You don’t always need an expensive, flashy degree in order to help people in the healthcare industry. Here are some of the jobs you can take on without a Ph.D. Some of them may require some formal training, but that shouldn’t be enough to prevent you in your pursuit!

Personal care

Personal care assistants are sometimes also known as social workers. They’re often found in long-term care facilities or at the home of the patient. You might be dealing with someone with a disability, or an elderly person, or even someone with a mental health problem. This line of work doesn’t require a degree, but you will probably need to go the distance to prove that you are trustworthy enough. You look into honing the required skills by taking online or offline courses. Find out more about personal caregiving certification programs.

Assistant

Never underestimate the importance of an assistant to a doctor. For a job that doesn’t require an expensive degree, you’d be surprised how hands-on and truly helpful you get to be. As long as you’re trustworthy and have steady hands, you’ll be able to do a lot. Assistants give injections to patients, as well as assisting with other medicines. They also administer blood tests, prepare X-rays, and communicate with patients who are afraid or in pain. There are plenty of assistance paths you can pursue. A physician’s assistant is usually what people think of. But you can learn more about dental assistant duties if you’d like to work in dentistry.

Administration

Working as an administrator in a healthcare facility will see you handle the welfare of the facility itself! You could be dealing with communication, accounting, record-keeping, and the setting of the rules of a given clinic. Being the administrator of a very large facility may require a degree in Health Administration. Getting that isn’t as long or expensive as a Ph.D, of course!

Nutritionist

A lot of people don’t quite understand this career. How could someone possibly make a job out of something like this? This misunderstanding stems from the fact that staying healthy in this area seems to follow a fairly obvious set of tasks. Don’t eat junk food, drink more water, that kind of thing. Why does someone need to get paid to tell people that? But a nutritionist isn’t just there to help people lose weight. The diet that someone has can affect mental health, how they sleep – a number of things. Working with someone to find the diet that works for them is very involved – and rewarding – work. You should read more about it.

Healthcare educator

Healthcare educators have a very community-driven job. They may work for a hospital, a school, a town’s council – there are a lot of possibilities. Your role is very much what it says on the tin. The task is to help teach the given community about healthy behaviors and attitudes. You’ll be helping people develop educational programs, either for the community as a whole or for local schools. Essentially, you’re the “healthcare advocate” for your given area!

This post has been contributed by Ryan Gatt, it may contain affiliate links.