General Career Information
Evolving Opportunities

Although acute-care facilities remain a major employer of health professionals, a growing number of job opportunities are emerging outside hospital walls rather than within them.

The job market for health workers has shifted to reflect a new model of healthcare delivery in the country, experts say. "Much of the way managed-care plans cut costs is by moving services out of the hospital and into other settings. Clearly health professionals' jobs have followed [this trend]," says Larry Levitt, an expert on the changing healthcare marketplace for the Kaiser Family Foundation in Menlo Park, California.

A patient who would have been hospitalized for surgery or an illness in the past may now receive care in an outpatient clinic, his physician's office or at home instead. If he does receive care in the hospital, he may be released after a very short stay.

Cost cutting is only one reason there are fewer patients in the hospital, Levitt says. New technology and better prescription drugs also help patients avoid the hospital, explains Levitt. For example, patients can undergo surgery and return home the same day, thanks to a type of anesthesia that wears off quickly; and patients with chronic illnesses are able to stay healthy and out of the hospital because of new drugs, he points out.

The healthcare system has made the transition from "hospital centric" to a "very positive continuum of care" that runs the gamut from prevention of illness to rehabilitation to long-term care, says Annette Vallano, RN, MS, CS, NP, author of Careers in Nursing: Manage Your Future in the Changing World of Healthcare and founder of the Self Care Center for Nurses in New York City. "Acute-care hospitals are only part of the continuum of care," she says.

Even if patients don't spend much time in the hospital these days, they still need healthcare services, Vallano says. "Nobody downsized accidents, illnesses, births and deaths," she says. "Healthcare is a growth industry. The need for skilled healthcare services will increase even though the venue of care is changing," she says.