Allied Health Careers
Are you interested in pursing a career related to healthcare but are unsure about medical or nursing school? Here are a few careers surrounding healthcare that take different routes. Please keep in mind that some of these professions will require education beyond a Bachelor's degree.
Patient Care
- Athletic Trainer
"Evaluate and treat musculoskeletal injuries or illnesses. Provide preventive, therapeutic, emergency, and rehabilitative care."
Education: Bachelor's or Master's degree
Potential UTC Majors: Exercise and Health Science
- Registered Dietician
"Plan and conduct food service or nutritional programs to assist in the promotion of health and control of disease. May supervise activities of a department providing quantity food services, counsel individuals, or conduct nutritional research."
Education: Post-baccalaureate certificate or Master's degree
Possible UTC Majors: Exercise and Health Science, Nutrition minor
- Occupational Therapist
"Assess, plan, and organize rehabilitative programs that help build or restore vocational, homemaking, and daily living skills, as well as general independence, to persons with disabilities or developmental delays. Use therapeutic techniques, adapt the individual's environment, teach skills, and modify specific tasks that present barriers to the individual."
Education: Master's degree
Possible UTC Majors: Psychology, Exercise and Health Science
- Therapist or Counselor
"Counsel and advise individuals and groups to promote optimum mental and emotional health, with an emphasis on prevention. May help individuals deal with a broad range of mental health issues, such as those associated with addictions and substance abuse; family, parenting, and marital problems; stress management; self-esteem; or aging."
Education: Master's degree
Potential UTC Majors: Psychology, Social Work
- Healthcare Social Worker
"Provide individuals, families, and groups with the psychosocial support needed to cope with chronic, acute, or terminal illnesses. Services include advising family caregivers. Provide patients with information and counseling, and make referrals for other services. May also provide case and care management or interventions designed to promote health, prevent disease, and address barriers to access to healthcare."
Education: Bachelor's or Master's degree
Potential UTC Majors: Social Work
- Child Life Specialist
"Child life specialists are health care professionals who help children and families navigate the process of illness, injury, disability, trauma, or hospitalization"
Education: Post-baccalaureate certificate
Potential UTC Majors: Psychology, Social Work, Child and Family Studies
- Patient Advocate or Representative
"Assist patients in obtaining services, understanding policies and making health care decisions"
Education: varies
Potential UTC Majors: Psychology, Social Work, Business
- Speech Language Pathologist
"Assess and treat persons with speech, language, voice, and fluency disorders. May select alternative communication systems and teach their use. May perform research related to speech and language problems."
Education: Master's degree
Potential UTC Majors: Psychology, Social Work
- Board Certified Behavioral Analyst
"A mental health and behavior specialist with a graduate-level certification to provide behavioral health services. Their primary role is to study behavior patterns in their patients and develop treatment plans to help them thrive. They analyze how a patient's motivations affect their behavior and then create an environment that facilitates progress."
Education: Doctorate
Potential UTC Majors: Psychology, Social Work, Child and Family Studies
- Health Care Interpreter
"Health care interpreters facilitate communication between patients with Limited English Proficiency (LEP) and the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and their physicians, nurses, lab technicians and other health care providers"
Education: Varies
Potential UTC Majors: Humanities - International Studies, Spanish, Spanish for Professions, French
Science
- Epidemiologist
"Investigate and describe the determinants and distribution of disease, disability, or health outcomes. May develop the means for prevention and control."
Education: Master's degree
Potential UTC Majors: Biology, Chemistry
- Forensic Biologist
"Forensic biologists examine blood and other bodily fluids, hair, bones, insects and plant and animal remains to help identify victims and support criminal investigations. Using technology in the lab and in the field, forensic biologists collect and analyze biological evidence found on clothing, weapons and other surfaces to determine the time and cause of death."
Education: Bachelor's or Master's degree
Potential UTC Majors: Biology
- Forensic Chemist
"Forensic chemists analyze non-biological trace evidence found at crime scenes in order to identify unknown materials and match samples to known substances. They also analyze drugs/controlled substances taken from scenes and people in order to identify and sometimes quantify these materials."
Education: Bachelor's or Master's degree
Potential UTC Majors: Chemistry
- Genetic Counseling
"Assess individual or family risk for a variety of inherited conditions, such as genetic disorders and birth defects. Provide information to other healthcare providers or to individuals and families concerned with the risk of inherited conditions. Advise individuals and families to support informed decisionmaking and coping methods for those at risk. May help conduct research related to genetic conditions or genetic counseling."
