Healthcare administration has taken on increased importance over the years as the health insurance issue has become more complicated and pertinent in the average person’s life.
Gone are the days when a woman could go to the hospital and have a child for $10 and spend the night in a hospital bed without doing more than signing a piece of paper. Believe it or not, that happened just four or five decades ago in some regions of the country.
Now, every visit to the doctor involves more than just seemingly useless paperwork. Doctors are no longer tapping their patients’ knees, asking them to cough and pronouncing a diagnosis. Instead, they are ordering CAT scans, MRIs and a battery of other tests designed to ferret out the truth at molecular and atomic levels.
Supporting all this intense examination of patients is the healthcare administrator. This professional keeps the hospitals, surgery clinics, and doctor’s offices functioning smoothly so that doctors can focus on diagnosing their patients.
Without people trained to manage offices and coordinate the nearly countless actions that are required to keep major institutions funded and in operation, the present level of care could not be maintained. More importantly, the desired level of care which people want to extend to everyone will never be realized without qualified people working in healthcare administration.
What Is Health Healthcare Administration?
The degree in healthcare administration is available at a growing number of colleges. It can be studied online as well as on campuses. The degree itself involves a progressive curriculum with three major areas of emphasis: acute care, service organizations, and nursing homes.
Students are expected to learn about a number of topics before they achieve a degree and enter the field officially. These topics include ethical and legal issues, business management and the rapid advances in medical technology. The latter is moving so rapidly that graduates will find that they must continue to learn about this subject as they begin to work. Check out also this post about Cesar Chavez Student Center’s impressive Art Gallery. You’ll be pleasantly surprised by what’s being offered and in what way it inspires students to reach the best mental health through art.
What Healthcare Administrators Do
Once you graduate with this degree, you can expect to work in any number of areas in hospital administration. The field is growing so fast and undergoing so many changes, it is hard to say exactly where someone who begins studying now will be in five to six years. As more and more minority women study for an academic degree and start their own businesses, chances are that within a relatively short period of time, we’ll see also healthcare administrators from various minority backgrounds make it to the top echelons of this industry.
Given the general aging of the populace, it is easy to say that many graduates will be involved in elderly care. However, the variety of healthcare needs for people will continue to grow as well and the career expectations of healthcare administrators are certainly not limited to nursing home management. To learn more about SFSU heroes, read this post about Richard Oakes.
How to Become a Healthcare Administrator
In order to get started in this field, most people should expect to need a master degree in this subject area. Acquiring such a degree is becoming easier every day, though the cost should not be underestimated. Fortunately, there are so many options today to get a Federal Government Education Grant or Loan. Many online programs can take students through the majority of the required courses without having to travel to campus very often.
Working in healthcare administration promises a dynamic career simply because of the certain need that future generations will have for medical attention. In addition to the usual needs of any diverse population and the growing gerontological demands of an aging population, people are also seeking out an increasing number of cosmetic procedures. A degree in healthcare administration should be the start of an interesting career.
Cesar Chavez Student Center
For several years, SFSU’s Cesar Chavez Student Center plays a leading role when it comes to providing support, also on healthcare issues, for interns. The support program of CCSC provides job training and mentorships through paid internships and other relevant positions for San Francisco’s at-risk youth. For almost two decades, the Cesar Chavez Student Center has been assisting young people with going-back-to-school educational programs and career assessment tests. Through the Student Center’s support, many young adults have succeeded in getting better career options and educational choices.
