UNIT 4: PLANNING FOR A HEALTH CAREER
MODULE 1
WHAT IS CAREER?
Career is an occupation or profession that requires special training. Health
careers are designed to familiarize students with the various careers in the
medical profession and allied health services.
HEALTH CAREER PLANNING
Health career planning refers to an individual’s plan to make a career choice,
growing in the chosen career or making a career shift. Career planning
involves the very important step of self-assessment.
WHAT ARE THE COMPONENTS AND STEPS IN MAKING A HEALTH
CAREER PLAN?
1 SELF-ASSESSMENT
Discover your personal strengths through self-assessments (values, interests,
personality, testing, skills, etc.)
CAREER EXPLORATION
2
You can explore different careers and work environments through career fairs,
online research, meeting, internships, alumni connections, professional
resources
DECISION-MAKING
3
Evaluating and narrowing down your options through listing the pros and
cons, comparing your personal strengths and interests, and deciding which
career fulfills both current and future goals.
4 PLAN OF ACTION
Plan achievable goals and develop strategies to reach your goals, organize
your goals into smaller steps, identify actions for each step, utilize helpful
people and resources, review and adapt your plan regularly.
HEALTH CAREER PATHWAYS
MODULE 2
DEFINITION
Career pathways are clusters occupations that are grouped because of shared
skills. All pathways include a variety of occupations that require different levels
of education, skills, and training. Selecting a career pathway provides you with
an area of focus, along with felxibility and a variety of ideas to pursue for
personal development.
WHAT ARE THE EXAMPLES OF HEALTH CAREER PATHWAYS?
DISEASE PREVENTION AND CONTROL
People who specialize in this career path focus on
communicable and non-communicable diseases.
Their work includes immunization, screening of
newborns, promotion of breastfeeding, infant diseases
prevention, adolescent healthcare, and life skills.
PERSONAL HEALTHCARE
Professionals in this field perform healthcare related
tasks in a personal care level. These include monitoring
patients; administering and assisting in personal care
and hygiene; performing housekeeping duties; and
advising clients on related healthcare issues like infant
care, hygiene and nutrition.
MATERNAL AND CHILD CARE
These health workers deal with complex public health
issues that affect women, children and their families.
These include providing information on reproductive
health, family planning and improvement of health
delivery system through advocacy, education and
research.
MENTAL HEALTHCARE
These medical professionals specialize in dealing with
interpersonal and intrapersonal relationships and life skills.
These include cognitive and psychosocial development,
promotion of healthy self-esteem through feelings and anger
management and identifying warning signs or red flags of
learning disorders, such as ADHD, anxiety, mood disorders,
stress, and bullying.
COMMUNITY HEALTHCARE
Specialists in this area focus on the maintenance,
protection, and improvement of the health of all
community members.
ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTHCARE MANAGEMENT
These health workers try to establish the correlation
between and among the physical, chemical, biological,
social and psychosocial factors in the surrounding
environment. These include monitoring the quality of
environment and impact of human activities on ecosystems
and developing strategies for restoring ecosystems.
DRUG PREVENTION AND CONTROL
People whose careers revolve around this area seek
to reduce community and individual problems
related to alcohol and drug abuse through
evidence-based programs and policy advocacy.
NUTRITION
Specialists in this area find ways to balance
individuals’ food and nutrition and their impact on
patient’s health. These include meal planning, food
preparation and health and nutrition economics.
HEALTH EDUCATION
Those who work in this field are tasked with
promotion of healthcare and training of health
workers on managing change in healthcare.
Their work involves assessing individual and
community needs, planning, implementing
and evaluating health programs, promoting
the understanding of various health-related
behaviors plus coordinating health education
services.
DENTAL HEALTH
Dental health workers deal with various oral conditions
which include chronic mouth and facial pain, oral sores,
gum disease, tooth decay and tooth loss, other diseases
and disorders that affect the oral cavity, and risk factors
for oral diseases which include unhealthy diet, tobacco
use, harmful alcohol use and poor oral hygiene.
OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY
Careers in this path are related to the safety, health
and welfare of people engaged in work or
employment. These include protecting workers
from sickness, disease and injury arising from
possible hazards of their employment and
workplace.
EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES
People assigned in this work specialize in out-of-
hospital medical care. Their skills include first-aid
procedures, emergency medical response and
immediate medical attention.
MEDICAL AND ALLIED HEALTH PROFESSIONS
MEDICAL PROFESSION
Medical profession is a group of individuals qualified to practice medicine.
Health Care Provider - a person who helps identify,prevent, or treat an illness or
disability.
Health Care Practitioner - an independent healthcare provider who is licensed
to practice on and provide general and/or specialized care to a specific area of
the body.
ALLIED HEALTH PROFESSIONALS
Allied health professionals are healthcare practitioners with formal education
and clinical training credentials through certification, registration and/or
licensure practicing under supervision of a physician or healthcare practitioner.
Allied health professionals provide services and engage in activities which include:
prevention
assessment/evaluation
identification/diagnosis
treatment
rehabilitation/habilitation
advocacy
promotion of health and well-being
education
research
Allied health professionals that we presently have in the Philippines
1. Audiologist
2. Chiropractor
3. Clinical psychologist
4. Dietitian/Nutritionist
5. Emergency Medical Technician
6. Guidance Counselor
7. Health Educator
8. Massage Therapist
9. Medical Assistant
10. Medical Technologist
11. Midwife
12. Nurse
13. Occupational Therapist
14. Orthotist/Prosthetist
15. Paramedic
16. Pharmacist
17. Radiologic Technologist/Radiographer
18. Physical Therapist
19. Speech Language Pathologist
20. Phlebotomist
21. Radiation Therapist
22. Respiratory Therapist
23. Social Worker
Allied health professionals whose specialized training is available in
other countries:
1. Cardiovascular Technologist
2. Clinical Officer
3. Dental Hygienist
4. Diagnostic Medical Sonographist
5. Kinesiotherapist
6. Neurophysiologist
7. Medical Dosimetrist
8. Medical Radiation Scientist
9. Music Therapist
10. Nuclear Medicine Technologist
11. Orthopist
12. Pedorthist
13. Perfusionist
14. Surgical Technologist
