Healthcare careers have always been at the top of the ‘most well paid’ careers lists. There are plenty of high paying jobs like a surgeon, dentist, doctor – and so on. However, the healthcare industry is not seen as the most desirable place to work. A lot of the other jobs aren’t that well-paid when you consider the hours you have to work and the lack of support you get. As a result, getting a job in this industry is relatively easy if you have the right qualifications. There are always medical practices looking to hire new people as they can’t cope with the growing number of patients.

What this article will look at is whether or not you are suitable for a healthcare career. This is relevant for people that are considering what career path to go down and are debating whether they want to be a healthcare professional or not. It’s also a good way to provide an insight into the life of a healthcare professional for the rest of you to see.

So, without wasting any more time, here are a few questions you should ask yourself if you’re considering a healthcare career:

Are You Squeamish?

The first question to get out of the way might seem a bit trivial in nature, but it’s actually very important. Working within the healthcare industry, whether that is in jobs at Texas Medical Center or elsewhere, means you’re going to be exposed to things you wouldn’t see in other areas of life. Your job revolves around the human body, and there are many things you might see that upset you. If you’re squeamish, then it might not be the right career path for you. It’s likely you will see people being sick, with serious injuries, and a whole host of other things that aren’t pretty to look at.

You can’t work as a healthcare professional if you’re squeamish, it’s as simple as that. Even during the education process when you gain qualifications there are times where you might see horrible things. Some dental students have to work on cadavers to learn about the anatomy of the human head, etc. If you’re mildly squeamish, I suggest exposing yourself to these horrible things to try and normalise them for you. If that doesn’t work, then you might have to look for a new career.

Are You Compassionate & Caring?

Naturally, you need to have certain personality traits if you want to pursue a career in this industry. Two things at the top of the list are compassion and care. If you’re compassionate & caring, then it’s likely you have the right personality to succeed in the healthcare industry. Jobs in healthcare all revolve around caring for others, listening to their problems, and helping fix them. There are literally loads of jobs for health care assistants that demand you display these two personality traits or you won’t be hired. It’s an easy way of sifting through candidates because people with no compassion won’t be able to do any healthcare job.

If you enjoy looking after other people and truly care about the lives of others, then you’re well-built for a career in this industry. Not everyone is doing to have personality traits like these. There are some people out there that are ruthless in the way they think. They’re only concerned about themselves, and this may make them seem selfish. However, this is a good personality trait to have if you wanted a career in business or investment. To put this in the simplest terms, different people are just made for different jobs. The way your mind thinks and the way you look at life can differ from the person sitting next to you. To suit a healthcare career, you need to be in a mindset that’s focused on caring and helping others.

Have you always wanted to work in a doctor’s office and be part of the medical billing team? If the answer is yes, then it’s time to enroll in Medical Billing and Coding Program.

Are You Mentally Strong?

If you’ve answered no to the first question and yes to the second, then you might start thinking this is the right career path for you. However, it’s this third question that really starts to thin out the crowd. This is where things get serious as we look at the mental aspect of a job in the healthcare industry. I mentioned that you’ll see things that can make you feel squeamish, well, sometimes you see things that will really hit home. You see devastating things that make you feel as though you’ve been hit in the chest with a sledgehammer. Sometimes, you spend days, months, years, caring for someone and then one day they die in front of your eyes. It can feel like a family member has passed away, someone you truly care about. Death is around the corner in every hospital up and down the country. Being around such devastation every day can have such a huge effect on your mind. It takes it’s toll on you, and can be hard to deal with. You carry around a very heavy mental burden your whole life as you try and learn to cope with what you see every day. That everlasting feeling of sadness when you witness someone’s life end.

Understandably, there are many jobs in healthcare that don’t require you to be around death. However, they’re still very mentally draining. Look at dentistry as an example, dentists have some of the highest suicide rates out of all the jobs around. The main reason healthcare careers are so mentally tough is that you have so much responsibility and expectation. Even a physical therapist has a weight of expectation on their shoulders. People come to them hoping to fix injuries and improve their life. What I’m trying to say is that if you’re not mentally strong, you don’t stand a chance in this industry. You must have the ability to face things head on and keep getting up in the morning and working hard. This is the reason many people start out in this career and then quit. Not because of the physical demands (though they can be very tough) but because of the mental ones.

Are You Willing/Able To Work Long Hours?

Generally speaking, a day in the life of a healthcare professional is extremely long. There are some exceptions where a working day is similar to what most regular people endure. However, if you work in a hospital or medical centre, then your hours will be very long. You’ll often be up early and work in shifts throughout the day. Doctors and surgeons will have very little rest throughout a week. You might get some sleep at night or during the day, but you’ll be working for the majority of the time you’re awake.

Then, even when you’re not scheduled to work, you could be on-call. This means that if there’s an emergency and you’re needed, it’s back to work you go. So, if you’re not willing or able to commit yourself to working long hours every day, this probably isn’t the career for you. It’s ironic because the reason you have to work long hours is that there aren’t enough healthcare workers in the industry. But, one of the reasons there aren’t enough workers is because people see they have to work long hours and it puts them off.

After answering all of these questions, you will put yourself in a better position to determine if this career is right for you or not. If it is, then you should definitely pursue it as you’ll be working in a job that helps people up and down the country. By all means, it’s a tough career, but it’s also incredibly rewarding.