No matter where you’re at in your life’s journey as a healthcare professional, furthering your knowledge of the ever-changing healthcare landscape is not only a good move to ensure your patients are receiving the best care they can get, but also to boost your resume and advance your career. Online healthcare programs exist at every level, and with COVID-19 not only making it difficult for people to pursue educational endeavors anywhere other than online but also tying up a lot of resources (i.e., educators who are needed in hospitals with increased workloads), there really hasn’t been a better time to look into online healthcare programs to increase your skillset. 

Undergraduate Degree Programs

For those people who are just beginning their careers in healthcare, online degrees are aplenty, and becoming more and more respected, in part due to the COVID silver lining that has made online education a necessity rather than an option. Whether you’re joining the workforce for the first time as a young adult or changing your career, online healthcare programs are great options. They are flexible, viable, and are continuing to offer more and more interaction with students, even from afar. Here are some options:

Associate Level

  • Medical Assistant – Medical assistants help with front-office work in places such as primary care offices, small clinics, surgical centers and large hospital systems. Online healthcare programs geared towards Medical Assistants will focus on patient interactions, communication skills, baseline knowledge of routine procedures, and understanding of terminology and data

Bachelor Level

  • Nursing – Online degrees for nursing are also aplenty, and whether you choose to focus on an RN degree, BSN degree, or any others, you will learn everything you need to succeed as a nurse, including preparation for certifications like the NCLEX exam. 
  • Respiratory Care – A much-needed concentration in the coronavirus age is one in respiratory care, and degrees in this field are also available online. Students will learn similar skills to those in nursing school but will have a more defined focus revolving around the daily proceedings of respiratory care centers and sleep disorder clinics. 
  • Health Services Management – Akin to a medical assistant, those who wish to pursue a higher level of administrative duties in the hospital space should look into online healthcare programs in health services management. 

Graduate Degrees

Graduate degrees online are also becoming more accessible, and given the times, now could be a great time to pursue that higher degree you have been putting off. It is also as good a time as any to simply continue your education from undergraduate studies right into online healthcare programs for graduate students. 

  • Master of Healthcare Administration – This degree program aims to further the knowledge and preparedness of those individuals working on the admin side of healthcare. There are many subdivisions of hospital administration, including very relevant positions like emergency preparedness administrators who helped make the new normal a bit more… normal. 
  • Master of Nursing Administration – For healthcare professionals who have been either nurses or administrators, a master’s degree in nursing administration is a great way to pad your resume and set yourself up for further advancement within the nursing space. 
  • Nursing Education – If reading about all of these courses got you more excited for the education than the job itself, perhaps an online healthcare program related to nursing education would be a good way to mold and advance your career!

Free Courses

For those professionals not wanting to take on a full educational load that leads to a degree, many timely and relevant resources for further healthcare education exist online with a quick search.  

From certifications involving a given ailment to understanding big data in healthcare, to increase your knowledge of cultural diversity in the workplace, there is always something to learn, and many of the free courses are only a few weeks long, so they could serve as test runs if you decide to pursue an online healthcare program offering a graduate degree!