Public Health Degrees: A Guide to Education & Careers in Health Sciences

Considering a career in the health sciences? There are plenty of choices. Health science encompasses a broad range of occupations and specializations. And with an ever-growing and aging population, the need for skilled professionals is booming in almost every area of the field. If you’re interested in learning more about health science, this guide is for you.

What is Health Science?

Health science refers to a large group of disciplines related to the delivery of health care to humans and animals through the application of science, engineering, mathematics and technology. In other words, it is the field in which knowledge is taken from pure science and other related sources and applied to practical and clinical practices to maintain and improve the health of living beings. The branches of health science are virtually endless, spanning traditional and conventional Western medicine as well as alternative and folk medicine. Broadly defined, it can even include spiritual-based healing processes.

Master of Health Science

MHS programs are a great option if you’re interested a career in public health and you want to focus on a specific area, especially one that emphasizes science. These programs can be research-oriented or designed for active professionals who want to move up to mid or advanced-level positions.

An MHS can open up career opportunities for working professionals who already have a bachelor’s degree, and improve the prospects for mid-level entry into the professional workforce for those going directly from the undergraduate to graduate level.

MHS programs typically cover these core academic components:

• Healthcare systems and strategies
• Evidence-based practices
• Research methodology
• Health and medical ethics
• Communication and technology in health
• Regional and global population health
• Health and cultural diversity
• Trends and issues in health

What often distinguishes MHS programs from other related fields is their ability to focus on specific topics. These make an MHS ideal if you find a concentration that aligns with your career goals. Areas of MHS focus can include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Public health and epidemiological research
• Biostatistics and immunology
• Health care leadership
• Health informatics
• Clinical investigations
• Executive leadership
• Social and psychological health
• Global health and finance
• Teaching and research
• Health promotion and social change
• Molecular microbiology and infectious diseases
• Population, family, and reproductive health
• Environmental health, markets, and sustainability

Once you hold an MHS your prospects for more specialized and advanced careers opens up. Common job titles where an MHS is particularly applicable include:

• Epidemiologist
• Clinical research study coordinator
• Research study assistant
• Client services analyst
• CEO or executive leader
• Public health program coordinator
• Life scientist
• Scientific editor
• Statistical analyst
• Health services researcher
• Safety, health, and environment specialist
• Program manager
• Mental/behavioral health program coordinator
• Data scientist

Earning an MHS

No matter where you are academically it will always be strategic to move towards earning an MHS.

If you’re a high-school graduate or have a GED you can start by enrolling in an associate’s or bachelor’s degree program in the health or social sciences like:

• Psychology or sociology
• Social Work
• Public health
• Biology
• Natural sciences
• Nursing, medicine, and other health sciences
• Statistics, data analysis, and data modeling
• Environmental sciences

MHS programs commonly enroll students who have a bachelor’s degree in any field – likewise for those who hold a master’s degree. That includes career changers and those who’ve just completed an undergraduate degree.

Campus-based MHS programs provide great opportunities for networking and developing real-world bonds with your fellow classmates and future colleagues. Classrooms offer tangible academic interactions on a fixed schedule.

Online MHS programs maximize flexibility and time, which are premium if you have a busy work schedule and personal commitments. Video conference technology and digital messaging mean your academic world can often fit conveniently in your pocket until you have the free time to sit down and open your textbooks.

It’s never too late or too early to start down the path towards an MHS.

The list of occupations within the health sciences is also practically endless, including jobs in five major career paths: diagnostic services, therapeutic services, support services, health informatics, and biotechnology research and development. Health science professionals work in hospitals, dental offices and laboratories, government and private research centers, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, community and public agencies, and large health care organizations, to name just a few.

Working in the Health Sciences Field

The day-to-day tasks and responsibilities of a person in a health science occupation vary significantly, but always require excellent communication skills and attention to detail. Below are some of the common duties and responsibilities for two popular health science occupations, one patient-oriented and one research-oriented.

Audiologist: Audiologists specialize in the prevention, identification, assessment and treatment of hearing impairment. Job duties of an audiologist may include:

• Working directly with patients on vertigo and other balance and dizziness issues
• Prescribing, fitting and dispensing hearing aids
• Employing the use of audiometers, computers and other equipment to assess patients’ hearing and balance
• Counseling patients and others regarding methods of communication, such as sign language and lip reading
• Maintaining medical and business records, ordering supplies and equipment, and performing other tasks related to running a business

Medical Laboratory Technician: Medical laboratory technicians typically work in hospitals, doctor’s offices, private clinics and research laboratories, often under the direct supervision of a physician or medical technologist. Typical job duties include:

• Performing tests to help physicians diagnose and treat diseases
• Analyzing all types of body fluids and recording findings
• Operating laboratory equipment and computerized instruments, such as microscopes and cell counters
• Training and supervising other lab technicians
• Maintaining a clean and sanitized work environment

Education requirements for a successful career in the health sciences depend heavily on an individual’s ultimate career goals. Those seeking to become physicians, for example, will normally spend four years completing an undergraduate degree, followed by four years of medical school and, depending on the specialty, three to eight years of internship and residency programs. On the other hand, a career as a physician’s assistant will normally require an undergraduate degree followed by two to three years of post-graduate study leading to a master’s degree. Almost all professional careers in the health sciences mandate some level of postsecondary degree or certificate, with many requiring a master’s degree.

