NHA’s 2026 Industry Outlook collects survey data from employers about the professional outlook for allied health roles. This data always has a lot to tell us about the current state of the healthcare landscape for allied health professionals, but something stood out this year—job responsibilities.
Allied health professionals are responsible for tasks that keep their clinics moving, helping to reduce burnout and turnover in nurses, while improving patient care, and the data show us that their professional roles are expanding in scope. Read on to learn more about which roles are picking up new responsibilities.
“The healthcare industry is moving away from preparing workers for static job descriptions and toward preparing them for continuous change,” said Amy Mackenroth, Associate Deputy Chancellor at Dallas College. “As technology, care delivery, and workforce shortages reshape healthcare, allied health professionals are increasingly expected to combine technical expertise with adaptability, collaboration, and the capacity to learn new competencies throughout their careers.”
Overall employment in healthcare occupations is projected to grow much faster than the average for all occupations from 2024 to 2034. About 1.9 million openings are projected each year, on average, in these occupations due to employment growth and the need to replace workers who leave the occupations permanently.
CPCT/As saw big jumps in job responsibility growth in several areas. Patient care technicians are often responsible for a number of core tasks that keep health systems running smoothly, especially when it comes to assisting with the daunting workloads that often confront nurses. As patient care technicians have continued to prove themselves vital for hospitals, 2025 saw them picking up responsibilities like:
NHA Senior Clinical Professional Development Specialist Tina Cheek adds that specialization is becoming the norm, and something we’ll see more of moving forward.
“What really stands out to me is the level of specialization. As technology advances in healthcare, our allied health professionals are becoming experts with advanced pieces of equipment, supplies, etc. This trend focuses them on a particular specialty of MA practice or PCT practice. Becoming the experts in urology or cardiovascular practice as an allied health professional is an example here,” says Tina.
CPhTs saw growth across all responsibilities through 2025, but the most noteworthy job responsibility jumps were in:
In fact, these two jumps were rather dramatic. CPhTs went from seeing 36% preforming medication therapy management in 2024 to 50% in 2025. And where only 30% of CPhTs were administering vaccines in 2024, 52% were performing this task in 2025.
Phlebotomy technician responsibilities remained relatively flat across tasks, but 2025 did see a major jump in one task specifically. 2024 saw 54% of phlebotomists preparing urine and other specimens for testing, with an increase to 70% in 2025.
CMAAs saw their job tasks remain flat through 2025. There were some responsibilities that saw limited increases, while others saw reductions. Ultimately, the changes were not statistically significant across job responsibilities.
Certified Clinical Medical Assistants saw statistically significant responsibility growth in four areas, with a significant reduction in one. CCMAs in 2025 were less frequently tasked with telephone screenings/triage, but saw greater responsibility for:
Like CPhTs, CCMAs changes were on the more dramatic side. Health coaching went up from 21% to 44%, supervision from 13% to 34%, and assisting with clinical trials from 16% to 33%.
CBCS roles, like CMAAs, remained in-line with prior years. While some tasks saw growth in responsibility, others saw reductions, and ultimately the reporting shows no significant change in responsibilities across 2025.
EKG technicians have seen some interesting shifts in their roles in 2025. According to our survey results, RNs, LPNs, medical assistants, and patient care technicians are all taking EKG readings more frequently on average than EKG technicians.
However, EKG technicians saw major changes in their responsibilities and tasks across 2025. While their responsibility for setting up and administering EKGs hasn’t changed in a significant way, EKGs are increasingly tasked with:
So, while PCTs may now be performing the actual EKG more often, the EKG technicians are now increasingly responsible for reviewing and interpreting the results.
These changes in responsibilities across allied health roles can signal not only changes in patient needs, but also how health systems are adapting to those changes. While allied health roles’ growing responsibilities show that they are often serving as the backbone of the hospital, it also does raise a red flag, warning us to take care, lest they burn out as well.
"In addition to continuous learning, it's more and more critical to sharpen skills in effective collaboration across professions," said Ashley Seitz Kramer, Director of Professional Education in University Connected Learning at the University of Utah. "As technology continues to transform healthcare, our abilities to collaborate, communicate, adapt, and learn from one another become even more valuable. Preparing students for the future of allied health means helping them become skilled technicians as well as effective teammates, lifelong learners, and thoughtful problem-solvers."
For more insights into how allied health is changing and growing, explore our full 2026 NHA Industry Outlook.