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The healthcare industry provided 14 million jobs in 2006, making it the largest labor sector. According to the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics, healthcare will generate three million new wage and salary jobs between 2006 and 2016 - more than any other industry.
About two million people are currently employed as allied health professionals in the United States and there is substantial demand for many more, especially mid-level specialties in the medical field. Allied health professionals are clinical healthcare workers, distinct from medicine and nursing, who practice independently or work as a team providing continual evaluation and assessment of patient needs. When you work in allied health, you are involved (directly or indirectly) with patient health, and you are regarded as an expert in your field. Allied health professionals also play a major role in informing the attending clinician of the patient's progress and response to treatment.
Some allied health professions focus on hands-on patient care, while others are more inherently technical in nature. All allied health professionals must be proficient in a variety of skills. Some of these skills are medical terminology, acronym and spelling, basics of medical law and ethics, understanding of human relations, interpersonal communication skills, counseling skills, computer literacy, ability to document healthcare information, interviewing skills, and proficiency in word processing, database management, and electronic dictation.
The allied health professions fall into two broad categories: technicians (assistants) and therapists/technologists. Technicians are trained to perform procedures, and their education lasts less than two years. They are required to work under the supervision of technologists or therapists. This part of the allied health field includes physical therapy assistants, medical laboratory technicians, radiological technicians, occupational therapy assistants, recreation therapy assistants, and respiratory therapy technicians.
The educational process for therapists or technologists is more intensive and includes acquiring procedural skills. In addition, students of therapy/technology learn to evaluate patients, diagnose conditions, develop treatment plans, and understand the rationale behind various treatments in order to judge their appropriateness and potential side effects.
Top Careers in Allied Health
There are as many as 200 different allied healthcare professions, including:
Here is a brief description of some of these specialties:
Allied Health Career Training & Schools
Individuals preparing for allied health careers can enter programs leading to a certificate or a degree at the associate, baccalaureate, or graduate level. Two-year programs resulting in certificates or associate degrees are the minimum standard credential for occupations such as dental hygienist or radiologic technologist.
Most therapists and social workers have at least a bachelor's degree. Health diagnosing and treating practitioners - such as optometrists and podiatrists - are among the most educated workers, with many years of education and training beyond college.
Larger healthcare establishments usually offer a broader range of opportunities, such as on-the-job or classroom training and continuing education. Hospitals are most likely to provide training programs and advancement opportunities. In other segments of healthcare, the variety of positions and advancement opportunities are more limited.
Allied health specialists with clinical expertise can advance to department head positions or even higher level management jobs. Medical and health services managers can advance to more responsible positions, all the way up to chief executive officer.
Resources
Schools for Allied Health are listed in the column to the left.
This table shows summary data on occupations in the US. Clicking on any occupation name brings you to a page showing job prospects and salaries for that occupation in hundreds of metro areas across the country, with data updated through 2008.(Where data is denoted by an asterisk (*), summary info was not available.
The green bars in the table below indicate the relative salary levels and growth rates of each occupation, compared to the others. The levels are determined by sorting the occupations (by salary or growth rate, separately) and then dividing them into ten groups corresponding to the the ten possible green bar levels. So a single bar means the occupation is in the bottom 10% for that characteristic compared to others on this page.
Click each Occupation title for more details.
These schools offer particularly quick info upon request, and we have written detailed profiles for each (click school names to see the profiles).
Request info from multiple schools, by clicking the Get Info links.
We have some additional detailed pages at the state level for Allied Health.
Numbers in parentheses are counts of relevant campus-based schools in the state; online schools may also be available.
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$39,640
24.3%
$47,010
25.5%
$32,380
29.2%
$34,170
3.7%
$26,080
$50,590