"Jobs to Watch" series: Healthcare

Healthcare is one of the fastest growing sectors in America, due to the aging of our population, and is one of the few bright spots in a lagging economy. The following occupations are characterized by the Occupational Outlook Handbook as growing "much faster than the average" over the next decade, which means at a rate of more than 20%. Of course, due to the amount of positions currently available (because 100% growth in an occupation with 20 workers is a grand total of 40) and bars to entry like extensive training*, opportunities will vary widely.

Registered Nurse- Nursing is notable within the healthcare field because many paths can lead to certification as an RN. There's the Bachelors of Nursing, the Associates' Degree of Nursing and the nursing diploma, which takes 2-3 years. However, there's, an, um, spirited discussion in the field over whether nursing is a vocation or a profession, and there's rumblings about ADNs being eventually phased out as a method of entry. (Yes, this seems antithetical to addressing the nursing shortage.* I didn't do it, don't look at me.)

--Many health care workers make hourly wages, and some, like dental hygenists, often work part time, but I extrapolated a year's salary based on a 40 hour work week -- in the case of nurses, 36 hrs, or 3-12 hour shifts.

Starting Salary - $40,000

Median Salary - $57,000

Number of Workers, circa 2006 - 2,505,000

Rewards: Being able to take your skills to virtually any location, spontaneity and variety of experiences, the ability to see the results of your work and lend comfort and aid to those in need. Additionally, nursing is a diverse field, and there are plenty of opportunities to find a niche.

Drawbacks: Understaffing, working holidays, high level of responsibility combined with low level of authority, physical pain from turning patients, dealing with the demands of hospital administration and sometimes irate patients/patient families, dearth of pension programs, lots of paperwork and legwork, no work breaks, and the unique nature of medicine makes boundaries between work and off time, patient and practitioner blur. Oh, and of course, gore and human detritus.*

Good for people who enjoy: Teamwork, science, multitasking, interacting with a variety of people from all walks of life, helping others and problem-solving.

Pharmacist- You have to get up pretty early for this one. A Pharm D. can be obtained after completing 6-8 years of school, and sometimes 2 years of residency. The preliminary entry tests are rigorous, and pharmacy programs are quite competitive.

Starting Salary - $82,000

Median Salary - $94,000

Number of Workers - 243,000

Rewards: Stability, fantastic pay, opportunities for one-on-one patient contact, widespread availability of jobs location-wise, you occupy a position of leadership in the pharmacy, there's fewer drawbacks to being a "free agent" than many other professions, there's the option of starting a pharmacy of your own, and did I mention the pay? I think I did.

Drawbacks: Lots of standing, sometimes handling hazardous chemicals, trying to bridge the gap -- okay gulf -- between insurance companies and patients, sometimes working holidays, weekends, and/or nights. Customers that attempt to "cut out the middle man" and treat you like an M.D. Junkies that attempt to treat you like the ice cream man. For some, the stability seems more like monotony, and retail pharmacy in particular can be rather light on the technical elements that attract many pharmacists to the profession. Also, someone has to decipher those infamous handwritten prescriptions... guess what, it's you.

Good for people who enjoy: Math, science, chemistry, helping people in a more hands-off, routine and less stressful environment than the hospital floor, problem solving -- and balling like the proverbial hustler.

Dental Hygienist- Generally, an Associates' degree will do, but there's usually a year of pre-reqs. Many DHs also contend that the workload is more like an accelerated Bachelors' than a conventional Associates' degree.

Median Salary- $67,000

Starting Salary- $56,000

Number of Workers- 167,000

Rewards: A lot of "bang" for your degree, pay-wise. The bulk of the responsibility is on the DDS, but like lots of mid-level medical professionals, you may actually get more face time (npi) with the patients, and as a result, can form lasting bonds with them. You perform a lot of the same types of procedures, so you have the opportunity to improve immensely over time.

Drawbacks: Lots of bending in uncomfortable positions which causes neck, back, and wrist strain over time. It's very difficult to find a full time position because of the limited week of most dental offices, so benefits are rare and jobs at multiple offices are common, with all of the inherent instability that depending on multiple part time jobs for income usually entails. For some, doing cleaning procedures can become repetitive and boring. Where the bulk of responsibility in the office goes, the bulk of control & respect does, as well. And, of course, yuck mouth. Additionally, the Dept. of Labor and DHs on the ground apparently disagree about the state of the profession. Because dental hygienists hold multiple jobs, the growth potential may look way better on paper than it actually is, and in some areas, there's actual talk of field saturation.

Good for people who like: A mixture of chaos and structure, improving people's confidence and appearance while advising them on healthier habits, working with their hands, and science.

Physician's Assistant- Physician assistants spend about 2 or more years in undergrad/pre-reqs, and 2 years in PA school. However, many PA programs require some previous medical experience, in addition to the pre-reqs.

Median Salary- $74,000

Starting Salary- $69,000

Number of Workers- 66,000

Rewards- Less time in school and therefore less debt, the ability to more easily transfer from one specialization to another, less responsibility than an M.D., a relatively flexible schedule, you don't have to deal with malpractice insurance or the administrative side of healthcare as often as a physician would. You generally get more time with patients, and in areas where doctors are thin on the ground for any reason, you become the closest thing to a principal primary care provider, and are usually treated accordingly.

