The COVID-19 pandemic has given the world a closer look at what work in health care can require.  Most apparent was the importance of the health care team working together to help patients recover.  In considering a career in health care, ask yourself some key questions before you set foot on the healing path.

•  Why?  What about working in health care appeals to you?  Is it the type of work?  The people with whom you would be working?  The income or prestige?  A dedicated, lifelong health care provider does not view their work as a job; it is a calling.  Beyond putting in the hours and earning the income, the responsibility of respectfully caring for someone in need – directly or indirectly – is fundamental.  Do you feel called to help others – even under trying conditions?

•  What area of health care interests you?  Beyond the specialties in general health care, consider mental health, too.  It is an often-overlooked area that is challenging, diverse and in demand.  Health-related research, development of technology and other fields that support health care (including veterinary science) may also hold options that suit you.

•  Have you talked with someone who is doing the type of health care work in which you are interested?  Do you understand what the work entails?  If possible, set up a learning opportunity or shadow a person working in your area of interest to get a closer look.

• What are your expectations? If you expect excellent training and supervision, good facilities, supportive coworkers, cooperative patients, and high pay, think again.  Despite a health care program’s reputation, there are sometimes gaps in quality of training, supervision, or facilities.  Investigate the training programs that interest you and prepare for what is offered.  Check out any accreditation problems they may face and inquire about their development and program improvement plans.  If a training program lacks a component that you seek, explore the options for supporting and broadening your training.  If you are intending to provide direct care, recognize that patients can be challenging.  Not all of them comply with medical orders and fewer express gratitude for the excellent work done by the people who cared for them.  If you are not doing the work for its own sake and it does not provide its own reward for you, think again.

•  What is your plan? Beyond choice of school, curriculum and getting accepted, what might impact your ability to complete your training or work in your chosen field?  Do you have the desire, drive, and stamina to do what it takes?  Does the cost of health-related schooling seem like an insurmountable barrier?  Develop strategies for addressing anything that might stop you from your goal.  Ask at the university and in the field about various sources of support available.  The cost may seem daunting – pursue options and opportunities anyway.

•  Have I communicated my plan to others, including my family? Do you need their help to achieve your health care goal?  Is the family able to help you with money, childcare or living arrangements?  Do they support you being less available to them because of your training?  How will you cover any family responsibilities given the demands of your health care training?  Talk with them about what it will take to launch and maintain your health-related career.  If family understands what you are doing and why, they may be more apt to support you, even if it means you moving away.  (Caution: Every family has skeptics and naysayers – relatives who list all the reasons why you should nor pursue your passion or will not succeed in achieving your goal.  Though unaware, they may be expressing personal regrets for not following their own dreams).  Whatever the challenge, face it, figure it out and do it anyway.

•  What would stop me from completing a health-related education?  If you abhor some of the required areas of study like chemistry, biology or other math-related content areas and long hours of study, for example, you may find you don’t have the ganas – the burning desire – to master the required breadth of areas or withstand the academic pressure.

•  Do I have the tolerance and the temperament for what this line of work will require?  Can I work effectively with people who are anxious, afraid, uninformed and who have families who argue or cause problems?  (These questions are not simply about patients; sometimes the staff or coworkers are the ones requiring the greatest understanding!)

• Can I withhold judgment and provide compassionate care? Can you dedicate full professional attention to someone who is not committed to self-care? Does your philosophy of providing care include the need to understand the patient’s situation, history, and mindset?  If you deem those important, it may be easier to provide compassionate, consistent care despite the patient’s resistance or abilities.

•  Outline the options you could exercise as a health care professional. If hands-on care does not appeal to you, is there another path within the field you could pursue (like research, policy, technology development or some other area in health care) requiring your skills?

•  Health care is often a political football.  Changes in coverage, expectations, systems, standards of practice, production quotas, resources, regulations, pharmaceuticals, and technology often impact what health care professionals can do.  Can you tolerate those pressures and still produce AND provide the best, most accurate care possible regardless of changing contexts that sometimes have conflicting goals?

Wherever your choices, training, opportunities and experiences in health-related care take you, your contributions will matter.  Sir William Osler, considered the Father of Modern Medicine, advised: “Observe, record, tabulate, communicate.  Use your five senses.  Learn to see, learn to hear, learn to feel, learn to smell, and know that by practice alone you can become expert.” •

Miquela Rivera can be reached at drmiquelarivera@gmail.com