choosing a medical career

3/18/2019

The medical field includes countless roles other than traditional physician and nursing positions. If you are interested in a medical career outside the traditional path, read on for some ideas.

search and rescue

Have you worked as an EMT before? Train in field medicine?

If you love the adrenaline rush that comes with fast-paced medicine, you should consider a career in search and rescue. For a better description, look at the listings for companies such as Air Evac International who provide some of the best quality medical services in the search and rescue domain.

Doctors without Borders

If you want to go where your help is needed most, Doctors without Borders may be a perfect fit.

They are always in need of physicians, registered nurses and nurse practitioners (OR included), surgeons, anesthesiologists, midwives, OB-GYN, pharmacists, in addition to administrative positions, lab technicians, and supply chain logisticians.

I bet you didn't know that!

You can read more about where you are needed on their "Find a Role" page.

Doctors without Borders is also known as Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), based in Canada.

mental health specialist

Have you considered going specifically into mental health? Clinical social workers can work as mental health specialists, nurses can train to be psychiatric and mental health clinical nurse specialists, and physicians can specialize in mental health.

With 1 in 5 US adults and 1 in 6 UK adults experiencing mental illness in a given year, and nearly half of those experiencing a substance abuse disorder experiencing mental illness, it is a field in need of well trained professionals. [US source, UK source]

pain specialist

With the opioid epidemic declared as a national crisis in the United States, the focus on appropriate pain management is finally coming to the forefront of both general media discussion and medical training.

What does a pain specialist do? You can read a summary from the American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain (ASRAP) and learn about the many ways and places you can work - from hospitals to pain specialty clinics and more.

If you are in the UK, be aware that the opioid epidemic may be crossing the pond [source]. The NHS maintains pain clinics and specialty pain management programmes that you can help run and improve.