If you work in the Healthcare industry and are looking for a way to move forward in your career, or if you are looking for a direction for a future career path, the options available in the medical world are numerous.  While the general understanding about the medical industry is that the prerequisites are extremely high for getting a job, as in long and expensive medical schooling and internships, the real truth is that healthcare related jobs run the gamut from simple training and certification programs to the commonly thought-of dozen years of schooling and quarter of a million plus dollars of tuition.  If you are in a position to shoot for the top of the medical food chain right from the start, the reward for all of your labor and investment will be a highly respected and lucrative career.  However, there is no reason why you can’t go from the lower rungs and gradually work your way up through night school and other available options.  Once you’ve decided you want to pursue a career in medicine, or expand from your current healthcare career, your next course of action will largely depend on where you are in your life right now.  If you are thinking big in the long-term, there’s no reason why you can’t make a living as a healthcare professional while you are pursuing your PHD or finishing med school.  However, with that in mind, there are a great many jobs within the scope of the medical field that pay very well and allow you to provide similar care and treatment to patients, with nothing but certification.  A large amount of people are very happy with these jobs for large portions of their lives as they give them more time to spend with their families and provide plenty to afford a comfortable and enjoyable lifestyle.  The heavy-hitting top jobs in the medical industry may be flashy and lucrative but they also require massive investments of time for the duration of the career.  Where you’d like to end up will depend entirely on what you value most in your life.

Let’s take a look ten of the most popular jobs within the healthcare industry.

1. Dentist– At least for the imaginable future, there will always be a need for dentistry.  Let’s face it, teeth are not the most efficient and resilient part of the human body.  They tend to decay, break and fall out, and once all of your adult teeth have grown in, they don’t grow back.  A dentist makes a living from diagnosing and treating a variety of ailments having to do with teeth and oral hygiene.  Like most professional healthcare jobs, a sizeable increase in job growth is expected in dentistry over the next decade.

2. Dental Hygienist - A great position that acts in some ways as a dentists assistant.  Less schooling is required, but the salary is excellent.

3. Pharmacist – Pharmacology can be a fascinating science for the right-minded people.  It is also an important medical job that is perfect for people who are a little bit squeamish when dealing directly with blood or injury.  A pharmacist needs to understand drug interaction and be able to council patients and dispense medicines on a daily basis.  Job growth for pharmacists is projected to be around 14.5% over the next ten years.

4. Registered Nurse – One of the most important jobs in the medical industry, the registered nurse (RN) works in a variety of capacities that sometimes assist and sometimes mirror that of a physician.  This is also a position that is in constant need for more people to fill it, with a projected growth of nearly 20% in employment in the coming years.

5. Nurse Practitioner–The nurse practitioner is an excellent career choice with the large variety of capabilities and the ability to practice without the supervision of a physician.  There is always a need for more.  A very strong increase in available jobs and positions needed to be filled is predicted.

6. Physician – One of the top positions in the healthcare industry, the physician tends to act as the home base of diagnosis and treatment.  It is the physician’s job to instruct patients in disease prevention, proper diet and hygiene, and to diagnosis and treat illness and injury.  While the position requires a higher level of education than many other available jobs in the industry, the salary makes up for it in spades.  Being a very important job, growth is predicted to be enormous and the need for more physicians will be there indefinitely.

7. Physician’s Assistant – An important job and position to any physician.  The assistant helps with a great many things including treatment and the interpretation of charts and X-rays.

8. Physical Therapist – This is someone who helps people who are recovering from debilitating disease and injury to regain mobility.  A very important and necessary job that isn’t going anywhere.

9. Occupational Therapist – This type of therapist is a unique kind, helping those with developmental, physical, and mental disabilities find a way to function within society.  This position has one of the fastest rising growth rates with a projected 29% through 2022.

10. Phlebotomist –A great position for anyone who isn’t squeamish with blood or needles.  Job growth for phlebotomists is also on the rise in this position as well with the BLS projecting over 27,000 new openings within the coming decade.