Health science is popularly believed as the bedrock for many healthcare careers. It is a degree that involves the knowledge and application of science and health to understand human and animal functionality and pathology and ultimately improve health.
A degree in health science offers many job opportunities. Furthermore, a health science degree allows you to pursue numerous careers in education, leisure, social care, and health.
Aside from career opportunities, a health science degree can be used as a foundation bachelor’s degree to pursue post-graduate courses in a specialized health field.
The healthcare industry is fast-growing; therefore, there is always a demand for various health-related services. This demand makes a health science degree holder earn an average of $70,025 yearly in the United States.
Due to the diversity of the health sectors, health science degree holders can work in multiple organizations and have various opportunities. This article explores what you can do with a health science degree.
1. Health Service Administrator
This job entails managing finances, ordering medical supplies, overseeing the staff, and designing workplace policies. Basically, they perform daily administrative tasks in a medical organization.
Furthermore, it is necessary for the maintenance of any health facility and its efficiency. However, to be a successful health service administrator, you need an additional (master’s) degree in business management or health administration. The average salary for this job is $96,000 yearly.
2. Health Education Specialist
Persons involved in this career are also known as health educators. It involves the teaching of health attitudes that improves wellness.
A specialist is tasked with the creation and implementation of approaches to improve people’s and communities health.
Additionally, health education specialists often work alongside healthcare providers, human resource personnel, and policymakers. They work in healthcare settings, state, country, and public health departments, non-profit organizations, educational institutions, and industries.
The role of a health educator includes;
- Determining the health needs of people in a community.
- Creating and managing health education programs to help people and communities in the maintenance of healthy lifestyles.
- Experimenting with the effectiveness and success of health programs and education strategies.
- Providing other health workers or professionals with training programs.
- Gathering and analyzing health-related data of communities to create specific programs and services to meet their needs.
- Supervising the implementation of health education programs.
Finally, you need to be certified by the regulatory board to work as a health education specialist after successfully passing a competency board exam. The average salary for this job is $53,116 yearly.
3. Claims Reviewer
This is one of the most challenging careers a health scientist can pursue, because of its hectic workload.
However, it can be a fulfilling profession for individuals that enjoy critical thinking, investigating financial situations, and solving problems. It is also a career that does not require further education.
The biggest employers here are insurance companies because they prefer individuals with a healthcare background, like a health science degree.
Claim reviewer specializes in business, home, life insurance, and automobile, but the most lucrative and highly demanded area is healthcare. A medical claim examiner is tasked with helping people get their insurance money after a loss or misfortune (illness or accident).
Additionally, their role is to determine whether an insurer will cover an individual medical loss, evaluate insurance claims and applications to protect an insurer from financial loss while maintaining information integrity and adherence to standard guidelines.
Finally, other job role includes approval of payments and facilitation of additional investigation. Any health science degree holder is qualified for this job and the average salary is $71,298 yearly.
4. Pharmaceutical Sales Representative
This is an individual hired by a pharmaceutical manufacturer and distributor to educate healthcare providers about their products.
Typically, the job requires you to have great interpersonal skills and adequate knowledge of the product to convince the healthcare provider to prescribe the drug.
More importantly, pharmaceutical sales representatives do not sell medications, they only connect buyers with a company’s medication.
In addition, a pharmaceutical sales representative needs a high knowledge level of the competitors’ brands to bring out the uniqueness of the brand the individual is marketing.
The job role of a pharmaceutical sales representative includes;
- Assessing target market needs and promoting suitable products.
- Liaising with healthcare providers to prescribe a product through the utilization of persuasive marketing skills.
- Providing up-to-date information and delivering sample products.
- Building trusting and long-lasting relationships with medical representatives to influence the decision process of the target market.
- Monitoring and analyzing the market condition and competitive advantage.
Lastly, a health science degree holder does not need an additional academic qualification for this job role. What you need to possess are excellent communication and persuasive skills.
Also, you should be familiar with databases and medical issues. The average salary for this career is $67,060 yearly with an additional $20,000 commission per year in the United States.
5. Community Health Specialist
This is a career that entails the development and implementation of health strategies and programs to help a community achieve optimal health.
It involves working on a one-on-one basis with a designated community to gain insight into health information for clients like non-profit organizations or healthcare institutions.
In other words, they are middlemen between public health providers and the community, though they are on the front lines when serving a community.
Additionally, the main responsibility of community health specialists is to help community dwellers (high-risk demographics) understand the importance of visiting health institutions and accessing healthcare providers.
Other roles include:
- helping individuals and families in a community access health resources
- developing or improving the social service system
- providing social support to communities
- facilitating a non-failing communication between the population and the government
- advocating for the public health need of a community
- providing basic health services.
Furthermore, the requirement for qualification varies across agencies. However, it requires an individual to be patient, understanding, and passionate. The average salary for this job in the United States is $55,875 yearly.
