Want to get into the health care industry

[Dennis]

I've been thinking I'd like to change careers and do something in health care. I'm currently a software developer. My thinking is I'd like to do something that directly helps people, plus the industry is only going to grow as the baby boomers age, and I won't have to worry about my job getting outsourced to India.

The problem is I'm not sure exactly what I'd like to do and how to make the move. I'd like something like radiology where I could interact with patients and play with the cool machines :). But in order to get into something like that, I'd have to go back to school for a couple of years, which I'm not opposed to, but all the programs seem to be during the day. This just doesn't work when you need to support a family.

So my question is: does anyone know of a way I could transition careers like this while still working full-time?

Dennis

[~Tara~]

Dennis - I've been working in Health Care for awhile (administration in different types of organizations). There's lots of opportunities for different "tech" positions where you would have direct patient care: Pharmacy Tech, Radiology Tech, Phlembotomist, Respiratory Tech, Nurse assistant. Unfortunately most of these positions do not pay very well. But I do think that many of them (depending on the state) have reasonable programs that you could complete part time. If there is one in particular that you are really interested in - let me know and I can ask our Medical Director here where to go for more info.

[Dennis]

Tara, Mary's aunt is the CFO for one of the hospitals here and last year she set up a meeting for me with their director of HR. So I got a good overview of different positions and payscales and such. I'm thinking I'd like to get into radiology and MRIs an that kinds of stuff. The pay is reasonable (definitely less than I'm making now to start, but still livable). But all the programs around here are during the day, there don't seem to be any evening ones.

Basically, the positions that interest me are the ones where you work with patients and also get to play with all the cool computer equipment. Like Frances had a hearing test, and they hooked her up to a computer and did all this funky stuff and I thought that was really interesting.

If you can find any ideas for where I could go for more info, that would be great.

Thanks,
Dennis

[KatieK]

My mom worked full time while she got her BS in Nursing. (Us kids were in highschool when she started the program) She's now an RN. What she did was work as a private home health aid. Basically she dressed, bathed, cleaned, and cooked for a couple older ladies who needed the help. The money wasn't great, but the hours were flexible. And it sort of related to nursing... HTH!

[Kaybee711]

How about doing ultrasounds? I can only imagine how cool that has to be, well for babies anyway. The only thing is like Tara said probably doesn't pay a ton! If you are really looking for a huge change there is always a need for nurses and I am sure these days they get to play with great computer stuff. Pretty much every job does now!

[~Tara~]

How about this website:

http://www.allalliedhealthschools.com/featured/radiologic-technician.php?src=goo_radiology2_school

This gives a good overview of all these types of jobs...and the schools that do the training. I saw that there is a distance / online learning school for x-ray techs too.

Nuclear medicine tech! Now thats gotta have some cool equipment for you to work on ;)

[Dennis]

Thanks for all the replies! I'll check out that website Tara.

Dennis

[mybabygarrett]

My husband is enrolled in a RN program that is done at home (ie they send you the materials, you take the tests, etc). It is a legitimate deal, if you are interested.

We are also both Paramedics and the program we took was 2 night a week and then clinicals when you get that far. Where you live, that may be a great thing to look into.

Stacey

[Dennis]

Stacey, I'd be interested to know a little more about the program.

Thanks,
Dennis