Top Health Communication Jobs
- Health Communication Specialist
- Public Health Information Officer
- Technical Medical Writer
- Physician Relations Representative
- Public Health Journalist
Careers in health communications offer many terrific opportunities to healthcare students who do not wish to work directly with patients. This is the perfect field for grads who have excellent communications and writing skills. While there are many occupations for health communication majors to choose from, the following five positions certainly deserve a second look.
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1. Health Communication Specialist
Health communication specialists work to provide the public with important information pertaining to such things as disease prevention, lifestyle choices, and medical treatments. These persons are most often employed by government agencies but can also be found working for a variety of nonprofit organizations and schools. Common duties of health communication specialists include designing and distributing health-related educational materials, creating health-related ad campaigns, and conducting health-related workshops and educational programs.
2. Public Health Information Officer
While it is the responsibility of health communication specialists to disperse important health-related information to the public, the main responsibility of public health information officers is to disperse essential health-related information to the media. These professionals are also most often employed by government agencies but can also work for hospitals and medical universities. These careers are currently in moderate demand, and as reported by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, positions are expected to increase by about 13 percent over the next few years.
3. Technical Medical Writer
Health communications graduates who enjoy technical writing may want to consider careers as technical medical writers. The main responsibility of technical medical writers is to disseminate vital health information in a variety of formats such as white papers, scholastic journals, regulatory instructions, and conference presentations. Their work entails researching facts and current trends and translating the information they gather into clear and concise documents.
4. Physician Relations Representative
Another great health communications career is that of a physician relations representative. The primary responsibility of physician relations representatives is to establish and help maintain relationships between physicians and various hospitals and other types of medical facilities. Sometimes referred to as physician liaisons, other common tasks of these professionals include meeting with physicians to promote hospital services, driving referrals, and leading public relations campaigns.
5. Public Health Journalist
Unlike medical technical writers who create technical documents for particular audiences, public health journalists report current health-related news to the general public. These health communication professionals can work independently or for such employers as news companies, magazines, or health-related websites. Persons who choose these careers need to be able to present news accurately and without bias, and they must be aware of any current trends or new developments in the field of healthcare.
Communications is an ideal field of specialization for healthcare graduates who excel in communications and writing skills. There is a broad range of job opportunities available in this area, and the five careers in health communications described above are among the most popular today.