6. Biomedical Equipment Technician (BMET)
They are also known as biomedical equipment specialists. Generally, their job function is to ensure the maintenance, proper configuration, and safe functionality of medical equipment. Also, in a healthcare setting, BMET often works with a clinical engineer.
They are often hired by hospitals, clinics, private organizations, original equipment manufacturers, and the military.
Additionally, it is the responsibility of BMETs to always have updated information on recent medical technologies to ensure that medical personnel utilizes machinery safely. Also, the job comes with odd hours or on-call work for emergencies.
Furthermore, BMETs help install, examine, maintain, modify, calibrate, repair, and design biomedical equipment or supporting equipment the ensure that the organization is adhering to medical standard guidelines.
They also work with technology like LASER, x-rays, diagnostic and therapeutic ultrasound, medical imaging, nuclear medicine, and cardiac diagnostics among others.
Lastly, to work as a BMET with a health science degree, an individual needs to acquire an associate degree in biomedical technology or engineering.
The career also comes with certification exams, but the law does not make it compulsory for technicians. The average salary in the United States is $55,740 yearly.
7. Life Scientist
This is a multidisciplinary profession that requires the knowledge of multiple science degrees like food science, microbiology, zoology, biology, plant science, animal science, genetics, pharmacology, biotechnology, and health science.
Also, life scientists plan, carry out and analyze experiments within a broad range of human, animal, and plant science disciplines. In addition to the research, their other responsibilities include
- Exploring factors surrounding life and finding ways to improve it
- Understanding the functionality of living organisms
- Presenting research findings in scientific meetings.
Lastly, you can work as a life science strategist, consultant life scientist, life sciences marketer, etc. These roles are highly paid with an average salary of $92,596 yearly but they require advanced education like a master’s and a doctorate in relevant fields.
8. Epidemiologist
This is a healthcare professional that often works in a controlled environment, like a laboratory or quarantined zones.
An epidemiologist studies the outbreaks of diseases, their causes, locations, affected communities, and factors that can help in the prevention of future outbreaks.
They help in informing the public about global and public health situations and modes of improvement. These professionals often work with governmental organizations, universities, and tertiary hospitals.
To work as an epidemiologist with a health science degree, an individual needs to obtain a master’s degree in public health (epidemiology). You can advance to a doctorate if you love lecturing and academic research.
The career path of an epidemiologist revolves around the research of disease conditions and outbreaks. The average salary of an epidemiologist in the United States is $75,016 yearly.
9. Paramedic
It is a healthcare professional responsible for the provision of advanced emergency health care for critical or emergent patients. It is necessary to know that paramedics are different from emergency medical technicians (EMTs) because they have advanced educational degrees.
Paramedics also have a higher grade and autonomy (like administering medication intravenously or orally) due to their training.
Paramedic works alongside medical practitioners, and they primarily work in the emergency rooms or ambulances.
Their role is to stabilize patients with life-threatening injuries or illnesses and transport them to the appropriate care service. They are also needed in non-emergency situations, like transporting chronically ill patients to a treatment facility.
Additionally, outside a hospital emergency setting, paramedics can also work with security agencies like SWAT while others may specialize in fields like aviation medicine.
To become a paramedic with a health science degree, a person needs to be CPR certified and must complete an emergency medical technology program with additional emergency care training.
The paramedic certification is obtained after the training and passing of a state-specific certification exam. The average salary of a paramedic is $43,549 yearly.
How To Increase Your Earnings
Many students earn a bachelor’s degree in health science to obtain a graduate degree in professional health fields. These additional degrees could range from medicine and surgery to dentistry, and audiology among others.
To get admission for these courses, a person might require additional coursework or professional programs. A health science degree is among the top six undergraduate degrees that serve as a foundation for medical school.
Generally, earnings increase greatly after obtaining a graduate degree.
FAQs
What are the benefits of a health science degree?
There are numerous career options with the degree and this results in increased job satisfaction.
Most careers associated with health science are flexible, allowing for time to pursue other interests, and health science has an estimated job growth of 15% by 2029 according to the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Is a health science degree worth pursuing?
Yes, a health science degree is worth pursuing because it is a stepping stone to other job opportunities or academic advancement.
Can a person be a medical doctor with a health science degree?
Yes, you can enroll in a medical school with a health science degree. The important factor for admission to a medical degree is your MCAT score and GPA. Health science also contains coursework that covers the prerequisites for medical school.
Conclusion
The health industry is rapidly expanding. Innovations and technologies create opportunities for the creation of new career paths in healthcare.
A health science degree is a foundation for any health-related career path. Regardless of the innovations, the existing job opportunities allow any health science graduate to excel in the labor force.
Finally, you may also check the article on what to do with a biology degree for more related science jobs.
Thanks for reading.
