Health Care Workers Win More Flexible Schedules by Steven Hamilton

Night shifts, weekends and holidays are three words that were once synonymous with positions in health care. It is a new day. The shortage of health care professionals has made employers reconsider their demanding work schedules.

Employers feel the pinch and are now more willing to consider worker's needs and requests for flexible schedules. The Dean of Science and Health Careers at a local college agreed that health care workers now have more leeway in choosing their schedules. One may be given the 'dirty' jobs at first, and the situation is such that there are those who work only on weekends.

The following health care professions offer the most flexibility. The dean of the college of education and health services of a local university said that pharmacy, with high hourly wages, is ideal for the working mother. It is interesting to note that women make up more than half of pharmacists.

The profession is in demand these days. With pharmacies, frequently open 24 hours, popping up on every corner, each one needing at least one pharmacist, employees are free to dictate their own schedule. The Dean believes that pharmacy is a preferable area, with its flexibility and the high salary that comes with it.

Health information technologists translate doctor's orders into four or five digit codes, which are sent to Medicare or other insurance providers. Two tracks available to students are the one semester certificate and the two year degree. This way, the student can work as hard or as little as he wants. Some creative individuals hire their services out to medical offices and are able to work from home.

Countless numbers of people yearn for that type of flexibility. There is also the field of medical transcription. The main task of these professionals is encoding doctor's reports. The dean of biological and health sciences at a college in Lake County counsels those who need flexibility to try this job. Medical transcriptionists also gain a tremendous amount of knowledge about medical diagnosis and treatment. These jobs tend to be very lenient. There are lots of part time jobs in medical transcription.

For the College of Lake County, dental hygiene students are given the opportunity to work on new recruits at the nearby naval base. Upon successful completion of this program, they are privileged with one of the highest entry level salaries and the most flexible hours of any health care profession. Though there aren't many full time positions in dental hygiene, they are very flexible. Parents see this as the main advantage. Right after graduation, dental hygienists earn up to $30/hour and are thus among the most highly paid professionals in America. Nevertheless, the downside of these jobs, most of them part time, is that they frequently do not come with benefits or health insurance.