Starting a career in healthcare can take you down paths you might not have thought about when first gaining your qualification. However, there are so many opportunities to progress, and gaining a further qualification can help you get them.

Family nurse practitioner

 Family nurse practitioner is just one of the career options you can pursue with Wilkes master’s programs.

You will often be the first point of contact for patients, and you can be working in a variety of settings. These include medical practices, schools and hospitals, and you could even travel to rural settings. Because you’re the first point of contact, you will get to know your patients, and they may see you for several reasons. You could be prescribing medication, diagnosing symptoms, or referring them to specialists.

Midwife

 If you pursue a career as a midwife, you will work with mothers, ensuring the safe delivery of the newborns. This involves care throughout the pregnancy, from prenatal exams and coming up with a birth plan, to offering advice on staying healthy and taking care of the baby (particularly if this is her first child).

While it can be especially rewarding to share the first moments of the baby’s life and witness the reaction from the new mother, it also comes with challenges. Sometimes things go wrong, and you will be part of the team trying to get things back on track and give the newborn the best chance of survival. When this doesn’t go to plan and the worst happens, it can be distressing for everyone, but your job is to support the mother, showing empathy, but putting your own emotions aside.

Occupational therapy assistant

 This is another rewarding career where you help people. Many of the patents you deal with will have injuries, disabilities and other conditions that limit their physical ability, often causing them a lot of pain. Your job will be to work with them, setting them a plan to follow that finds the right balance between pushing them and not pushing so hard that this makes their condition worse.

Phlebotomist

To some people, it may seem like all a phlebotomist does is take blood samples. However, a lot of their work is done behind the scenes. This includes keeping track of the blood samples and ensuring that these samples don’t become tainted so that the results will be accurate. You will also have to reassure nervous patients and look after those who have a bad reaction after a transfusion is given or a blood sample is taken.

It’s also important not to be squeamish around blood. As some patients will be nervous, they can pick on your uneasiness, and this will only increase their nerves.

If you’ve already started a career in healthcare, this doesn’t mean that you can’t build on your qualifications to help you progress further, or pursue other opportunities in the industry. You will already have some relevant experience, and you may not need to spend as long as you think gaining more qualifications.