Most people entering the medical field want to work directly or indirectly with patients. Children commonly say they want to become nurses or doctors, for example. However, not everyone feels well-suited for providing healthcare directly or indirectly. For such people, here are five ways you can work in healthcare without being a healthcare provider.

1. Teaching

You don’t need to use a medical degree, nursing degree, Ph.D. or other degree related to providing healthcare in the field. Some people earn their degrees and then choose to become professors and teachers to train future generations of healthcare providers. You may still need to demonstrate and perform certain procedures, such as dissections, for your students, but as a teacher, you can help prepare others to enter the field instead of working with patients yourself. To help you with your teaching, you can take additional courses, as they will provide you with more knowledge to support your students. You could do a medical terminology accredited online course, for example, which will be highly beneficial when you need further background with certain lessons.

2. Working With Records, Billing And Transcripts

You may have more of an interest in economics, transcription, record-keeping or billing than you do in healthcare itself. If so, you could consider a career in medical billing and coding, medical transcription or as a medical record specialist. Many of these positions require knowledge of and experience with traditional and digital filing and organization. They may also require experience with data analytics and knowledge of medical terminology. If you want to start working in a field such as medical billing, you can find education options via services such as Best-Universities.net.

3. Working in Technology Or Pharmaceutical Development

There are many jobs related to technological and pharmaceutical development in the medical field. You may be interested in collecting healthcare market research for developing vaccines and medications, studying disease-causing microorganisms, advancing treatments, disease management and palliative care or developing medical technology such as robots and computing programs. These careers do not require medical degrees. Instead, you should earn a degree in a field related to your career goals, such as biology, chemistry or engineering.

4. Becoming a Health And Safety Specialist

Healthcare is an integral part of health and safety in the workplace and in public spaces. A specialist in health and safety must earn a bachelor’s degree in either occupational health and safety or a related field. He or she may find employment with a governmental body or a private organization and work in an office, a factory or while traveling in the field. Health and safety specialists must have experience with data collection and analytics.

5. Managing a Healthcare Setting

Some people’s talents lie in managing workplaces. Healthcare settings, such as hospitals, doctor’s offices and clinics, need good management to ensure that they run smoothly and provide all patients with the care they need in a timely fashion. If you’re skilled at overseeing the administration of services and managing teams of people, careers such as hospital director or clinic manager may be good fits for you.

Every job related to healthcare helps patients. Whether you’re directly providing healthcare or handling billing or hospital management, your role is to help patients receive healthcare and recover. Even if you don’t feel comfortable in a healthcare provider role, you can still enter the healthcare field in a support position and make a difference.