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Whether you’re getting ready to graduate from an undergraduate program and make your next career move, or you’re looking to make a career change from where you currently sit into the healthcare field, making the most of your available career opportunities can benefit you well into the future.

As you’re continuing your education in the healthcare field, it’s important to always keep your overall goals in mind. Although focusing on necessary coursework and certification requirements are critical, creating and maintaining a career path that will grow with you throughout your career is just as vital, if not more so.

Kim Dority, career expert and writer, shares her top five pieces of advice for taking control of your career in the following “Healthcare and Emergency Response Planning Guide,” which any soon-to-be healthcare employee will find useful.

Healthcare and Emergency Response Planning Guide: Top Five Take Control of Your Career Action Steps

1. Focus on the “Big Three” of career building. By focusing on networking, professional branding and gaining work-related experience, you can help solidify potential career opportunities once school is finished. Networking is a great opportunity to build positive professional relationships with any number of individuals. Whether you’re networking with classmates, mentors, teachers or bosses, any of these relationships can provide career guidance. Professional branding can be seen as an extension of networking. Research and join the professional associations in your field to meet other people with similar interests and to demonstrate your commitment to the healthcare and emergency response fields. Work-related experience doesn’t have to be earned solely in jobs and internships. Volunteering in areas you see yourself working – perhaps the local hospital – is just as valuable as a job or internship in your career path.
2. Determine your career goals and aspirations. Starting down a new career path can be that much easier if you’ve already determined your ultimate career goals and aspirations. Whether you’d like to be a registered nurse in an emergency department or a member of an emergency response team, knowing your goals can help you take highly focused courses and more efficiently work toward a career in the healthcare field.
3. Identify and foster your professional brand. A professional brand isn’t only about how you score on tests and in the classroom; but rather, it’s about showcasing your array of professional strengths. In today’s digital world, this can be done face-to-face and online. If you’re currently working another job while going to school for a career in healthcare, be aware of the way you act and behave with your current coworkers and supervisors. These are the individuals who could be recommending you one day for your dream job. In the online world, there are a plethora of opportunities to demonstrate your talents through a blog or personal website, as well as via social media tools like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Remember to always keep a potential employer in mind when posting to social media.
4. Don’t underestimate the power of school. Although the process of going back to school can seem tedious and cumbersome, especially if you’re uprooting from your current career and changing gears to the healthcare field, it’s an invaluable experience. Continuing your education and achieving basic life support (BLS), pediatric advanced life support (PALS) or advanced cardiac life support (ACLS) certifications is no easy task, but is certainly one that potential employers value and appreciate as they search for their next candidate. Additional education should never be seen as a waste of time, especially if it’s working toward your already determined career goals.
5. Take value in your work-related experiences. In today’s fast-paced career environments, experience from volunteering at your local health fair to interning with a top healthcare employer to working the reception desk at the hospital are all part of your work-related experiences. Nearly any job or activity that places you in the heart of the medical field adds to your knowledge and experience with healthcare and emergency response. Do your best to extract value from every job and take what you have learned with you to your next employer.

Taking the initiative to research the best ways to advance your career with items such as this “Healthcare and Emergency Response Planning Guide” is a great step in demonstrating to potential employers your dedication to the healthcare field. In addition, Health Ed Solutions, a leading provider of online certification for healthcare professionals and emergency responders, offers valuable information related to the healthcare field at www.healthedsolutions.com. The certification provider also offers PALS, BLS and ACLS online training for individuals seeking to excel within their career.