Choosing to join the healthcare industry has many benefits and interests, but it is good to know the 16 types of healthcare jobs in the medical field that pay well. According to researchers, healthcare jobs are among twenty fastest growing job opportunities in the US, with 14 million jobs in its field and 3 million new jobs which are expected in years to come. Whatever job in the medical field you choose, you can be sure that you will be well-paid with many benefits, including special working hours (sometimes only three working days per week), many social benefits, and awareness that you constantly save people’s lives and help individuals from low-status groups to improve their health. It is surely not a type of a job everyone can do. It always includes a special working environment, working with a lot of different people, changing job requirements, and changes and improvements on a daily basis. One of the best things is that you can change your position in this field by studying and then practicing your knowledge, so everyone working in this field should not be at the same position and the same place throughout his or her career.
There are various reasons why people choose to work in the medical field, but we can say without shame that the salary is definitely one of them. A well-paid job in the healthcare industry requires a high school degree, working in special conditions or institutions, changing positions within the same institution or working long hours with short rests. Since the list of requirements for a well-paid job starts with the person’s level of education, the list of the best-paid jobs in the medical field shall start and finish with the list of the doctors’ specialties. According to the research from 2015, the medical specialty which is found to be the best-paid is orthopedics with orthopaedists earning the salary of more than $400,000 per year and the worst-paid is pediatrics with pediatricians earning the annual salary of $200,000.
kurhan/Shutterstock.com
People who want to work in the medical field know that doctors have high salaries, but it is not always possible to study medicine at high schools or reach a medical degree. Some of them perhaps have already started studying medicine but have to work at the same time, so the easiest option for them is to find a job in the medical field. Many of those jobs do not require any special degrees and you can work with an appropriate certificate, which makes them a good starting point in this field. They are not necessarily bad jobs. On the contrary, many of them are very well paid.
To make the list of 16 types of healthcare jobs in the medical field that pay well, first, we needed to list the jobs in the medical field and then identify the jobs that pay well. That was actually very easy to do due to numerous sources on the internet. However, having compared the lists of jobs and the appropriate salaries, we came to a list of similar jobs and very similar salaries, the difference being about $200 on an annual basis. Many jobs, like those of healthcare assistants (a dental assistant or a nursing assistant, for example), are almost the same and cannot be put in different positions on the list. As a result, we have expanded our criteria for the list with one more condition to be fulfilled when you identify well-paid jobs in the medical field.
Well-paid jobs also imply the existence of a high demand for them in the future. When there is a lack of experts in a certain medical field, you can assume that a high demand for them is likely to emerge and that it will be necessary for hospitals to employ them and put them on the list of their staff. That could be an excellent opportunity for people who want to work in healthcare and who are about to make a decision about their specialty. For that reason, our first step was to explore the list of medical careers in demand and start from there. It is even better if you find a job which is in demand now and is also likely to be in demand in the future. One of those is a medical perfusionist, a new job in the medical field, but highly interesting for new generations and surely one of the best-paid in the medical field which does not require high education.
When it comes to education, people can work in healthcare without a degree in medicine (although some level of education in this field is important), so it is convenient to find those jobs which do not require finishing medical school. We used our list of 11 Highest Paying Healthcare Jobs Without a Degree and the lists of jobs which do not require much education. Some of them can be very well-paid, although not everybody can do them. Finally, we used the lists of highly demanded jobs in the medical field that do not require a high level of education and ranked them according to the appropriate salary taken from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Now, let’s see the list of types of healthcare jobs in the medical field that pay well.
16. Home health aide
Annual salary – $21,920
This job is one of those which do not require a special degree, only training and the appropriate certificate. It includes helping patients with personal hygiene and daily routines, care, and assistance due to an illness or some disability. It cannot be described as a difficult job with a lot of responsibilities to take. In most cases, those in this field are to make sure that patients take the prescribed medicines on time and to check their vital signs like temperature or pulse. The salary for this job is the lowest on this list, but everybody can do this job with a proper license.
Robert Kneschke/Shutterstock.com
15. Nursing assistant
Annual salary – $25,710
The main difference between this and the previous job is in the level of responsibility daily duties require. While those in home health aide just help people perform their normal activities, nursing assistants must give medicine, provide necessary nursing care, and they usually work in hospitals and institutions for elderly people.
michaeljung/Shutterstock.com
14. Medical assistant
Annual salary – $30,590
We are continuing our list of types of healthcare jobs in the medical field that pay well with the medical assistants that work in hospitals and they help in numerous ways. Unlike the employed in the above-mentioned fields, they mostly work with doctors and other nurses, not patients. They are in charge of a wide range of services, including administration, helping doctors in their offices, monitoring other nurses and employees and some other healthcare services. They need a special certificate and a little higher level of education for this position.
Milles Studio/Shutterstock.com
13. Emergency and paramedic technician
Annual salary – $31,980
Those who have survived a car crash or some serious medical problem that required immediate action and calling an ambulance know how important it is to have a professional in these situations. The emergency medical technician can help people who are on the verge of death. A person doing this job must have a high level of education, be very professional, reliable, and responsible for people’s lives.
