Emerging New Healthcare Jobs, Part 1

By Rick Fromme

Photo Credit: westernjournalism.com

Despite the passage of the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a., ObamaCare), the U.S. is still challenged withproviding universal, equitable access to quality, cost-effective care for a population that is becoming ever more diverse and increasingly older.

Exacerbating the situation, some workforce pundits have cautioned there may be significant shortages of nurses and other skilled healthcare professionals.  And, there’s also question about who will step into the scrubs of today’s highly skilled workers when they retire in their 50s and 60s. 

Despite the above, the news isn’t all dire. In a previous blog about healthcare careers, I highlighted established healthcare positions that the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and Occupational Outlook Quarterly (OOQ) cited as being the most in-demand careers for the next ten years or so.  (See our previous blog, “Health Care Jobs Outlook is Jammin’!”)

Importantly, as the U.S. tries to respond to these challenges, several new healthcare occupations are emerging that have the potential to keep people healthier and lower expenses. These jobs are well-suited for college students seeking to enter the workforce, as well as those workers who may want to transition into a new career altogether. 

Photo Credit: paulpustelnik.me

In particular, occupations that focus on providing care and services to elders and the disabled, such as homehealth aides and certified nursing assistants, are poised to grow in tandem with the U.S.’ aging population. These jobs provide opportunities in community-based, home care and institutional settings.

These and other healthcare jobs offer promising opportunities, particularly in light of some projected labor shortages. Demographic changes and the emphasis on cost-effective healthcare may also spark new, innovative jobs that are not yet clearly captured in current sources of occupational data, in part because they’ve not yet been assigned federal classification codes.  

The BLS defines “an emerging career” as an occupation that currently has a few number of employees, but that is expected to grow significantly in the near future.  Happily, several developing healthcare careers fall within this definition.  Healthcare reform and the impetus toward patient-centered care have the potential to expedite the development of and increase the demand for a range of new specialties. 

Conducted in 2010, a research study was undertaken by a panel of national experts in workforce and healthcare-related issues. This group’s subsequent report, “How Boomers Can Help Improve Health Care: Emerging Encore Career Opportunities in Health Care,” identified six promising new career tracks:

• Community Health Worker – Provides health education, guidance and some basic direct services to underserved populations, promoting cost-saving prevention and addressing inequities in care.

• Chronic Illness Coach – Offers personalized support and guidance to chronically ill individuals, helping them better manage the stress of chronic illness that can sometimes lead to depression and the need for additional medical treatment.

Photo Credit: nypost.com

• Medications Coach – Assists individuals with complicated medication regimens to guard against harmful, potentially costly, drug results or interactions.

• Patient Navigator/Advocate – Aids patients and their families in accessing top-quality care so they may better understand preventive measures and treatment options, leading to more efficient use of the healthcare system.

• Home- and Community-Based Service Navigator/Advocate – Helps patients access long-term support services, including adult day care and home-delivered meals, to remain living at home and potentially avoid more expensive care in assisted living or nursing facilities.

• Home Modification Specialist – Creates safe home environments that support independent living for seniors and the disabled, conceivably preventing costly institutionalization.

The popular online career site, Monster.com, listed Nursing Informatics and Anesthesiologist Assistants as two of the newest professions with increasing salaries. These two professions, unlike the ones cited above, have already been listed in the newest directory of job titles by the “Occupational Information Network.”

Photo Credit: caringheartsofrochester.com

Careervision.org cited several healthcare-related fields as promising new careers. Particularly focused on elderly patients, Life Care Planners, Case Workers and Patient Advocates will all experience an increase in demand for qualified employees. These fields include conducting assessments, research, navigating the healthcare system, and planning and managing services. 

Another growing field is Biotechnology. The areas of research and development, quality control and assurance, manufacturing and production, agriculture, and bioinformatics are all fields that will experience growth. Similarly, there’s Bioinformatics, where specialists organize and mine an expansive amount of biomedical data, such as research related to the study of the human genome, clinical trials, and/or diseases.

