How Individuals Can Grow Professionally in the Medical Field
Recent healthcare statistics reveal that, “by 2030, America will have about 122,000 unfilled posts for physicians.” This is incredibly scary considering the health crisis we’re navigating right now. We need our healthcare workers. However, we must find better ways to support them to keep them.
One way could be to create clear paths for professional growth in the industry. A medical discovery or incredible invention shouldn’t be the standard for advancing a medical career. Instead, there are much simpler ways to grow your career path in the healthcare industry.
Various things can help individuals in healthcare and medicine advance their careers, including growing critical soft and technical skills for their particular position, doing volunteer work, and developing their professional network.
Read on for more about these and other ways you can grow professionally in the medical field.
Be a Leader
One of the best ways to grow professionally in the healthcare industry is to learn to be a leader. Leadership skills are key in career growth because they help you develop professional relationships, high levels of determination, skill, empathy, and genuine interest in serving others you’ll need to be successful.
For instance, let’s say the next step in your professional career is becoming a nurse. In that case, growing the following leadership skills is essential if you want to make the most significant impact in your role and position yourself for continued growth:
- Written and verbal communication
- Active listening
- Conflict resolution
- Managing organizational change
- Mentoring
- Empathy and awareness
You can develop your leadership skills by taking the initiative on things like:
- Going on medical missions
- Shadowing your superior
- Mentoring new employees
- Chairing committees
- Setting up facility and industry events
- Volunteering with nonprofits
- Taking on additional projects
- Joining your healthcare association
You can grow professionally in the medical field by exploring internal options for growth as well.
Explore Internal Options for Growth
This is an obvious one, but be sure you’re actively pursuing any internal options for growth. For instance, are there any offerings for cross-training, upskilling, shadowing, or mentorship where you work?
Refer to your facility’s internal job board often to find possibilities for growth where you’re already working. You could also ask your supervisor about upcoming openings or reach out to your coworkers about any future opportunities they’ve heard about.
Furthermore, if there aren’t any official opportunities for growth internally, you can always ask your supervisor to take on additional responsibilities. Ask if there’s anything you can take off their plate and be eager to do so should the answer be yes.
If internal opportunities or additional responsibilities in your current role aren’t available, don’t be afraid to research external opportunities for professional growth.
Research External Opportunities for Professional Growth
Sometimes, you won’t be able to grow your career internally. You’ll have to be brave and seek external growth opportunities, like getting a new position at a new facility or picking up some hours in an emergency room.
Tap into your professional network to research external growth opportunities. You can absolutely find healthcare job openings on job boards. Still, it’s better to leverage the tight-knit medical field family to land the right option for you with individuals you know and love.
Learning how to make an excellent first impression can also aid your growth in the medical field.
Learn to Make a Good First Impression
Learning to make a good first impression wherever you go can positively impact your career growth. A positive first impression matters whether you’re growing your network, working with patients, or collaborating with other medical professionals. Also, good first impressions can lead to lasting relationships that propel your career forward.
Master your first impression by:
- Smiling
- Reading the room
- Being well-groomed
- Being mindful of your nonverbal cues
- Making sure your clothes are tidy and look good on you
- Bringing a thoughtful gift when appropriate
- Maintaining eye contact throughout conversations
- Preparing conversation topics before attending events
Another way to grow professionally is to expand your professional network.
Grow Your Professional Network
Growing professionally can be a direct result of who you know. Developing a solid professional network can give you a leg up when searching for new opportunities, contacts, advice, and support.
Social media is a goldmine for growing your professional network. in addition, you can grow your network and increase your opportunities for professional growth by attending conferences and events.
You can find medical conferences and events to attend by asking around at the facility you work at and seeing what resources are shared there. You can also go online and search for upcoming conferences and events related to your position or specialty.
You can also explore fundraising as a way to grow professionally in the medical field.
Explore Fundraising
This is a route less taken, but learning the ins and outs of fundraising can propel your career in the medical field forward.
Let’s say you’re hosting a fundraiser online to bring professional resources to your facility, like classes that teach valuable professional skills or putting on an in-person event to meet another funding need. It’s beneficial to your overall efforts to grow professionally because of the skills you acquire, like promotion, recruiting, and collaboration.
See what you can find out about hosting a fundraiser for your facility. You can ask your supervisor to have a private conversation about immediate funding needs and your interest in hosting a fundraiser to meet them.
If your facility already has some sort of fundraising team in place, ask if you can be a part of it or at least assist at the next fundraising event.
Do Volunteer Work
Volunteering is one of the best things you can do for your professional growth. Not only is the work fulfilling, but you get the chance to work on the leadership skills above and the technical skills that make you a better medical professional.
Start with underserved medical facilities and clinics. Reach out and ask if there are any opportunities for you to volunteer. Be sure that you’re committed to regularly volunteering so that you can develop strong relationships with the staff and continuously grow your soft and technical skills simultaneously.
Expand Your Formal Education
Continuing your education is a great way to advance your healthcare career. There’s a long list of specializations and certifications to obtain in the medical field and outstanding schools to get them at.
Sit down and explore how you can expand your formal education. Take a look at your financial situation first and see if advancing your education is doable, as traditional education in medicine can be pretty spendy.
You should also see if you have time to commit to formal education. Many certifications and degree programs require a serious time commitment that may not allow you to work full-time, volunteer, and take on everything else in your life. So, it’s best to do your research and consider all that taking on a formal education commitment would affect.
In addition to formal education, practice self-education.
Practice Self-Education
If you aren’t financially prepared to expand your education traditionally or simply don’t want to go that route, self-education is still an option. Don’t go off doing unauthorized surgeries or medical experiments or anything. Instead, just become a lifelong learner interested in all things medical.
You can practice self-education by:
- Doing your own research or personal project
- Reading books by medical experts and influencers
- Tapping into social media
- Attending talks, conferences, and events on your own time
- Having discussions with colleagues about trends, experiences, and so forth
Also, be sure to jump on all opportunities to grow professionally in the medical field.
Jump on All Opportunities
We all can think of at least one opportunity that we passed up but wish we didn’t. Don’t let that be the case in your quest to grow professionally in the medical field. Instead, take advantage of opportunities that are presented to you.
It’s beneficial to learn how to fend off procrastination, set goals, and draft step-by-step plans to achieve those goals.
First, you can do so by reading books, blogs, and other materials with best practices. Then, put all that you learn about the above into practice so that taking advantage of opportunities as soon as they come becomes second nature.
Lastly, you can grow professionally in the medical field by prioritizing your holistic health.
Prioritize Your Holistic Health
Actively pursuing professional growth in the medical field can be exhausting. If you aren’t careful, that exhaustion can lead to burnout and a lack of motivation that’s no good for your growth efforts or what you’re doing in your current role.
You must prioritize your holistic health so that you can remain clear-headed, physically well, spiritually whole, and emotionally strong on your quest to grow in a challenging work environment.
Ensure your holistic health is a priority by:
- Knowing the signs of burnout
- Practicing self-care
- Asking for time off when you need it
- Developing a healthy work-life balance
- Enlisting the help of a professional when needed
- Leaning into your support system
- Being honest with yourself
- Implementing exercise regularly and a solid nutrition plan
- Staying on a healthy sleep schedule
- Growing authentic relationships with your superiors
- Using your health resources
Ultimately, when you prioritize your holistic health, you’re able to stay engaged, motivated to grow, and at your best in one of the most demanding industries.
Conclusion
We hope this guide for how individuals can grow professionally in the medical field is helpful in your effort. Implementing even just a few of the tips above can help you excel in your current role and fast-track your success in the healthcare industry.
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