What is a career?

Components and steps in making a health career plan

A career is an occupation or profession that requires 1. Self-Assessment - Discover your personal strengths through self-
assessments (values, interests, personality, testing, skills, etc.
special training.
2. Career Exploration - You can explore different careers and work
Health careers are designed to familiarize students with environments through career fairs, online research, meetings,
the various careers in the medical profession and allied health internships, alumni connections, professional resources.
services. Students will learn skills necessary for their career path, 3. Decision Making - Before you decide on taking a career that works for
you, you can evaluate and narrow down your options through listing the
which in this case is in healthcare. These include working with
pros and cons, comparing your personal strengths and interests, and
others, communication skills, legal and ethical responsibilities,
deciding which career fulfills both current and future goals.
cultural considerations in healthcare industry, problem solving, 4. Plan of Action - Plan achievable goals and develop strategies to reach
decision making, accepting personal responsibility, and self- your goals, organize your goals into smaller steps, identify actions for
management. each step, utilize helpful people and resources, review and adapt your
plan regularly.
Health career Planning refers to an individual’s plan to
make a career choice, growing in the chosen career or making a HEALTH CAREER PATHWAYS
career shift. Career planning involves the very important step of
Career pathways are clusters occupations that are grouped
self-assessment. because of shared skills. All pathways include a variety of occupations
Self-assessment is necessary to understand one’s that require different levels of education, skills, and training. Selecting a
capabilities and drawbacks. The various career options should be career pathway provides you with an area of focus, along with
flexibility and a variety of ideas to pursue for personal development.
explored in detail to find a fit between one’s abilities and the
opportunities provided by a career option. It involves continuous
learning and improvement to build and grow in the chosen career
path.
Why pursue a health career?
• Good salary • Job Security • Do work that interests you • Find a health
career that fits your educational plans • A clear path to advancement •
Work with people (or not)
What are examples of health career pathways? 4. Mental HealthCare
1. Disease Prevention and Control These medical professionals specialize in dealing with interpersonal
and intrapersonal relationships and life skills. These include cognitive
People who specialize in this career path focus on
and psychosocial development, promotion of healthy self-esteem through
communicable and non-communicable diseases. Their work
feelings and anger management and identifying warning signs or red
includes immunization, screening of newborns, promotion of
flags of learning disorders, such as ADHD, anxiety, mood disorders,
breastfeeding, infant diseases prevention, adolescent healthcare,
stress, and bullying.
and life skills.
Sample Careers:
Sample Careers:
• Social Work • Clinical Psychology • Psychiatry
• Community Health Work • Education and Research
5. Community Healthcare
2. Personal Healthcare
Specialists in this area focus on the maintenance, protection, and
Professionals in this field perform healthcare related tasks in a
improvement of the health of all community members.
personal care level. These include monitoring patients;
administering and assisting in personal care and hygiene; Sample Careers: • Barangay/Community Health Work • Rural Sanitary
performing housekeeping duties; and advising clients on related Inspection
healthcare issues like infant care, hygiene and nutrition.
6. Environmental Healthcare Management
3. Maternal and Child Care
These health workers try to establish the correlation between and
These health workers deal with complex public health issues among the physical, chemical, biological, social, and psychosocial factors
that affect women, children and their families. These include in the surrounding environment. These include monitoring the quality of
providing information on reproductive health, family planning, environment and impact of human activities on ecosystems, and
healthcare of pregnant women and their children, and developing strategies for restoring ecosystems.
improvement of health delivery system through advocacy,
Sample Careers: • Air quality monitoring • Soil science analysis •
education and research.
Hazardous and solid waste management • Environmental noise control •
Sample Careers: Radiological assessment
• Midwifery • Community Health Educator
• Outreach Specialist
 7. Drug Prevention and Control
People whose careers revolve around this area seek to reduce
community and individual problems related to alcohol and drug abuse
through evidence-based programs and policy advocacy.
Sample Careers:
• Drug Enforcement • Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation
8. Nutrition
Specialists in this area find ways to balance individuals’ food and
nutrition and their impact on patients’ health. These include meal
planning, food preparation and economics.
Sample Careers:
• Clinical Dietetics • Food and Nutrition Management • Public Health
Nutrition • Education and Research
9. Health Education
Those who work in this field are tasked with promotion of healthcare
and training of health workers on managing change in healthcare. Their
work involves assessing individual and community needs, planning,
implementing and evaluating health programs, promoting the
understanding of various health-related behaviors plus coordinating
health education services.