Interview with a Health Sciences Professional

The best way to get an understanding of any professional’s day-to-day work requirements and activities is to speak with someone in the field. We spoke with Scott Cunningham, a research and development technologist in the Mayo Clinic’s Division of Clinical Microbiology, to find out what it’s like to work in his professional health sciences occupation.

What attracted you to a career as a medical technologist?

I think it’s the hands-on science. As a medical technologist, it’s what I trained for. You get to see a variety of things. I’ve kind of fine-tuned myself to microbiology, but there are multiple areas in medical technology that a person can either specialize in or rotate through, including tissue-typing, blood banking, hematology, chemistry, microbiology… those are the big players in a clinical laboratory.

Can you describe your job duties as a research and development technologist at the Mayo Clinic?

We bring tests up from scratch, taking basic science principles or papers and turning them into clinical tests that are utilized on a day-to-day basis. We also validate a number of tests that have already been built at other companies that, in order to enter the lab, have to undergo vigorous tests to make sure they work properly. And then I also serve as kind of a technical go-to person for the tests in the lab, so that when tests go down or they’re having issues with tests or procedures, I’m often consulted to come up with an explanation, work-around or fix.

Can you describe a typical day at work?

There’s really not a normal, set-in-stone scheduled day. I usually have one or more projects that I’m working on. A lot of the projects take multiple days or several hours, so I like to set those up in advance. This gives me the flexibility to deal with issues that come up in the lab, or to deal with anything management needs to address. So it’s a lot of project management. It’s really independent, which is what I like, but there are also timelines that I am expected to meet. It’s definitely not as structured or as rigorous as when you are doing diagnostic practice in a clinical lab.

Is this a typical nine-to-five job?

It can be, when things are quiet and there’s not a lot of troubleshooting going on, but there are often times when a lot more is happening. Some experiments are time-dependent, so I have to flex my schedule to stay a little late or come in a little early. You can’t just cut time off on some of those protocols that we do. So it’s very much dictated by timed projects and workload.

What are some of the most challenging aspects of your work?

The most challenging part of the job is the controlled chaos on a day-to-day basis. There is the unpredictability of not knowing if you are going to meet your end goal all the time. There’s a certain amount of failure that you have to be willing to accept. You don’t know whether something is going to fail until you get there. Another challenge is ensuring that I have a healthy work/life balance.

What do you find to be most satisfying about what you do?

I think just coming up with novel ways to diagnose infectious diseases and getting my hands on things really early on, before they become commonplace. We’re always on the cutting edge of new diagnostic tests, and that’s really challenging and exciting. It’s always a big puzzle, and that’s what is really attractive. Every day I’m going in to solve a puzzle or put a puzzle together. It’s chaotic at times, but it’s mentally stimulating and satisfying to have that on a daily basis.

Health Sciences Careers on the Rise

While showing encouraging signs of recovery, today’s economy is still on fragile footing. There are very few economic sectors that are booming at the moment, and the job market is challenging at best. One exception is the health sciences field. Due to the aging population and major changes in the health care market, careers in health sciences are expected to see substantial growth over the next decade and into the future. According to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), a job growth rate of 14 percent is expected between 2018 and 2028 for all occupations combined. Job growth for most health science occupations, however, are expected to double, triple or even quadruple that rate over the same period. Below are 2018-2028 job growth projections from the BLS for a number of specific health sciences occupations:

• Audiologists 16%
• Dental Assistants 11%
• Dieticians and Nutritionists 11%
• Medical and ClinicalLaboratory Technicians 11%
• Medical Assistants 23%
• Nuclear MedicineTechnologists 7%
• Nurse Practitioners 26%
• Occupational Therapists 18%
• Optometrists 10%
• Pharmacy Technicians 7%
• Physical Therapists 22%
• Radiation Therapists 9%
• Radiologic and MRI Technologists 9%
• Registered Nurses 12%
• Respiratory Therapists 21%
• Speech-Language Pathologists 27%
• Surgical Technologists 9%

Specific high-growth careers in the health sciences include:

Choosing a Career in Health Sciences

The health sciences encompass a wide range of jobs to fit practically every personal interest and personality type. To find the best suited job, it is important for students to have a clear understanding of their professional and lifestyle goals, as well their strengths and weaknesses. The chart below offers basic questions to guide students toward customized career suggestions.

Surprising Health Sciences Careers

Health science is an unusually broad field with an almost unlimited range of professional and occupational choices, which means there are plenty of options for those seeking a less conventional career path. In fact, the growing need for greater specialization allows almost anyone to leverage a particular skill, talent or interest in a satisfying and lucrative health sciences career. Here are just three possibilities:

Athletic Trainer/Exercise Physiologist: Athletic trainers are concerned with the prevention, evaluation and rehabilitation of athletic injuries. Exercise physiologists work with patients and conduct testing to help describe the functional changes to the body that occur during physical exercise.