Photo Credit: rogercatlin.com

Especially in regards to the U.S.’ changing demographics, we’re currently experiencing one of the most dire nursing shortages in history.  Skilled nurses are in demand.  Hospitals, clinics, surgical centers, doctor’s offices, nursing homes, and elder care facilities are all in need of nurses with specialized skills in critical care, perioperative nursing, neonatal care and geriatric care.

Today’s most in-demand nursing jobs mirror

important trends in American society: aging Baby Boomers, consumer interest in fitness and holistic medicine, and advances in computer technology. Minoritynurse.com cited the following new specialties that are in need of qualified nurses:

• Nursing Informatics – Combines nursing, computer science and information science to manage and communicate data, information and knowledge in nursing practice to improve patient care and communication among diverse medical staff members.

• Fitness Nursing – Helps patients regain strength and health through exercise, nutrition and educational programs.

• Holistic Nursing – Using a combination of traditional and alternative health care treatments, these nurses help patients regain health or deal with chronic conditions.

• Gerontological Nursing – Specializing in working with elderly patients, these nurses help individuals who have diseases or chronic pain, and other health issues related to aging.

This article discusses some of the newly emerging jobs and projected in-demand specialties in healthcare.  If you found it interesting and useful, please share it with your colleagues and friends.  As always, I’m eager to read your comments and questions below.

Find Nursing Jobs at MedMasters.com

Rick Fromme combines entrepreneurial enthusiasm with an insider's knowledge of the medical industry to co-found MedMasters.com. Both his drive and perspective helps provide health care professionals with a superior mechanism with which to communicate, network and market their strengths. Prior to founding MedMasters.com, Rick operated a highly successful medical device distributorship. Other milestones in his 12-year career in the medical industry include a key position at a medical device start-up company that was later sold to the Ethicon Endo division of Johnson & Johnson. You may also reach Rick by connecting with him on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn and YouTube. 

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I’m Looking Through You: A Day in the Life of a Sonographer

By Rick Fromme

Rubber Soul (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As most of you have probably surmised from reading my earlier posts, I’m a Beatles fan. Hence, combining the subtitle of one of the Fab Four’s earlier songs from the album,“Rubber Soul,” along with the series title adapted from “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band” just made sense, word play-wise.

The Beatles changed our lives in so many ways; they were an unequivocally talented band that also became a social phenomenon. They were responsible for many innovations that we take for granted today, such as the performing in-concert to huge stadium crowds; the concept albums; music videos; starting their own record label; inventing numerous, innovative recording studio techniques and more. 

Arguably, the Beatles changed the world as we know it with sound.  Likewise, Sonography changed the diagnostic medical profession as it uses ultrasound waves to image our internal anatomy and physiological processes in real time.

Skilled Sonographers — also known as Ultrasound Technicians, or Diagnostic Medical Sonographers — have become an invaluable asset to modern health care diagnostics and treatment.  They’re trained to operate specialized equipment, a type of transducer, which  produces a special image to help diagnose patients' ailments inside the human body. The ultrasonic instrument emits high-frequency sound waves, inaudible to humans, to digitally record the echoes as its sound waves bounce back to determine the size, shape, and consistency of soft tissues and organs. These sound waves and their echoes create ultrasonic images, called a sonogram, of our internal bodies. Sonography can now produce 2D, 3D, and even 4D images of our internal organs and life forms that sometimes inhabit some of us, babies that is.

4D Ultrasound showing 3-month-old fetus (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Sonographers may specialize in OB/GYN, abdominal, neurosonography, breast, vascular, or cardiac sonography. An integral part of the health care team, sonographers work directly with patients, physicians and other medical personnel. While a licensed, skilled sonographer actually images the patient, most of his or her ultrasound readings are interpreted by radiologists, who then contact the ordering physician (i.e., OB/GYN, cardiac or thoracic surgeons) to detail and discuss the results. 

 Job Outlook & Responsibilities

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) predicts that job growth in this field will be much faster than the average for all occupations through 2020. Sonography is listed among those occupations expected to grow faster than most others, especially those that require an associate degree.

