Healthcare and Medicine Career Guide – Jobs, Salary & Outlook

Is healthcare a good career path? Depending on the role you pursue, healthcare can offer strong job satisfaction, high salaries, and tremendous potential for professional growth.

This guide to medical field jobs outlines different roles and describes the necessary education.

Learn more about the best-paying jobs in healthcare and other valuable information to help you find your dream job.

With so many healthcare careers to choose from, you can find an exciting medical field job for any level of education, desired salary range, or professional interest.

Many healthcare jobs are growing much faster than the national average, and employer demand is high. Some of the best jobs for the next decade are in healthcare — for good reason.

Medical careers offer multiple benefits, including:

Many professionals enter healthcare, especially nursing, with no degree or a two-year degree. They then participate in further education throughout their careers, thanks to career and education paths that take advantage of their earlier education and experience.

However, healthcare careers have their drawbacks. For many, these include:

The best-paying jobs in healthcare require a doctorate or other professional degree, though the time it takes to earn one varies.

Physicians often spend 11-15 years in school and then in training, while nurse practitioners may have only 5 or 6 years of schooling.

Other professionals, such as veterinarians and nurse anesthetists, must also have a doctorate, but these doctorates take 3 to 4 years and do not require a master’s.

These are the 2021 median salaries from the BLS for some of the best-paying jobs in healthcare.

Is healthcare a good career path for those who do not want to spend much time in school? There are several healthcare careers that require just a high school diploma or GED certificate, though these roles do require considerable on-the-job learning.

Other medical field jobs require a graduate degree or doctorate for even entry-level positions.

Every medical career requires attention to detail and a strong ethical code. In nearly every healthcare career, somebody’s life or health depends on you doing your job well.

Most jobs also require you to be able to learn and adapt rapidly, because medicine as a field can change quickly. What was a best practice and your professional habit one week may be replaced the next week by a new approach.

If you have one of many patient-facing careers in medicine, you will also need a combination of empathy and the ability to detach yourself from a patient or family member’s physical and emotional pain.

Work-life balance and stress can be a downside to many careers in medicine. Many nurses working in hospitals and care facilities have long shifts, including weekends, holidays, and night schedules.

Scheduling demands can make it challenging to plan vacations, events, and appointments. Especially for smaller independent practices, veterinarians are on call for emergencies, and agricultural or large-animal veterinarians need to travel to the patient in any type of weather, in out-of-the-way areas.

Other healthcare careers, such as healthcare administration, offer more predictable hours. Healthcare educators who teach full-time have predictable schedules, though they may teach weekend or evening classes.

School nurses or on-site nurses in corporate locations often work regular office hours. Doctors and nurses who work for insurance companies or other corporations also can work office hours and regular schedules.

Most medical professionals work in dedicated healthcare settings such as hospitals, nursing homes, physician offices, or clinics, but they may also work in other settings, such as military bases, prisons, cruise ships, or on large corporate campuses.

In some cases, healthcare jobs may require work in difficult or dangerous conditions including emergency relief or serving combat troops. Even medical offices vary in atmosphere, from urban high-end dermatology, cosmetic surgery, and dentist offices that resemble spas to remote facilities for low-income, rural populations.

Some healthcare professionals, like nurses, can choose from a variety of workplaces, including hospital systems, physician offices, long-term care facilities, and government clinics. Other professionals have little flexibility in workplace choice, like the majority of paramedics who spend their days in ambulances.

Demand for most medical field jobs is growing, according to the BLS, and the best-paying jobs in healthcare offer six-figure salaries. However, many healthcare jobs are high-stress and have a high risk of burnout.

When choosing from the many jobs in healthcare, consider how much education they require, the typical work settings, stress levels, work-life balance, and salary. These considerations can help you narrow down the many medical professions you want to consider to a manageable list.

Salaries for careers in the medical field range widely. The highest-paying jobs in the medical field pay hundreds of thousands annually, while the lowest-paying ones are well-below the national average. Generally, the more education and responsibility required, the higher the salary.

Nurse practitioners are the fastest-growing healthcare career. The BLS projects between 2021 and 2031, nurse practitioner jobs will grow 40%.