Healthcare careers are rewarding financially and personally, but they’re also intense. The workload is significant, the stress can be even greater, and the hours have historically been punishing for people who want to balance professional and personal responsibilities, particularly in the context of family life.
While aspects of all of these things are still true, healthcare careers have shifted in recent years to provide a higher level of flexibility for parents who have multiple priorities.
In this article, we take a look at how and why healthcare jobs are more accessible to parents than they ever have been before.
Meeting Demand
One of the first things to keep in mind is that healthcare is shifting largely in response to the requests and demands of existing doctors, nurses, pharmacists, technicians, and so on. There are shortages in hospitals almost all over the country.
One of the most frequently cited reasons that nurses leave is that they feel burnt out. To reduce this risk, many hospitals are now providing RNs with a higher level of flexibility when it comes to selecting their hours.
Nursing, hard as it has always been, did have at least one thing going for it already in the context of work-life balance. While the average work week is about 44 hours, nurses typically work on 36-hour per week rotations.
They also have the opportunity to have a little bit of flexibility in terms of the shifts that they select. Hospitals are open 24-7, 365 days a year, which is a good and a bad thing for nurses seeking balance. The bad thing, of course, is that you can be assigned shifts at literally any time.
The good thing is that, well, you can be assigned shifts at literally any time. If evenings or weekends or Tuesdays and Wednesdays and Thursdays are the best time for you to work, you will find hours for all of those times, and you’ll most likely find that the healthcare system where you work is receptive to your scheduling preferences.
Extensive Options
It’s also important to understand that the variety of healthcare careers is incredibly vast. Nurses can work in schools, in hospitals, in doctors’ offices, and in clinics. They can go directly to patients’ homes. They can even pursue remote work.
If you wanted to match the hours of your children exactly, you could even look for placement as a school nurse.
The extensive variety of career options also has the benefit of keeping the job fresh. This is an often underutilized factor in nursing careers, one that bears consideration.
Many people will get frustrated with life as a floor nurse and move on to an entirely different career path.
However, with the intense variety of options available, it’s likely that many people could find opportunities that are rewarding from a financial and responsibility perspective simply by looking into a specialized certification or graduate degree.
The Potential for Remote Work
It’s also worth noting that some healthcare jobs can now be done from home. The extent will vary, of course, but this is an increasingly common option for nurse practitioners who provide consultations to their patients.
If a physical examination is not required, nurses are often able to do their job from home in certain cases.
In these scenarios, you may still work a full schedule, but you will be more of a presence at home. You’ll also find, as so many remote workers do, that it is possible to tackle the odd household task during your nine-to-five.
Training Options Are Also More Varied and Flexible Than Ever
A wide variety of healthcare professionals can now earn their credentials online. This includes everyone from nurses to pharmacists and many jobs in between.
Online learning modules sometimes consist of pre-recorded formats that add an extra element of flexibility to the experience. In these curriculums, you’re given lectures and assignments with broad due dates.
For example, you might be given a month’s worth of work to complete at your convenience. As long as you meet the deadline, it doesn’t matter when or where you do your work.
This is naturally advantageous for busy parents whose schedules don’t look the same from week to week.
Many of these training programs will have elements of in-person requirements. For example, if you’re pursuing a nursing degree, you can’t do all of the coursework from home; you will need to go to a hospital to complete clinical rotations. Nevertheless, the overall experience is more flexible than it has ever been.
Conclusion
None of this is to say that a healthcare career is as flexible as, say, not having a job at all. The work is demanding, high-pressure, difficult both mentally and emotionally, and it is most assuredly not for everyone.
If your only criteria for a job is to find something as flexible and conducive to family life as possible, there are probably easier options available.
However, healthcare jobs do have certain advantages that warrant consideration. They pay well, offer engaging work, and provide the opportunity to do something of importance both to you and your community.
These factors increase the odds of retention and can provide stability to your life and the lives of your family. If you’re interested in pursuing a healthcare career, look into training options that make the most sense for you.
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