Of course, one of ultrasound’s most common uses is to provide a “womb with a view” perspective of developing fetuses inside a woman’s uterus. Ultrasound has many uses during pregnancy. Pregnancies can be dated and hence, due dates can be reasonably estimated. It can determine if a mother is carrying multiple fetuses such as twins, triplets, or quadruplets. It can also determine if the pregnancy is ectopic. Sonography can be used as a screening tool to detect possible birth defects, if there are issues with the placenta, if the baby is in a breech position, and more. After several months of pregnancy, ultrasound can tell expecting parents whether to buy blue or pink paint for the nursery. And, just prior to delivery, ultrasound can estimate the baby’s size. 

Ultrasound Machine (Photo credit: The Facey Family)

Furthermore, in addition to its imaging capabilities, sonography is used for a wide variety of non-invasive applications, some of them potentially life-saving. Sonographers are an integral part of the health care team, as ultrasound helps doctors diagnose a wide variety of conditions affecting certain the organs and soft tissues, including the heart and blood vessels, liver, gallbladder, spleen, pancreas, kidneys, bladder, uterus, ovaries, prostate, testicles, eyes, and thyroid gland. Sonographers help “stage” cancers and can help locate arterial blockages such as through venous Doppler exams. Ultrasound can also guide doctors through precise medical procedures such as needle biopsies, which require the doctor to remove tissue from a very precise area inside the body for testing in a lab. Ultrasound technology can identify the cause of soft tissue injuries, and can sometimes help treat them. There are diagnostic limitations, as the sound waves don’t transmit well through dense bone or the bowel, because it holds gas, and lungs because they hold oxygen.

A typical day includes seeing eight to twelve patients, performing a variety of ultrasound procedures and obtaining acoustic images of organs, including abdominal, gallbladders, aortas, carotid arteries, obstetric imaging, venous Dopplers (of arms and legs) and more. Because ultrasound images are captured in real-time, they can show the structure and movement of the body's internal organs, as well as blood flowing through arteries and veins.

Doppler echocardiography (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Many sonographers will first take a “bare belly” reading of the patient. Using the digital equipment and specially created acoustic gel, the sonographer will image the abdominal cavity to determine if there is any pathology, cysts, tumors, masses, or anything else that may be out of the ordinary.

Sonographers’ hours vary depending upon if they’re working in an office or hospital setting. Some, particularly if working at a hospital, may have weekend and night shift work. Or, if on call, may get called during any time in the middle of the night… and then may have to work their normal shift. Those working in private imaging clinics — usually alongside other imaging technology such as X-rays, MRI, CAT scan — enjoy more regular hours.

Most sonographers find the career rewarding as they’re helping patients in numerous ways and also utilizing their specialized skill sets within a skilled health care team.

Education

Most employers, especially hospitals and medical centers, prefer to hire job candidates who have received training from accredited programs. Visit the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs site to learn more and see which programs are accredited.  

Furthermore, while Sonography/Ultrasound Technician isn't currently a licensed occupation, most employers prefer to hire candidates who’ve been certified by a credential-granting organization such as The American Registry for Diagnostic Medical Sonography (ARDMS). To earn this credential, one must take an exam and meet prerequisites that include a combination of education and work experience.

In this article, I discussed the in-demand field of Sonography, also known as Ultrasound Technology. I briefly touched upon how the technology works, the areas in medicine where Sonography is most effective, where sonographers work, future job outlook, and its educational requirements. If you liked this article, please comment and share it.

Rick Fromme combines entrepreneurial enthusiasm with an insider's knowledge of the medical industry to co-found MedMasters.com. Both his drive and perspective helps provide health care professionals with a superior mechanism with which to communicate, network and market their strengths. Prior to founding MedMasters.com, Rick operated a highly successful medical device distributorship. Other milestones in his 12-year career in the medical industry include a key position at a medical device start-up company that was later sold to the Ethicon Endo division of Johnson & Johnson. You may also reach Rick by connecting with him on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn and YouTube. 

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