If you’ve seen any popular medical TV show—you know, like “Scrubs,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “The Mindy Project,” etc.—then you’re already wildly familiar with physicians and nurses. But have you ever stopped to consider what other background characters play a real-life role in medical care?
Vital members to the medical community, these behind-the-scenes medical players have taken the spotlight to show you what they’re all about. Ready or not, here come allied health travelers.
“Allied health professionals” is a fancy term for medical workers who don’t quite fit under the typical doctor and nurse umbrella. These medical travelers are responsible for assessing, diagnosing, treating, discharging, and/or referring patients to alternative services, as well as teaching, training, and mentoring fellow clinicians, med students, patients, and other caregivers.
Within the past few years, the demand for allied medical travelers has skyrocketed in the U.S., which has resulted in a shortage of specialized medical professionals. There are three main causes to the unbalance:
Since most Americans are now living to the age of 78 or older, the elderly population remains stagnant, and provides an influx in patients requiring allied health services. Plus, more good news—deaths from various cancers have dropped and more and more people live to tell the tale of their chronic illnesses or other medical conditions like strokes and seizures.
Not only are we staying alive longer, but we’re also living smarter. Extraordinary technical advancements have completely redefined medical processes and procedures to make things easier on you, you sweet medical worker, you. For example, you might be familiar with electronic medical records (EMRs), online patient portals, or even robotic surgery—these are all impressive healthcare technology advancements that improve caretaker mobility, ease of access to sensitive health information, plus increases overall access to medical attention.
The Association of American Medical Colleges estimates a scarcity of doctors, including primary and specialty care physicians, within the next 10 years. With a nationwide shortage of physicians inevitably comes an intensified need for physician’s assistants (PAs).
While medical professionals predict an insufficient number of medical doctors in the field, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) expects all allied health professions to grow by 18 percent over the next 5 years, which is significantly larger than the average 7 percent growth rate. In fact, allied health is on track to more than double the growth of all other occupations, so now’s the perfect time to take the leap!
Allied medical travelers come in all kinds of shapes and sizes—cardiopulmonary experts, travel therapy workers, laboratory technicians, radiologists, and believe it or not, even more! Seriously, there’s a ton of allied medical career options, it’s almost hard to keep track. So, to help, peep this handy dandy list of the hottest allied medical traveler careers:
Certified occupational therapy assistant (COTA). What is Batman without his Robin? Or Timon without his Pumbaa? Just like Thor and his hammer, occupational therapy (OT) travelers need an extra boost every now and then, and that’s where COTAs come in! COTAs work alongside OTs to help patients relearn and master tasks of daily living. Within the next few years, the BLS forecasts a whopping 31 percent growth in this medical field—holy smokes, Batman! Find out what it takes to be an occupational therapy professional and live your best allied health life improving the lives of others.There are dozens of other allied health career paths to choose from outside of this brief list, but as different as allied jobs are, they all have one thing in common—a passion for people.
Fusion and allied health sitting on a plane T-R-A-V-E-L-I-N-G. First comes the job, then comes adventure, and then come the benefits that you’ve always wanted.
It goes without saying that Fusion Med Staffing + allied health professionals = a match made in Heaven. With a variety of allied health job opportunities located in destinations across the U.S., Fusion helps efficiently get you where you want to go, no matter your allied health division or specialty.
Fun fact: Fusion specializes in several traveling allied health fields, in addition to nursing, home health, and long-term care:
The travel process at Fusion Med Staffing is completely centered around you! Afterall, you are the backbone of our company. With an experienced recruiter, compliance specialist, clinical adviser, and others, your Fusion support team has your back every step of the way. Plus, you can’t beat the financial, insurance, and housing/travel perks that Fusion has to offer.
The struggle is real for the medical community as the demand for highly qualified allied health workers continues to climb. In addition to doctors and nurses, allied professionals work their tails off and wrack their brains to come up with a creative solution that will help patients better live the lives they’ve always dreamed of. The truth is, there is no healthcare without allied medical workers.