Care + Career

The healthcare industry is dynamic, complex, and constantly evolving to meet the needs of patients, families and communities served. When exploring careers within this exciting field, you will quickly realize there are MANY rewarding, interesting, and fulfilling paths to consider.

Long gone are the days where an interest in healthcare meant having to only choose between becoming a doctor or nurse. Quite the opposite! In an effort to pivot alongside an emerging consumerism-based environment, there has been a marked increase in professional, non-clinical roles that are essential to a care facility and/or organization’s long-term success.

As an allied health professional, your days are spent investing your expertise, energy, and compassion in the lives of the patients you serve through your clinical or administrative skills. Each interaction and task throughout your day is an opportunity to ensure that the patients you care for feel the commitment you have to your chosen career and to their experience.

Putting in the time, effort and resources to earn an NHA certification can say something about your character and your capabilities. But how do you let people (especially hiring managers) know about your hard work and meaningful achievement?

We put together some tips to help you talk about your certification — both on your resume and in an interview — to empower you to make the most of your NHA certification.

NHA recently hosted a roundtable discussion with allied health educators and one of the largest employers of medical assistants in the United States. We discovered opportunities to work more closely, share information and create a network to support allied health students becoming employed professionals faster — and with the right sets of skills.

Not only was it a great learning experience for everyone who attended, but there were some takeaways we wanted to make sure we passed on to our certification holders, candidates and educators across the country. Below are some themes we uncovered at our most recent employer-educator summit.

You worked hard, earned your certification and started your new career in healthcare. Congrats! Your dedication speaks volumes about your character.

But there's still room to grow. (There's always room to grow.) And if you want to level-up your career, the best person to consult is yourself. Yes, YOU!

“There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that's your own self.” - Aldous Huxley

Taking time to reflect on your work performance — especially in regards to "soft skills" — can help you identify areas for improvement and give you a solid foundation for achieving your professional goals.

So, where do you start?

Feedback is a tricky thing.

Oftentimes, people don't give honest feedback because they're too "nice" and fear they'll hurt our feelings.

Or, they'll give us honest feedback but our natural response is to be defensive. (We have some tips for that here.)

But if you really want to level-up your healthcare career, you need honest, insightful feedback from the people you work with every day.

A question that comes up often for anyone completing their education or transitioning to a new allied health career is how to get that FIRST job.

Even though there is no “one right way” to land that first job, we’ve pulled together some strategies and actions you can take to demonstrate that you’re the right fit for the job you’re applying for.

Wondering what it’s like to be a certified allied healthcare professional? We asked Nicole (CPT), Rachel (CMAA), and Adelaide (CCMA), why they chose to earn, and maintain their certification.

When you're focusing on achieving your allied health career goals, it's easy to forget to refine a very important skills set — the kind that cannot be easily tested or measured: Soft skills.

Soft skills are your personal attributes that help you communicate and relate to your patients and healthcare colleagues. In a field that is focused on care, these skills are especially important as you work toward advancing in your allied health career.

Want to improve your soft skills? Here are five things to keep in mind every day on the job...

When you see dozens or more patients in a single shift, it can be easy to forget that each patient is a person; a person who likely is feeling a lot of uncertainty and vulnerability.