Career Spotlight: Biomedical Engineer

Biomedical engineering may be the perfect career choice for someone with strong interests in both engineering and the life sciences. The modern life science practice has become more technologically oriented, and the biomedical field is leading the way in the creation of medicines, treatments and processes developed in accordance with engineering principles. Biomedical engineers are the professionals who analyze and design solutions to problems involving biology and medicine.

More specifically, biomedical engineers design products and systems for artificial limbs and other body parts, both internal and external; design machines for diagnosing and treating medical problems; install, maintain and support biomedical equipment; educate and train clinicians in the use of biomedical equipment; and work closely with other professionals, such as scientists and chemists, to research the biological systems of humans and other animals. Biomedical engineers are employed in all major sectors of the economy, at hospitals and research facilities, universities and other educational institutions, in private businesses and industries, and with government regulatory agencies.

The path to a career as a biomedical engineer typically begins by earning a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering, although some individuals combine a more common engineering major (electrical or mechanical) with a minor in biomedical science. Those interested in advancing to a master’s program in biomedical engineering may be admitted to the program with an undergraduate degree in electrical or mechanical engineering.

Working in the Health Sciences: Toolbox

The responsibilities of a health sciences professional vary substantially, but there are a number of skills and characteristics that many of today’s positions require. Here are a few of the most important:

Problem-solving and decision-making skills: Workers must be able to evaluate health-related issues and the status of patients, and determine the best course of treatment to resolve those issues.

Communication and interpersonal skills: Most positions in the health sciences require interaction with patients and other health professionals. Excellent communications skills, both verbal and written, are essential.

Attention to detail: Jobs in the health sciences require the understanding and application of specific rules and protocols.

Compassion and patience: Health science workers often treat patients with serious medical conditions. An appreciation of those conditions and the problems they create is very important. Professionals should be supportive and sympathetic when providing care.

Technical skills: Almost all jobs in modern health sciences require some level of technical and technology-based skills to operate complex diagnostic tools and computerized instruments.

How do specific skills for a particular health sciences occupation translate into higher salaries? Let’s consider another common health sciences career. Physical therapists are trained to help sick and injured patients manage their pain and improve their mobility and movement. According to Payscale.com, popular skills for the profession involve those concerning orthopedics, geriatrics, rehabilitation, acute care and physical therapy itself. The most important are the skills associated with orthopedics. Each physical therapist’s salary is dependent on their unique skill set.

Health Sciences Salaries

Salaries are an important consideration for workers in all career fields, particularly in the health sciences industry. Earnings in this quickly growing industry outpace the overall job market, for those just starting their careers as well as those who are already established in the workplace. Specific job title and on-the-job experience have a major impact on pay rates.

The Health Sciences Job Search

After college, how does a health sciences graduate find a job? Here’s a first tip: Start looking early, one or two years before graduation. In fact, it’s not a bad idea to start charting that first professional job before college begins. Below are some resources for launching a successful health sciences career:

• Student Clubs and Professional Organizations: While in college, students should network with professionals and other students in their chosen field. There are many student clubs and professional fraternities, like Phi Delta Chi and Rho Pi Phi (pharmacy), Chi Eta Phi and Alpha Tau Delta (nursing) and Psi Omega and Alpha Omega (dentistry). Many professional organizations sponsor student chapters, such as the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists, the National Student Speech, Language and Hearing Association, the American Optometric Students Association, the American Public Health Association-Student Assembly and the Associated Students of Health Care Administration.
• Internships and Undergraduate Research: Students should consider finding a summer internship with a company or organization that offers jobs in their field, or signing up for an undergraduate research opportunity. Internships are offered at hundreds of hospitals, as well as public and private organizations, such as the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
• Licensing and Certification: Many health science professions will require employees to obtain a license, typically issued by the state. In some occupations, such as physician, dentist, psychiatrist or nurse, the need for licensing is obvious. In other positions, license requirements may be unexpected, such as medical laboratory technologist or technician, physicians assistant or massage therapist. In addition to mandated state licensing, many private non-profit organizations offer professional certifications that recognize individuals who possess career-specific expertise in a particular field. Examples of professional certifications in the health science field include Chronic Care Professional, Registered Health Coach, Certified Occupational Therapist, Geriatric Care Specialist, Registered Dietitian, Certified Nurse Assistant and Certified Diabetics Education, to name just a few of dozens.

Professional licensing and certifications may or may not be required for a specific health care occupation. However, many employers only consider job candidates who possess such credentials.

Job Search Resources

• American Academy of Physicians Assistants
• American Dental Education Association
• American Public Health Association
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• ExploreHealthCareers.org
• Idealist Careers
• National Environmental Health Association
• National League for Nursing
• O*Net Online