Drawbacks- You can never have a private practice of your own as a PA, even with years of experience -- all PAs must be under the supervision of an M.D., and if his/her diagnosis is different, it trumps yours, even if you know more about the case. Some places where medical practitioners are in low supply have a shortage because they're not the most desirable areas to live and/or work.

Good for people who enjoy: Science, problem-solving, helping the underprivileged, teamwork, and spontaneity.

*The nursing shortage is an unfortunate problem with many causes. There's the notable pay cut that nurses that teach at nursing schools recieve for the trouble of getting a PhD that creates a bottle-neck effect: schools can only accept a few aspiring nurses at a time because of the lack of nursing professors. Also, the shortage in hospitals (where the vast majority of nurses work) adds stress to an inherently stressful work environment, leaving many people who came into nursing full of energy, optimism, and a desire to change lives for the better emotionally and physically drained and perpetually worried about their ability to care for so many patients simultaneously, safely and compassionately. Of course, this creates a cycle. If nurses burn out quickly because of the shortage and/or flee bedside hospital nursing on the first thing smoking once they get the experience to become hospital administrators, or work in a private practice doctor's office, or the education to become nurse practitioners or certified nurse anesthetists, that makes it even harder on the nurses still left in the hospitals. Hella conundrum, indeed.

*Fortunately, many hospitals have tuition reimbursement programs so current employees can get the training needed to advance their careers, or just keep up with rapidly changing medical technology, procedures and rules. While the training for medical careers slows an immediate response to the expanding market, many schools control the class size, expanding or restricting the number of applicants accepted according to projected levels of demand.

* These things may seem obvious, but apparently, people do get into medical careers believing that they can and will avoid diseased human bodies and their attendant smells, secretions and appearance. On the job, this results in people who avoid or ignore the "code browns and yellows", which forces co-workers and aides to pick up the slack. Also, this affects how people outside of medicine perceive medical careers... I don't think George Clooney ever got squirted with pus on "ER."

I'm Jurgis, and this is my story.

Baby got Backstory:


I graduated from an expensive private college a year ago with a Psychology/Anthropology double major -- yeah, I know... I decided that I didn't want to be a psychologist this year, but apparently you can't do that. My parents and I are now deeply in debt to the tune of about 5 figures. I've experienced the joys of unemployment for a year since. The local (state) economy's not that bad compared to the rest of the nation, but so far, I've had 0 luck/opportunities, after a feverish search that admittedly mostly took place online with the occasional job fair/office complex jaunt where the prospective employers... promptly sent me back online. Since I'm an introvert who feels that my odds of making a good personal impression on a potential employer are quite low indeed, I feel most comfortable with an online job search. Being online also cuts down on the odds of being discriminated against due to my race, which allows me to procure opportunities -- however few they may be -- to practice my interviewing skills. I've recieved about 6 or so interviews, but no offers -- a third of the interviews have been with temp agencies.

White-collar, "true" (meaning no experience required) entry-level jobs are like unicorns nowadays. I’ve applied to a variety of jobs, mostly clerical, since that’s where my minimal experience lies, but also for jobs like residential cleaning, apprentice exterminator, Wal-Mart cashier, entry level processor in a fish processing plant, and a variety of retail positions. I applied for a plumber’s apprentice job yesterday, and the applications, like their resume brethren, seem to just vanish into the ether.

At first, I was extremely uncomfortable with my status. My father was pretty much a stay-at-home dad due to chronic long-term unemployment, and part of me worries that I'll give up one day and drift off into the ranks of the "hidden unemployed" -- the people that don't collect unemployment and are no longer looking. The highest degree either of my parents have is an Assoc., and in some respects, a four-year degree of any kind was seen in my house as a talisman of sorts... holding some kind of unknown magical property that allowed a person to escape from a life of manual labor, minimum wage jobs, and yes, long stretches of unemployment. So I admit, I took it for granted that I'd be able to get a job after school. What started as a leisurely dip of the toe into the job pool turned into frantically clawing at the surface when I realized that things weren't going well at all. I graduated in the midst of a deep recession -- workers weren't thinking about quitting and retiring as often as they usually would, and companies weren't all that interested in training new grads. The music had stopped, the chairs were full, and I was left standing. But I didn't know that then. All I knew was that for the first time in my non-social life, I failed bigtime, and it hurt.

Somewhere along the way, my inner student kicked in, and I began to analyze my plight. When I started college, my difficulties with other people inspired me to study them from a safe distance, and so, again, I coped by detaching myself from my situation -- if only for a moment -- and devouring books on unemployment. Despite the fact that it profoundly impacted my family, I'd never studied unemployment as a social phenomenon before. It was seen as our secret shame, something to be concealed, as a personal failing, not as a common transitory state or structural flaw. So interspersed with my personal adventures and misadventures in joblessville, there will be some of the info I've compiled on the job market.

During the summer, I'll be following various tidbits of job hunting advice that I've received from family, friends, and random Internet folks... from the absurd to the mildly annoying. I admit, I'm a "Yes, but" person. I'll ask for advice when I actually want vindication or a certain answer that I give no clue about and/or may not even truly know myself. It infuriates people, and in retrospect, it's the conversational equivalent of "I'm thinking of a number." Following the glut of advice I've been given will be my atonement. Hopefully, I'll get a job. If not, I'm going to be "House, RN" when I grow up, and no one wants that.