Are you interested in a medical career but want to join a growing field? Let us help with our guide on medical professions with high growth potential over the next decade and beyond.
Home Health Aides
Home health aides, also known as caretakers or home nurses, take care of seniors and others who have a limited ability to care for themselves due to physical or cognitive disabilities. Home aides perform duties like administering medication, monitoring vital signs, and even conducting specific procedures under the supervision of nurses and other medical professionals.
The US has an aging population, and with many from the baby boomer generation entering their twilight years and retirement, experts predict home health aides to become more common in homes everywhere. Plus, home health aides don’t need college degrees, so it’s easier to find worthy applicants for the position.
Physician Assistants
Physician assistants are pretty similar to physicians. They can diagnose and treat patients under the supervision of doctors and nurses. Since there’s a current shortage of doctors and nurses in the US, health care experts see physician assistants as filling the role of the primary physician more often.
On average, physician assistants make six figures, but they don’t require a doctorate degree for the position. The health care industry expects the physician assistant role to increase dramatically as more hospitals and medical facilities utilize these professionals to cover the shortage of doctors and nurses.
CRNAs
Certified registered nurse anesthetists (CRNAs) occupy an important role in the health care industry because they assist anesthesiologists. With the field of anesthesia growing seemingly exponentially every year in the US, hospitals and facilities need more anesthesiologists and CRNAs to keep up with demand.
CRNAs perform many duties, including:
- Developing anesthesia treatment plans with the anesthesiologist
- Explaining anesthesia plans directly to patients and families
- Administering anesthesia to patients
- Monitoring patients during surgery
- Monitoring multiple patients post-operation
CRNAs can earn more than six figures and require only a master’s degree, so this is an attractive medical profession with high growth potential for many.
Nurse Practitioners
A nurse practitioner (NP) works directly with patients and is typically responsible for providing the primary and urgent care a physician would give. Like physician assistants, NPs are helpful personnel that can cover for the shortages of nurses and doctors in American health care facilities.
In most cases, an NP can perform the same primary duties as a regular physician, such as ordering lab tests, creating treatment plans, and even performing medical procedures. Many health care facilities are urgently looking to hire NPs since they can do many of the same duties as a physician and help free up other doctors for more intensive work.
Massage Therapists and Chiropractors
Massage therapists and chiropractors are both growing professions of medicine, as they treat clients using muscle or spinal manipulation instead of medication. Since the population is aging, chronic muscle and back pains are common ailments. So many more are interested in treating their pain through massage and chiropractic methods instead of medicine.
Massage therapists and chiropractors can help heal injuries, relieve spine and muscle pain, increase relaxation, and give patients a more pain-free life.
