even realize there is a Black Nursing Association. It has chapters in every single state. You can reach out and contact them. They'll be glad to sort of help you with any sort of career journey that you want to actually move forward with. So just give a sentence or two about what they actually do and what they what resources they provide.

The National Black Nurses Association is the umbrella for all of the local chapters, and they're found throughout the country. So we look at assisting nurses of color, getting through nursing schools, that's where scholarships come in. There are programs where, like in the New York chapter, we have one called the Nurture, the Novice Nurture. There's programs where you can call in the chat rooms for the nurses, scholarships as was mentioned, a conference where you could go and get your certified your CEUs, which are continuing education units so that you can maintain your license. You have the ability to network with other nurses. Also, we present the voice of nurses of color to legislators. We specify, we we go to Capitol Hill annually and meet with legislators. Oh, that's very important.

Yeah. Now, just to just, you know, because some people are not particularly interested in in nursing, I just want to just rattle off a couple of other areas that people should actually think about. We have pharmacists, we have pharmacist techs, we have people who do uh physical therapy, um, speech language, um, respiratory therapists are really important. Yes, x-ray techs, CT techs, ultrasound tech. We also have phlebotomists who actually help with blood draws. You also have folks that do medical records, uh billing. Yes, which is very, very important.

Um important, sure. Yeah, we we that's that's what keeps keep the doors open. You you didn't mention occupational therapy, and I think that's something that people don't pay attention to. The fine motor skills when you're getting older and you can't hold things in your hand. Well you can't button your shirt. So you may not want to be a physical therapist for big muscle movement, but you might want to be an occupational therapist for fine motor movement. There's so much in in healthcare. We get involved with all of these. You can be the person who it's just uh someone who works in an emergency room. That's right. Or something of that nature. So uh and and these are areas where sometimes you get started, you find out what goes on in the healthcare system, and then after you learn that, you might become interested in something else. How can I get a job? That's like being a physical therapist, being an OT, an occupationalist thing. Absolutely.

Well we've got thirty we've got we've got thirty seconds here. So there are a lot of opportunities in medicine and in healthcare that you do not have to go to medical school. Thank you.