Sunday, September 29, 2013

A Quick Look at Various Types of Hospital Careers

Walk into a hospital as a patient and you are probably looking to see a doctor or a nurse. You aren't thinking about all the other people employed on the premises, except maybe the person at reception or a friendly nod to the janitor. But if you're looking to work in a hospital, there is a whole other range of education choices that could help fill your goal. For example, did you know that an office administration college is at the core of many hospital administrator careers?

Hospitals employ a considerable number of support staff, from orderlies and nursing assistants in the wards to food and beverage workers and nutritionists in the cafeteria. Medical office assistants and unit coordinators look to logistics, billing and scheduling, while most hospitals also need regular accountants and IT professionals. In a hospital, specialized needs mean that most hospitals have a high temperature laundry on premises to keep all the linens, scrubs and towels cleaner than a conventional laundry service can. Additionally, hospital visitors generally take some time in the gift shop, so even sales and retail are part of the hospital experience as well as helping their operating budget.

Not to mention the specialized medical support staff like radiologists, ambulance driving paramedics or pharmacists and their pharmacy technicians and assistants. Every one of these professionals work together to look after patients, but each has a specialized skill and their own space in the hospital, some graced only by the employees who work there. You are very unlikely to walk into a pharmaceutical laboratory unless you're a graduate from healthcare courses, because there are sensitive and controlled drugs stored there.

Any modern hospital is also drowning in paperwork. A lot of this isn't even related to patient health. True there's medical records, but there are also all the departments you would expect as part of a business. With so many employees, even a small hospital needs people with degrees from accounting programs to handle payroll, and a human resources department handling all the usual challenges that come from having so many employees.

If you're looking to work at a hospital and you want to know if they have any job openings, it also depends on what sort of position you're looking for. Increasingly, want ads are going online. Even non-profit hospitals are regularly investing in a website which may include listings in various hospital departments. You can also try placement agencies, which are often subcontracted out for hiring. You can also look for some courses at a career or community college, as both sorts of institution can point to what the job market wants and have and emphasis on placement. Lastly it never hurts to give the human resources department at the hospital a call. Regardless of what you did or didn't study, there's bound to be something for you.

No comments:

Post a Comment