Unit 4:

Planning for a Health

career
Choosing a career is not an
easy thing to do. You don’t just
look at the pay and the security
it offers you; you also need to
consider your primary interests
and passion which can open
doors to other careers that you
have not considered.
Pre-assessment
A. List as many words associated with the word
“Health career”. Prepare for a presentation
explaining the importance of health career.
B. How many allied health
professions are you familiar
with? List ALL the allied health
professions that you are familiar with.
e.g. Physical therapy
 A career is an occupation or
profession that requires special
training.
 Health careers are designed
to familiarize students with the
various careers in the medical
profession and allied health services.
 Students will learn skills
necessary for their career path, which
in this case is in healthcare .
 These include working with
others, communication skills, legal and
ethical responsibilities, cultural
considerations in healthcare industry,
problem solving, decision making,
accepting personal responsibility, and
self-management.
Health career Planning refers to an
individual’s plan to make a career
choice, growing in the chosen career
or making a career shift.
Career planning involves the very
important step of self-assessment.
Self-assessment is necessary to
understand one’s capabilities and
drawbacks.
• YOU’LL MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN
PEOPLE’S LIVES
• Good salary
• Job Security
• A clear path to advancement
• Work with people (or not)
 Self Assessment

Career Exploration

Decision Making

Plan of Action
1. Self Assessment
Discover your personal strengths
through self-assessments (values,
interests, personality, testing, skills,
etc.
2. Career Exploration
You can explore different careers and
work environments through career fairs,
online research, meetings, internships,
alumni connections, professional
resources
3. Decision Making
Before you decide on taking a career that
works for you, you can evaluate and narrow
down your options through listing the pros
and cons, comparing your personal strengths
and interests, and deciding which career
fulfills both current and future goals.
4. Plan of Action
Plan achievable goals and develop strategies
to reach your goals, organize your goals into
smaller steps, identify actions for each step,
utilize helpful people and resources, review
and adapt your plan regularly
Activity 1: MY
CAREER PLAN
Write your own career
plan using the
components and steps.
 MYMY CAREER
HEALTH PLAN
CAREER PLAN
My Career Goal/s:
Self- Assessment
What are my skills and interests?
Career Exploration
What careers do I want to explore?
What will I do to explore the different careers?
Decision- Making
What career will I choose based on my skills and
interests?
What do I need to consider?
My Plan of Action
What will I do to meet my goal/s?
Time to Read
LM pp. 308-312
HEALTH CAREER PATHWAYS
Career pathways are clusters of occupations that
are grouped because of shared skills. All
pathways include a variety of occupations that
require different levels of education, skills, and
training. Selecting a career pathway provides
you with an area of focus, along
with flexibility and a variety of
ideas to pursue for personal
development.
 Makes it easier for
Assist you in
you to identify health
choosing a
career professions
health career

