The Health Care Industry: Multi-Disciplinary Opportunities Leading to Careers in Health Care

Griffin, Michael, Diversity Employers

What is a typical day like for a health care executive? