The Country Needs More Workers in the Allied Health Professions

When you see people who tend to patients in almost all areas wearing scrub suits with white running shoes and gloves inside the hospital, more often than not, they are not doctors or nurses. They might be respiratory care practitioners, one job among the allied health professions.  

Allied health professionals are the new breed of workers in the health care industry. With the advancements of technology, they are needed to operate medical equipment and the like. They make up 60% of the health care workforce as medical transcriptions, radiographers, pharmacy technicians, dental hygienists, and laboratory technicians.

Unfortunately, the public is not too aware of the allied health professions. Susan Chapman, director of allied health studies at the UC San Francisco Center for the Health Professions even articulated, "we call them the hidden healthcare workforce.”  With such a lack of information, the country therefore, is not aware of the rising demand for workers in the allied health professions.

The demand is expected to exceed the remaining supply of these workers because a chunk of these health professionals belongs to the retiring baby boomer generation. In California alone, with its population rapidly increasing, it lags behind other states in the number of workers for the allied health professions. 

You can help prevent the shortage of the health care workforce.  Get a degree in healthcare management and be a trained health worker!

Aside from getting a degree, you can sign-up for training programs available after high school.  Once you complete the training, you can get a state certification as an emergency medical technician or even a pharmacy technician. Associate degrees are also offered to help you become a medical radiographer, a respiratory care practitioner, a pharmacist, or a medical transcriptionist. 

Once you join the allied health professions, you can receive standard benefits like health insurance, paid vacation, sick live, and pension plans.  You can also earn a decent average salary of $26,290.

Explore these career opportunities.  Click here for online degrees!