Why Do You Helps you develop

Need to a plan on how to
Understand prepare for your
Health Career chosen health
Pathways? career
What are examples of health career pathways?
1. Disease Prevention and Control
People who specialize in this career path
focus on communicable and non-
communicable diseases. Their work
includes immunization, screening of
newborns, promotion of breastfeeding,
infant diseases prevention, adolescent
healthcare, and life skills.
Sample Careers:
 Community Health Work
 Education and Research
What are examples of health career pathways?
2. Personal Healthcare
Professionals in this field perform
healthcare related tasks in a personal
care level. These include monitoring
patients; administering and assisting in
personal care and hygiene; performing
housekeeping duties; and advising clients
on related healthcare issues like infant
care, hygiene and nutrition.
What are examples of health career pathways?
3. Maternal and Child Care
These health workers deal with complex public
health issues that affect women, children and
their families. These include providing
information on reproductive health, family
planning, healthcare of pregnant women and
their children, and improvement of health
delivery system through advocacy, education and
research.
Sample Careers:
 Midwifery
 Community Health Educator
What are examples of health career pathways?
4. Mental HealthCare
These medical professionals specialize in
dealing with interpersonal and intraper-
sonal relationships and life skills. These
include cognitive and psychosocial deve-
lopment, promotion of healthy self-
esteem through feelings and anger
management and identifying warning
signs or red flags of learning disorders,
such as ADHD, anxiety, mood disorders,
stress, and bullying.
What are examples of health career pathways?
4. Mental HealthCare
Sample Careers:
 Social Work
 Clinical Psychology
 Psychiatry
 Guidance Counselling
What are examples of health career pathways?
5. Community Healthcare
Specialists in this area focus on the
maintenance, protection, and
improvement of the health of all
community members.
Sample Careers:
 Barangay/Community Health Work
 Rural Sanitary Inspection
What are examples of health career pathways?
6. Environmental Healthcare Management
These health workers try to establish the
correlation between and among the
physical, chemical, biological, social, and
psychosocial factors in the surrounding
environment. These include monitoring
the quality of environment and impact of
human activities on ecosystems, and
developing strategies for restoring
ecosystems.
What are examples of health career pathways?
6. Environmental Healthcare Management
Sample Careers:
 Air quality monitoring
 Soil science analysis
 Hazardous and solid waste
management
 Environmental noise control
 Radiological assessment
What are examples of health career pathways?
7. Drug Prevention and Control
People whose careers revolve around this
area seek to reduce community and
individual problems related to alcohol and
drug abuse through evidence-based
programs and policy advocacy.
Sample Careers:
 Drug Enforcement
 Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation
What are examples of health career pathways?
8. Nutrition
Specialists in this area find ways to balance
individuals’ food and nutrition and their
impact on patients’ health. These include
meal planning, food preparation and
economics.
Sample Careers:
 Clinical Dietetics
 Food and Nutrition Management
 Public Health Nutrition
 Education and Research
What are examples of health career pathways?
9. Health Education
Those who work in this field are tasked
with promotion of healthcare and training
of health workers on managing change in
healthcare. Their work involves assessing
individual and community needs, planning,
implementing and evaluating health
programs, promoting the understanding of
various health-related bahaviors plus
coordinating health education services.
What are examples of health career pathways?
9. Health Education
Sample Careers:
 Education and Research
 Community Health Work
What are examples of health career pathways?
10. Dental Health
Dental health workers deal with various
oral conditions which include chronic
mouth and facial pain, oral sores,
periodontal (gum) disease, tooth decay
and tooth loss, other diseases and
disorders that affect the oral cavity, and
risk factors for oral diseases which include
unhealthy diet, tobacco use, harmful
alcohol use, and poor oral hygiene.
What are examples of health career pathways?
10. Dental Health
Sample Careers:
 Dental Hygiene
 Dental Nursing
 Dental health support
What are examples of health career pathways?
11. Occupational Safety
Careers in this path are related to the safety,
health and welfare of people engaged in
work or employment. These include
protecting workers from sickness, disease,
and injury arising from possible hazards of
their employment and workplace.
Sample Careers:
 Occupational Health and Safety Technician
 Health Inspector
 Industrial Hygienist
What are examples of health career pathways?