Sample Careers:
• Education and Research • Community Health Work
10. Dental Health
Dental health workers deal with various oral conditions which
include chronic mouth and facial pain, oral sores, periodontal (gum)
disease, tooth decay and tooth loss, other diseases and disorders that
affect the oral cavity, and risk factors for oral diseases which include
unhealthy diet, tobacco use, harmful alcohol use, and poor oral hygiene.
Sample Careers:
• Dental Hygiene • Dental Nursing • Dental health support
11. Occupational Safety
Careers in this path are related to the safety, health and welfare of
people engaged in work or employment. These include protecting
workers from sickness, disease, and injury arising from possible hazards
of their employment and workplace.
Sample Careers:
• Occupational Health and Safety Technician • Health Inspector •
Industrial Hygienist
12. Emergency Medical Services
People assigned in this work specialize in out-of-hospital medical
care. Their skills include first-aid procedures, emergency medical
treatment and transport of patients, rapid emergency medical response
and immediate medical attention.
Sample Careers:
• Emergency Medical Aid • Paramedic
MEDICAL AND ALLIED HEALTH PROFESSION
Along with medical professions, there are hundreds of allied
health professions which complete the workforce in contributing to the
whole-person care of patients, support to healthcare professionals, and the
efficient operation of healthcare organizations.
Medical and Allied Health Professions
The medical profession is a group of individuals qualified to
practice medicine. Allied health professions, on the other hand, are lines
of work that still deal with healthcare, but are distinct from medicine.
They have distinct and specialized knowledge and skills that
actively work with people accessing health and disability that are offered
services across a range of settings. These professions include clinical
laboratory or medical technology, physical therapy, occupational therapy,
dietetic services, medical record personnel, radiologic services, speech
language pathology and audiology, and respiratory therapy.
Who are the medical and allied health professionals?
Health Care Provider- a person who helps identify, prevent, or
treat an illness or disability.
Health Care Practitioner/ Provider- an independent healthcare
provider who is licensed to practice on and provide general and/or
specialized care to a specific area of the body.”
Allied Health Professionals- a trained healthcare provider
practicing under supervision of a physician or healthcare practitioner.
They include pharmacists, dental hygienists, physical therapists and
nurses.
Allied health professionals are healthcare practitioners with
formal education and clinical training credentials through certification,
registration and/or licensure. They collaborate with physicians and other
members of the healthcare team to deliver high quality patient care
services for the identification, prevention, and treatment of diseases,
disabilities, and disorders.
These professions may be categorized into either technicians or
Therapists/Technologists. Technicians are those who undergo training to
perform specific procedures. They are required to work under the
supervision of technologists or therapists. This category includes physical
therapy assistants, medical laboratory technicians, radiological
technicians, occupational therapy assistants, recreation therapy assistants
and respiratory therapy technicians.
Therapists or technologists have more intensive training, which
includes acquiring procedural skills. They evaluate patients, diagnose
conditions, develop treatment plans, and understand the rationale behind
various treatments in order to judge their appropriateness and potential
side effects. They also assess patients’ responses to therapy and make
appropriate decisions about continued treatment or modification of
treatment plans. Furthermore, they are licensed to perform these tasks.
Allied health professionals provide services and engage in activities
which include:
a. prevention - keep illness or injury from happening.
b. assessment/evaluation - appraisal of the condition based on the
patient’s subjective report.
c. identification/diagnosis - analysis based on signs, symptoms, and
laboratory findings.
d. treatment - management and care of a patient or the combating of
disease or disorder.
e. rehabilitation/habilitation - treatment designed to recover from
injury, illness, or disease towards a normal condition as possible.
f. advocacy - a method by which patients, their families, attorneys,
health professionals, and citizens’ groups can work together to develop
programs that ensure the availability of high-quality healthcare for a
community.
g. promotion of health and well-being - the process of enabling people
to increase control over their health and its determinants, and thereby
improving their health
h. education - the process of sharing and gaining knowledge.
I. research - the diligent inquiry or examination of data, reports, and
observations in a search for facts or principles
What are the allied health professions that we presently have in the
Philippines?
