Career And Education

Career Choices:

Present Career, a Career Interest, and the Value of a College Education

When an individual starts to plan his or her career, he or she should develop a well-structured plan. To help develop their career, individuals must evaluate what their desires and needs are. Some of the following questions should be answered: Do they want to further their education? Do they want to advance through their company by work experience? What career should they decide on? Is the desired career compatible with their learning styles and personalities? What is their preferred wage/salary? Are they willing to move or is the career marketable in their current area? Deciding a career is an important step of an individual's life. They should carefully evaluate the pros and cons of their plan before starting the actual process of improvement.

Present Career

When evaluating my own personal career choice a few years ago, I realized a change needed to occur. I was not happy with the choice I had made. I was enrolled in the University of Wisconsin school system trying to complete my degree in Human Services. My career choice was to be a Therapist. After much consideration, I changed my career choice to Hospital Administrator. To help with me with my journey, I decided to acquire some hospital-related work experience and to continue with my bachelors' degree of Health Administration.

When starting to create a career goals list, an individual should start by listing his or her level of education and work experiences. Shortly after high school (1998), I started to further my education at the University of Wisconsin Ð'- Oshkosh. I became a student in their psychology program. After having my son, I started to work full-time and changed my enrollment status from full-time to part-time. As a result, I accepted a position as an overnight direct care counselor at a juvenile sex-offender treatment facility. I knew this would help me understand the role and responsibility of being a Therapist. Shortly after starting the job, I started to reconsider my career choice. I realized Therapists in the state of Wisconsin were not paid very well. In addition, working with court-appointed juveniles in a treatment center setting is very challenging. I wanted to educate them on making better choices for their lives.

However, I shortly realized that they themselves did not want the change to occur and were bitter because of their court ordered placement. Direct care was difficult and not the job I wanted long-term. So while there, I decided to take a supervisor role as a Behavior Management Specialist rather then direct care counselor. I found myself enjoying the interactions and guidance I was able to offer the staff when they found themselves struggling to deal with the defiant behaviors of the residents. However after a few years, I still was not happy and content with my career choice. I needed to work with clients that wanted to be help, while making a higher paying salary.

The next step for me was to evaluate what careers were marketable in my area of residency. Living a small town in Northern Wisconsin, there are not many opportunities or job security. I knew that to gain the financial status I wanted, I would have to enter the health care field. In order to do so, my family and I decided to move to the Milwaukee area. There, I still continued my schooling through the University of Wisconsin Ð'- Superior On-line Extended Degree Program. Once established in Hales Corners, I accepted a position in a newly developed department at Aurora Ð'- St. Luke's Medical Center. The department was the Centralized Patient Transport Department. This department would internally service varies departments of the hospital (Radiology, Dialysis, Pain Clinic, SurgeryÐ'...).

The first position I accepted was a Transporter. My job duties were to transport patients via wheelchair or stretcher to studies that were schedule with the departments. The studies were scheduled with the Dispatchers of the department. The Dispatchers entered the required information into a computer program. Then at the scheduled times, The Dispatchers would send a message through a pager to the Transporter. The message would tell us what the patient's name, location, transport type, precautions and the department that was ordering the study. Then, the Transporter would start and complete the requested transport.

By taking the Transporter position at St Luke's Medical Center, I started to learn the different careers the health care field had to offer. Before becoming a Transporter, I considered a career in Nursing. Once I started to interact directly with the patients, I realized I did not have want it took to be a nurse. I realized that I belonged in management. When a Dispatcher position opened, I applied and accepted the position. While as a Dispatcher, I interacted more with the Supervisor and Managers of the different departments. As a result of this, I decided I wanted a career as a Hospital Administrator.

A Career Interest

Changing careers is not a simple process that can be done overnight. It requires a lot of thought, the Business Source Complete (2006) reports:

Think hard about what's important to them, where their aspirations lie and what they want out of the move. List their specific areas of expertise and interests and consider how they might be applied in a new field or role. Then carefully research the marketplace into which they hope to sell an individual's talents to ensure there is enough potential work.

After considering the above, I still decided on Hospital Administrator as a career of interest. I knew this career would fit my learning style and personality. I wanted to help guide health care professional on improving the overall care of hospital patients along with their interpersonal relationships and diversity issues at work. I saw first hand, the stress that is created when a Hospital Administrator decides to run a hospital based on high-levels of productivity. As a result the overall atmosphere of the hospital, because stressed and short handed with staffs. The hospital wanted its staffs to push themselves harder so greater levels of productivity would be created. However, it appeared to me and several other front-line care givers, that the employees were no longer viewed as valued workers, but as work mules. This caused a negative work environment, where employees no longer cared about being proactive and helpful. I want to change this. I want employees to feel important and valued. I want them to know their opinions, problems and comments matter.