12. Emergency Medical Services
People assigned in this work specialize in
out-of-hospital medical care. Their skills
include first-aid procedures, emergency
medical treatment and transport of
patients, rapid emergency medical
response and immediate medical
attention.
Sample Careers:
 Emergency Medical Aid
 Paramedic
• Disease Prevention and Control
• Personal Healthcare
• Maternal and Child Care
• Mental HealthCare
• Community Healthcare
• Environmental Healthcare Management
• Drug Prevention and Control
• Nutrition
• Health Education
• Dental Health
• Occupational Safety
• Emergency Medical Services
 MEDICAL AND ALLIED HEALTH
PROFESSION
• The medical profession is a group
of individuals qualified to practice
medicine. Allied health
professions, on the other hand,
are lines of work that still deal with
healthcare, but are distinct from
medicine.
• They have distinct and specialized
knowledge and skills that actively work
with people accessing health and
disability that are offered services across
a range of settings. These professions
include clinical laboratory or medical
technology, physical therapy,
occupational therapy, dietetic services,
medical record personnel, radiologic
services, speech language pathology
and audiology, and respiratory therapy.
• Health Care Provider- a person
who helps identify, prevent, or treat
an illness or disability
• Health Care Practitioner/ Provider-
an independent healthcare
provider who is licensed to practice
on and provide general and/or
specialized care to a specific area
of the body.”
• Allied Health Professionals- a
trained healthcare provider
practicing under supervision
of a physician or healthcare
practitioner. They include
pharmacists, dental
hygienists, physical therapists
and nurses.
Allied health professionals provide services
and engage in activities which include:
a. prevention - keep illness or injury from
happening
b. assessment/evaluation - appraisal of the
condition based on the patient’s subjective
report
c. identification/diagnosis - analysis based on
signs, symptoms, and laboratory findings
d. treatment - management and care of a
patient or the combating of disease or
disorder
e. rehabilitation/habilitation - treatment
designed to recover from injury, illness, or
disease towards a normal condition as
possible
f. advocacy - a method by which
patients, their families, attorneys, health
professionals, and citizens’ groups can
work together to develop programs that
ensure the availability of high-quality
healthcare for a community
g. promotion of health and well-being -
the process of enabling people to
increase control over their health and its
determinants, and thereby improving their
health
h. education - the process of sharing and
gaining knowledge
i. research - the diligent inquiry or
examination of data, reports, and
observations in a search for facts or
principles
 EXAMPLES OF ALLIED
HEALTH PROFESSIONS
These are the common allied health
professionals practicing in the country with
available education and professional
training.
ANSWERS
MIDWIFE
MEDICAL TECHNOLOGIST
AUDIOLOGIST
MASSAGE THERAPIST
DENTAL HYGIENIST
DIETITIAN/ NUTRITIONIST
ORTHOTIST/ PROSTHETIST
PHARMACIST
RADIOLOGIC TECHNOLOGIST/
RADIOGRAPHER
PARAMEDIC
QUIZ
A. Disease Prevention and Control
B. Personal Healthcare
C. Maternal and Child Care
D. Mental HealthCare
E. Community Healthcare
F. Environmental Healthcare Management
G. Drug Prevention and Control
H. Nutrition
I. Health Education
J. Dental Health
K. Occupational Safety
L. Emergency Medical Services
Those who work in this field are tasked
with promotion of healthcare and training
of health workers on managing change in
healthcare. Their work involves assessing
individual and community needs, planning,
implementing and evaluating health
programs, promoting the understanding of
various health-related bahaviors plus
coordinating health education services.
workers deal with various oral conditions
which include chronic mouth and facial
pain, oral sores, periodontal (gum)
disease, tooth decay and tooth loss, other
diseases and disorders that affect the oral
cavity, and risk factors for oral diseases
which include unhealthy diet, tobacco
use, harmful alcohol use, and poor oral
hygiene.
People assigned in this work specialize in
out-of-hospital medical care. Their skills
include first-aid procedures, emergency
medical treatment and transport of
patients, rapid emergency medical
response and immediate medical
attention.
Sample Careers:
 Emergency Medical Aid
 Paramedic
People whose careers revolve around this
area seek to reduce community and
individual problems related to alcohol and
drug abuse through evidence-based
programs and policy advocacy.
Sample Careers:
 Drug Enforcement
 Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation
Specialists in this area find ways to balance
individuals’ food and nutrition and their
impact on patients’ health. These include
meal planning, food preparation and
economics.
Sample Careers:
 Clinical Dietetics
 Food and Nutrition Management
 Public Health Nutrition
 Education and Research