These are the common allied health professionals practicing in the
country with available education and professional training.
1. Audiologist – identifies and rehabilitates hearing impairments and
related disorders
2. Chiropractor - diagnoses and treats neuromuscular disorders, with
emphasis on treatment through manual adjustment and/or manipulation of
the spine.
3. Clinical psychologist - assesses, diagnoses, treats and helps prevent
mental disorders.
4. Dietitian / Nutritionist - promotes good health through proper diet and
treatment of diseases.
5. Emergency Medical Technician – also known as ambulance
technician; responds quickly to any emergency and life-threatening
situation to immediately treat serious injuries, physical or mental trauma
to increase a patient’s chances of survival.
6. Guidance Counselor - assists students with personal, family,
education, and career decisions and concerns; also helps them develop
job-finding skills and other life skills needed to prevent and deal with
problems.
7. Health Educator - specializes in health education and promotes the
development of health knowledge, life skills, and positive attitudes
toward the health and well-being of students.
8. Massage Therapist - performs the scientific manipulation of the soft
tissues of the body for the purpose of normalizing those tissues; uses
manual techniques that include applying fixed or movable pressure on
affected parts of the body.
9. Medical assistant – performs, under the direction of a physician,
various routine administrative and nontechnical clinical tasks in hospitals,
clinics, and other similar facilities.
10. Medical technologist – performs a variety of tasks on body fluids,
from simple blood tests to more complex tests to uncover abnormalities
in the body, and underlying causes of illnesses, such as HIV/AIDS,
diabetes, and cancer which are not easily detected through physical
examination
11. Midwife - professionals with the expertise and skills in helping 19. Speech Language Pathologist - diagnoses and treats patients with
women maintain healthy pregnancies, assist in or perform childbirth functional and organic speech defects and disorders
delivery, and help in women’s recovery process through the postpartum
20. Phlebotomist - professionals with special training in phlebotomy or
period.
drawing blood from patients
12. Nurse - trained to provide care for people who are sick or injured;
21. Radiation therapist - administers radiation therapy services to
monitors patients’ health and records symptoms, assists physicians during
patients and observes patients during treatment; other duties may include
examinations and treatment, and administers medications.
tumor localization, patient follow-up, patient education, and record
13. Occupational therapist - uses purposeful activity and interventions to keeping
maximize the independence and health of any client who is limited by
22. Respiratory therapist - specializes in the promotion of optimum
physical injury or illness, cognitive impairment, psychosocial
cardiopulmonary function and health; regularly deals with various
dysfunction, mental illness, or learning disability
chronic respiratory diseases, such as asthma and emphysema
14. Orthoptist/Prosthetics – makes and fits prosthetics or artificial parts
23. Social Worker - investigates, treats, and gives aid to people with
for the human body
social problems and helps people with mental illness, serious health
15. Paramedic - gives emergency medical treatment or assists medical conditions, financial difficulties, substance abuse problems, domestic or
professionals in emergency situations child abuse, unwanted pregnancy and other social problems
16. Pharmacist - prepares and dispenses medication prescribed by
licensed health professionals; also provides information to patients
regarding drugs, and consults with healthcare professionals on advances
in drugs or medicine
17. Radiologic Technologist/Radiographer - healthcare professionals
who perform imaging procedures, such as x-ray examinations, Magnetic
Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans and Computed Tomography (CT) scans
(health careers.org)
18. Physical Therapist - examines, evaluates, and treats physical
impairments through use of special exercise, application of heat or cold,
and other physical modalities
There are also allied medical professions whose specialized training is
available in other countries.
1. Cardiovascular technologist - uses imaging technology to help
physicians diagnose patients with cardiac (heart) and peripheral vascular
(blood vessel) ailments
2. Clinical officer - performs general medical duties such as the diagnosis
and treatment of disease and injury, recommendation and interpretation
of medical tests, performance of routine medical and surgical procedures,
and referral of patients to other practitioners
3. Dental hygienist - specializes in the removal of calcaneus deposits and
stains from patients’ and provides additional services and information on
prevention of oral diseases.
