HEALTH 10

Quarter 4 – Week 8
Health Career Pathways

Objective:

1. 1 explore the various health career paths selects a particular health career pathway
based on personal competence and interest; participates in a health career
orientation program. (H10PC-IVc-d-3/Weeks 3 - 4)

2. decide on an appropriate health career path. (H10PC-IVc-d-4/Weeks 3 - 4)

 Health Career Pathways
A career in health will give you the opportunity to make a difference in people’s lives. Career
pathways are clusters occupations that are grouped because of shared skills. All pathways include a
variety occupations that require different levels of education, skills and training. Selecting a career
pathway provides you with an area of focus, along with flexibility and variety of ideas to pursue for
personal development.

Career you choose is one of the most important decisions in life. Your career plays a
highly influential role in your health and happiness - it can give you a purpose, be a great source of great
stress, provide financial security, connect you to a social network, and so much more. For these reasons
preparing for your future should be one of the core objectives of our educational system. 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. Health career orientation will help you identify and explore
health careers, and acquire academic awareness of a wide variety of educational training and resources for
both academic and vocational that motivate you to pursue a career in health.

What are the examples of health career pathways?

1. Disease Prevention and Control

People who specialize in this career path focus on communicable and non-communicable diseases.
Sample Careers: Community Health Work, Education and Research
2. Personal Healthcare
Professionals in this field perform healthcare related tasks in a personal care level.
3. Maternal and Child Care
These health workers deal with complex public health issues that affect women, children and their
families.
Sample Careers: Midwifery, Community Health educator, Outreach Specialist
4. Mental HealthCare
These medical professionals specialize in dealing with interpersonal and intrapersonal
relationships and life skills.
Sample Careers: Social Work, Clinical Psychology, Psychiatry, Guidance Counseling
5. Community Healthcare
Specialist in this area focus on the maintenance, protection, and improvement of the health of all
community members.
Sample Careers: Barangay/Community Health Work, Rural Sanitary Inspection
6. Environmental Healthcare Management
These health workers try establish the correlation between and among the physical, chemical,
biological, social, and psychosocial factors in the surrounding environment.
Sample Careers: Air quality monitoring, Soil science analysis, Hazardous and solid waste
management, Environmental noise control, Radiological assessment
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 always to balance individuals food and nutrition and their impact on
patients health.
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.
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.
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.

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.

Who are the medical and allied health professionals?

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 prevention and
treatment of diseases, disabilities, and disorders.

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 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
group 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 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 facilities
10. Medical Technologist - performs a variety of tasks on bofy fluids, from simple blood tests to more
complex tests to uncover abnormalities in the body, and underlying causes of illness, 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 women maintain healthy
pregnancies, assist in or perform childbirth delivery, and help in women's recovery process through the
postpartum period
12. Nurse - trained to provide care for people who are sick or injured; monitors patient’s health and
records symptoms, assists physicians during examinations and treatment, and administers medications
13. Occupational Therapist - uses purposeful activity and interventions to maximize the
independence and health of any client who is limited by physical injury or illness, cognitive impairment,
psychosocial dysfunction, mental illness, or learning disability

14. Orthoptist/Prosthetist - makes and fits prosthetics or artificial parts of the human body
15. Paramedic - gives emergency medical treatment or assists medical professionals in emergency
situations
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
19. Speech Language Pathologist - diagnoses and treats patients with functional and organic speech
defects and disorders
20. Phlebotomist - professionals with special training in phlebotomy or drawing blood from patients
21. Radiation Therapist - administers radiation therapy services to patients and observes patients
during treatment; other duties may include tumor localization, patient follow-up, patient education, and
record keeping
22. Respiratory Therapist - specializes in the promotion of optimum cardiopulmonary function and
health; regularly deals with various chronic respiratory diseases, such as asthma and emphysema
23. Social Worker - investigates, treats, and gives aid to people with social problems and helps people
with mental illness, serious health conditions, financial difficulties, substance abuse problems, domestic
or child abuse, unwanted pregnancy and other social problems

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 calcaneous 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 resources
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.