An online Bachelor’s degree in Public Health creates a huge variety of employment opportunities. When you are deciding which avenue of public health to pursue, stop and consider your personality type and what you enjoy doing. Because the field is so varied – from field research to office work, laboratories to classrooms – public health offers an appealing career path for just about anyone.
Who Wants the Face-to-Face Connection?
If you are a people person you might enjoy one of the interactive, hands-on, client-based positions in public health. These positions include Health Care Advocate, Health Care Educator, Mental Health Facilitator, Health Care Social Worker and many other related positions. These public health professionals serve as a liaison between healthcare providers and members of the community that need their services. They are instrumental in getting help where help it is needed and information to the uninformed.
If you were voted most likely to join the Peace Corps in high school, or you want to be an agent for change, then Public Health has a job for you, too. An online bachelor’s in public health with a concentration in Global Health will prepare you for working overseas in a poor, underserved, or crisis situation. Many Global Health graduates work in refugee camps, become AIDS educators, or join the Peace Corps. If you want to be an agent for change but stick closer to home you can focus on a career in Health Policy and Management. Health policy workers craft policies that ensure fair and equitable access to healthcare for everyone despite gender, race, sexual preference or ethnicity. They also promote programs that help underserved populations gain access to healthcare related services.
Who Wants to Be Outside?
If you are more of the outdoor, adventure-seeking type, you might enjoy a Public Health Career in Emergency Management, Environmental Science, or Health and Safety. Emergency Management Personnel respond to natural and manmade disasters. Environmental scientists fulfill a variety of research and data collection roles aimed at keeping the public and the Earth safe from harm. Health and Safety inspectors use their bachelor’s degrees in public health to look for toxins, dangers and environmental concerns in public areas. It’s a perfect job for someone who dislikes being confined to a desk.
Who Wants to Crunch the Numbers?
If numbers and statistics are your thing then Public Health has a career for you, too! Identifying health trends and averting health disasters requires the work of dedicated Epidemiologists and biostatisticians. By tracking models and analysing data as it applies to health trends, biostatisticians can tell a lot about health trends. Epidemiologists then take that data to monitor diseases and work to develop solutions to public health crises. They are instrumental in fighting the global HIV crisis, yearly flu outbreaks, new diseases that appear suddenly, etc. There is a shortage of people to fill these positions so they are very well paid.
As the population grows so does our need for people to fill all of these positions. Not only are these kinds of jobs vitally important to public safety; they’re also highly in-demand and well paid. An online bachelor’s in Public Health is a smart start regardless of which path you choose to follow within the field.
sources:
https://www.bls.gov/ooh/community-and-social-service/health-educators.htm
https://www.bls.gov/ooh/life-physical-and-social-science/epidemiologists.htm