Health Career Choices

Health Career ChoicesKey Topics
– Career Information
– Future Trends
– Reduction of Bias
– Self-Awareness

Objectives:
– Students will be able to identify various Health Career Choices.
– Students will be able to discuss different Health Care Careers.
Activity
For this activity, students brainstorm a list of careers in healthcare.
• Ask students to create a list of the 20 most interesting health careers to them. Ask students to think beyond the traditional choices of doctor and nurse.
• Once students have created their lists, create a master list on the chalkboard.
• As a class, use Bureau of Labor Statistics to find the average salaries of these workers in your state. Also find the educational requirements for the most popular health career choices of the class.
• Place the career choices along with the salaries on a bulletin board. These should be ranked from highest to lowest salary. You might also post the educational requirements for each career.
Preparation
Materials needed:
– Bureau of Labor Statistics
– Chromebook

Time needed:
• One or two 45-minute class period(s)
Discussion
Discussion questions to consider asking students include:
• Does the starting salary increase with the level of education required?
• Other than salary, what other rewards might health care workers realize on their job?
Variation
• Refer to a recent list of fastest growing jobs (available through your state’s Division of Employment and Training or Bureau of Labor Information).
• Identify the jobs in health care.
• Why are health care careers growing so rapidly?
• Using the local yellow pages, note the number of males and females in health related careers (e.g., physicians, dentists). Are the numbers equal? If not, why not?
Visit your area career and technical center.

• Identify all health-related occupations for which career and technical graduates are prepared.
• Using the major organs and sensory systems of the body, have students list medical specialists who would be involved with the care of that system. An example would be sense of sight – health care professionals:
o ophthalmologist
o optometrist
o optician
o physician