Education: Master's degree
Potential UTC Majors: Biology, Chemistry, Psychology, Social Work
- Medical Anthropology
"Assess individual or family risk for a variety of inherited conditions, such as genetic disorders and birth defects. Provide information to other healthcare providers or to individuals and families concerned with the risk of inherited conditions. Advise individuals and families to support informed decision making and coping methods for those at risk. May help conduct research related to genetic conditions or genetic counseling."
Education: Varies
Potential UTC Majors: Anthropology
- Environmental Health Advocate
"Public health officials who work to identify potential threats to public health, increase awareness about the situation and give people the facts they need to protect their health. Environmental health advocates partner with health care professionals to establish health guidelines, which they then promote through local, state and national awareness campaigns."
Education: Bachelor's degree
Potential UTC Majors: Environmental Science, Geology
Healthcare Support
- Healthcare Administrator
"Health care administrators, also known as health services managers and health care managers, direct the operation of hospitals, health systems and other types of organizations. They have responsibility for facilities, services, programs, staff, budgets, relations with other organizations and other management functions, depending on the type and size of the organization"
Education: Bachelor's or Master's degree
Potential UTC Majors: Business
- Health Educator/Coach
"Provide and manage health education programs that help individuals, families, and their communities maximize and maintain healthy lifestyles. Use data to identify community needs prior to planning, implementing, monitoring, and evaluating programs designed to encourage healthy lifestyles, policies, and environments. May link health systems, health providers, insurers, and patients to address individual and population health needs. May serve as resource to assist individuals, other health professionals, or the community, and may administer fiscal resources for health education programs."
Education: Varies
Potential UTC Majors: Exercise and Health Science, Nutrition minor
- Community Health
"Serve as an advocate for the health needs of individuals by assisting community residents in effectively communicating with healthcare providers or social service agencies. May deliver health-related preventive services such as blood pressure, glaucoma, and hearing screenings. May collect data to help identify community health needs."
Education: Varies
Potential UTC Majors: Exercise and Health Science, Psychology, Social Work, Nutrition minor
- Health Care Recruiter
"Specializes in finding and placing talent within the healthcare sector. Their primary goal is to connect healthcare organizations with qualified healthcare professionals. Healthcare recruiters are intermediaries between job seekers and healthcare employers, ensuring a seamless recruitment process."
Education: Bachelor's degree
Potential UTC Majors: Business
- Medical/Pharmaceutical Sales
"Educates physicians on new drugs developed by pharmaceutical companies and advocate for their prescription to patients."
Education: Bachelor's degree
Potential UTC Majors: Business, Biology, Chemistry
- Medical Case Manager
"Collaborates with medical care team in assessment, planning facilitation, care coordination, evaluation, and advocacy for options and services to meet an individual’s and family’s comprehensive health needs through communication and available resources to promote patient safety, quality of care, and cost-effective outcomes."
Education: Bachelor's or Master's degree
Potential UTC Majors: Social Work
- Medical Illustrator
"A medical illustrator / animator is a professional artist with extensive training in medicine, science, communication and media technology. As visualization specialists, they create imagery that advances medical science knowledge and empowers health literacy for patients and the public. They have the medical and scientific knowledge to grasp complex information, distill it down and communicate the story in a clear visual narrative that is accurate, educational and engaging."
Education: Master's degree
Potential UTC Majors: Art, Biology, Communication
- Medical Records Specialist
"Compile, process, and maintain medical records of hospital and clinic patients in a manner consistent with medical, administrative, ethical, legal, and regulatory requirements of the healthcare system. Classify medical and healthcare concepts, including diagnosis, procedures, medical services, and equipment, into the healthcare industry's numerical coding system"
Education: Varies
Potential UTC Majors: Business
- Medical Transcriptionist
"Transcribe medical reports recorded by physicians and other healthcare practitioners using various electronic devices, covering office visits, emergency room visits, diagnostic imaging studies, operations, chart reviews, and final summaries"
Education: Varies
Potential UTC Majors: Biology, Chemistry, Exercise and Health Science
- Occupational Health and Safety Specialist
"Promote health and safety within organizations by developing safer, healthier, and more efficient ways of working."
Education: Bachelor's degree
Potential UTC Majors: Environmental Science