Syda Productions/Shutterstock.com
12. Phlebotomist
Annual salary – $32,770
The simplest explanation of this job that is on the 12th spot on our list of types of healthcare jobs in the medical field that pay well, is that it involves collecting blood for analyses and other purposes in hospitals and medical institutions. But, drawing blood is not all. Phlebotomists also do some simple laboratory tests, measure blood clotting time and take care of samples and their freshness. They have to be educated for this position.
Image Point Fr/Shutterstock.com
11. Licensed practical nurse
Annual salary – $43,710
Every time you think about nurses in hospitals, you actually refer to this type of job. Licensed practical nurses, next on our list of types of healthcare jobs in the medical field that pay well, work with patients, prepare them for surgeries, give them medicines, check their vital signs, contact doctors, and deal with the administration (they need to keep and organize medical records). They sometimes work long hours, which means spending a lot of time at the hospital.
Sean Locke Photography/Shutterstock.com
10. Surgical technologists
Annual salary – $44,330
Although their primary job is to transport a patient to the surgical room, they are also in charge of some much more difficult tasks. They prepare a patient for surgery, assist during the surgery, and take care of the patient after the surgery and on the way back to the ward. They must be educated for this job and know a lot about anesthesia, vital signs, drugs, and equipment.
Copyright: sudok1 / 123RF Stock Photo
9. Clinical laboratory technician
Annual salary – $50,550
Those in this job are practically invisible in hospitals, but they work very hard behind the scenes. They use samples taken from patients and perform serious laboratory tests on chemicals, diseases, sensitivity to medications, or presence of viruses and bacteria. Clinical laboratory technicians must be educated for the job and very professional.
Copyright: kadmy / 123RF Stock Photo
8. Cardiovascular Technologists
Annual salary – $63,630
As we have previously seen that cardiologists are well-paid doctors, it is logical to put the technologists who work with human hearts in the middle of the list of 16 types of healthcare jobs in the medical field that pay well. They examine patients and diagnose cardiovascular diseases by using high technology and some old-fashioned methods, like treadmill running for example.
Stasique/Shutterstock.com
7. Diagnostically medical sonographer
Annual salary – $63,630
A sonogram is a very popular and easy to use diagnostic device that requires some special knowledge about the human body and organs. People with a degree in this field know how to observe and “read” the picture on the screen to diagnose diseases or other problems in patients’ bodies. They help doctors examine patients and perform diagnoses.
Olesia Bilkei/Shutterstock.com
6. Perfusionist
Annual salary – $65,000
This job can be found on many lists of healthcare jobs which are very popular at the moment and are expected to be in demand in the future. To do this job, a very high level of knowledge is necessary, including knowledge of the human heart and cardiovascular surgery. Perfusionists monitor the bypass machine during surgeries and use heart-lung machines during cardiovascular surgeries.
Dmitry Kalinovsky/Shutterstock.com
5. Registered nurse
Annual salary – $67,490
The main job of registered nurses, that ranked fifth on our list of types of healthcare jobs in the medical field that pay well, is to supervise other nurses and the working environment in hospitals, as well as to educate nurses (especially licensed nurses). They are not just educated to perform this job. They have a long experience and practice and they are very well-paid, so we have put them on this list.
Lisa F. Young/Shutterstock.com
4. Genetic counselor
Annual salary – $72,090
There are many situations where genetic counselors show their knowledge and capacity. Usually, they work with couples who want to have a child by giving them advice on possible hereditary diseases, but they also advise people when there is a possibility for some specific disease manifestation due to the family risk factor. Besides having the proper medical knowledge and the degree, they also need to talk to people with understanding and care.
Copyright: nexusplexus / 123RF Stock Photo
3. Nuclear medical technologists
Annual salary – $73,360
Do not be afraid of this job that ended third on our list of types of healthcare jobs in the medical field that pay well, it is nothing about nuclear bombs or something like that! A nuclear medical technologist has special knowledge about nuclear medicine. They prepare the nuclear material for examinations, radioactive medical compounds, and assists to radiologists during the examinations. Apart from the high education they must have, they need to know how to protect themselves in dangerous situations at work.
Natee K Jindakum/Shutterstock.com
2. Physical therapist
Annual salary – $84,020
A possible consequence of some serious injuries or illnesses can be the state of immobility, which can become a lifelong state if the patient does not get any professional help. A physical therapist, one of the types of healthcare jobs in the medical field that pay well, works with these patients in their postoperative rehabilitation, helping them recover their extremities and mobility, relax, and soothe the pain after the injuries. Thanks to them, many patients stop using painkillers and avoid being addicted to these drugs.
Robert Kneschke/Shutterstock.com
1. Physician assistant
Annual salary – $98,180
Let’s say that a physician assistant is a team worker with a high level of education in the medical field, but still not the same as that of doctors. A physical assistant assists physicians and other doctors during the examinations, drugs prescriptions, interpretations of tests and procedures of performing diagnoses, while the rest of the time they work with nurses, monitor them during the process of giving medicines to patients or providing other medical care. They can assist in surgeries and coordinate the medical care. The salary and the education a person must have to be at this position put this job in the first place on the list of 16 types of healthcare jobs in the medical field that pay well.
Rob Marmion/Shutterstock.com
