Are you a college student or looking to make a career change and feel a wave of yearning for a rewarding and fulfilling profession helping others? Healthcare might be the right career for you. 

If you are asking yourself, “Should I become a doctor,” or wondering if a career in healthcare is the spot for you, here’s 6 reasons you might want to pursue a career in medicine:

1. You’ll Make a Difference.  It’s a rewarding and fulfilling career if you are passionate about helping people. As a healthcare worker you, will help patients and caregivers maintain and keep their wellbeing, navigate chronic or serious illness or navigate their medical care from birth to their elderly years.
2. You’ll Do Work with a Mission. You’re not just clocking into a job. As a healthcare professional, you are helping people on a daily basis. One day you might be helping an elderly person feel better dealing with a chronic illness. Or, the next, you might be bringing a smile to the face of a small child who is hospitalized. 
3. It’s an In-Demand Career. The Association of American Medical Colleges predicts that the healthcare labor shortage that started because of the overwhelming stress and burnout during the COVID-19 pandemic may worsen in the coming years – projecting a deficit of up to 124,000 physicians by 2034.  According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment in health care is projected to grow 13% in the next decade, much faster than the average for all occupations.  That’s about 1.8 million jobs projected each year, on average, in these occupations due to employment growth and the need to replace workers who leave the occupations permanently.
4. A Wide Choice of Careers. From Certified Clinical Medical Assistants (CCMAs) and physician assistants, to physical therapist, physician or Certified Pharmacy Technicians (CPhTs), your options are vast. You can work in a doctor’s office or be a researcher in a medical lab. The skills and experiences ahead of you are limited only by your imagination. 
5. You’ll Earn a Respectable Salary. The median annual wage for healthcare practitioners and technical occupations (such as dental hygienists, physicians and surgeons, and registered nurses) was $77,760 in May 2022, which was higher than the median annual wage for all occupations of $46,310.
6. You Want to Be a Catalyst for Change. As tomorrow’s healthcare leaders, you have the passion and drive to try to make an impact on healthcare and help improve outcomes for patients.

Discover more about the options in healthcare careers and online medical certificate programs here.