4. Diagnostic medical sonographist - uses ultrasonic imaging devices to
produce diagnostic images, scans, videos, or 3D volumes of patients’
anatomy
5. Kinesiotherapist - develops and monitors exercise programs to help
people regain muscle strength and function lost due to injury or disease
6. Neurophysiologist - specializes in the diagnosis of conditions affecting
the nervous system such as neuromuscular diseases, epilepsy, and nerve
entrapments
7. Medical dosimetrist - designs treatment plans for patients by means of
computer and/or manual computation to determine a treatment field
technique that will deliver the prescribed radiation dose while taking into
consideration the dose-limiting structures
8. Medical radiation scientist - performs complex diagnostic imaging
studies on patients and plans and administers radiation treatments.
9. Music therapist - uses music within a therapeutic relationship to
address a client’s needs, such as facilitating movement and physical
rehabilitation, motivating the client to cope with treatment, providing
emotional support, such as an outlet for expressing their feelings through
music
10. Nuclear medicine technologist - performs imaging procedures using
radioactive drugs and materials to make diagnostic evaluations of the
anatomic or physiologic conditions of the patient’s body, and facilitates
therapy with the use of unsealed radioactive sources
11. Orthoptist - investigates, diagnoses and treats defects of binocular
vision and abnormalities related to eye movement; involves seeing
patients of all ages from infants to the elderly
12. Pedorthist - are foot orthotic and orthopedic footwear experts trained
in the assessment of lower limb anatomy and muscle and joint function
13. Perfusionist - assists in performing procedures that involve
extracorporeal circulation, such as during open-heart surgery or
hypothermia
14. Surgical technologist - a member of the surgical team who serves as
a scrub technician or as a circulator
HEALTH CAREER ORIENTATION PROGRAM
A Health Career Orientation is an activity –based career exploration to
broaden your knowledge about careers in the health field. Health career
orientation helps you to:
• evaluate and assess such factors as personal needs, interests and skills
• provide an opportunity to identify and explore health careers
• learn about the duties and responsibilities of health professionals
• acquire an awareness of a wide variety of educational training and
resources for both academic and vocational fields
• pursue health career pathways for future education/ training
Guidelines to Help You Plan and develop your Health Career Plan
• What are my short-term and long-term education and career goals?
• Why did I choose these goals?
• What education/training is required for me to achieve my goals?
• What institutions or facilities provide this training? Which institution or
facility is most appropriate to my interests, lifestyle, and preferences?
Why?
• What courses will I take during grades 11 and 12 to prepare me for my
education or training?
• What co-curricular, volunteer, or community experiences will help me
achieve my goals?
• What do I have to do to achieve my goals?
• (e.g., save money, get work experience)
• What are the potential challenges I may face in the achievement of my
goals?
• What will I do to meet these challenges?
• What is my timeline (e.g., 2 years, 5 years, 10 years) for achieving my
goals?
• How will I monitor my success as I work to achieve my goals over the
next _____ years?
• Seek advice from at least one person (e.g., a parent, another
student, a counsellor, a mentor).
SUMMARY
A career in health will give you the opportunity to make a
difference in people’s lives. A wide range of healthcare career pathways
will provide you with what area you want to focus on, flexibility, and a
variety of ideas and opportunities to pursue your personal development.
You need to identify your interests and skills, expose yourself to
the different available careers, and decide on a career that works for you
and your plan of action.
The medical profession comprises a group of qualified and
dedicated individuals whose vision is to ensure that every person is
healthy, free from any form of illness or disease. They may be physicians
with their own specialized field, or allied health professionals who
complement them, such as nurses, physical therapists, medical
technologists, among others. To start a career in health, you must go
through several years of formal education, an extensive clinical training,
and finally, certification to be officially recognized and duly licensed to
practice as a health professional.
 Health career orientation will help you identify and explore health
careers, and acquire awareness of a wide variety of educational training
and resources for both academic and vocational that motivate you to
pursue a career in health.
Glossary
Allied health professions - healthcare professions that complement the
medical profession, such as nursing, pharmacy, medical technology,
physical therapy
Career - an occupation or profession, especially one requiring a special
training followed as one’s lifework
Career pathways - clusters of careers and occupations that are grouped
because of shared skills
Health careers - designed into familiarizing students with various
careers in the medical professions
Health career Planning - an individual planning in making a career
choice, growing in the chosen career or making a career shift. Career
planning involves a very important step of self-assessment.
Health career Orientation - an activity-based career exploration to
broaden your knowledge about careers in the health field
Medical profession - body of individuals qualified to practice medicine