Five Health Care Careers With Short Term Training

There is a mammoth shortage of nurses and health care staff. By the year 2020 when over half of the the nation’s nurses will be retiring or will have already retired, leaving hospitals and health care facilities with a major shortage of skilled staff. That is part of the reason there has never been a better time to become a health care worker. With a big heart, a caring attitude, and a little time spent for training you can be on your plan to a rewarding career in health care.

1. Certified Nursing Assistant

Certified Nursing Assistants or CNA’s used to work only in nursing homes taking care of the elderly. Now, that’s not the case! There has never been a better time to become a nursing assistant. With the shortage of health care staff, CNA’s are used in: hospitals, caring for seniors and disabled in their homes, Assisted Living and Residential Care facilities, and sets the foundation for advancement into other areas of health care.

CNA’s perform a variety of tasks including, but not limited to: assisting patients with eating, bathing, help with dressing, assisting to the bathroom, changing incontinent patients (Incontinent: cannot hold their urine and/or bowels), documentation of patient care.

Training to become a CNA varies from state to state. Some states require that you attend a class, which is usually divided between class work and on the job training that is designed to perform newly learned skills. It normally takes only a few weeks to a few months to become a CNA.

2. Certified Medication Assistant

Certified Medication Assistants, or CMA’s, administer medications to patients under the supervision of a nurse, often a Registered Nurse. In states that utilize CMA’s, one usually has to work as a CNA for several months up to a year to be eligible to take the addtional class to get the required certification. CMA’s are generally only used in nursing homes and assisted living facilites. The primary function of a CMA is to lighten the load of the nurse on staff and CMA’s, but CMA’s are not nurses and should not perform duties that are reserved only for nurses.

3. Caregiver

Caregivers do the same thing as CNA’s but don’t have to go to school or prefer a class to become one. Caregivers primarily work in home settings taking care of disabled people and elderly, and in assisted living facilities. If you have a caring attitude and genuinely want to help people, just apply at one of your local facilities. A caregiver does the same thing as a CNA: Bathing patients, feeding them, dressing assistance, incontinent care, etc… Some Assisted Living facilities will abet their caregiving staff pay for the training needed to become a CNA.

4. Phlebotomist

These are the health care workers who poke you with a needle to take your blood (taking your blood is commonly called “drawing” your blood.) It doesn’t usually take long to become a phelbotomist, anywhere from a few weeks to a few months. Hospitals, clinics and doctors offices are the places that keep phlebotomists on staff. When you are not drawing blood you will generally fill up your time with other lab duties.

5. Medical Assistant

Medical Assistants work in clinics and doctor’s offices performing a variety of tasks. MA’s, as they are normally called, will often check patients in, grasp them assist to exam rooms, take their vital signs (blood pressure, temperature and pulse), sometimes give injections among other things. Education to become an MA depends on your state. Some states require you attend a formal school that will last anywhere from 6-9 months to two years; and some states do not require you to have a license at all. Sometimes a doctor will hire a person and train them to be an MA.

This is not intended to be a full list of all the jobs in the health care field; this is just an overview of a few of the fastest growing occupations. If you don’t know where to go for information or training for any of these careers, inaugurate by checking with your local employment office. Nursing homes are good places to go too, and some of them even offer CNA classes. Hospitals and your local college will also have information about these rewarding careers.

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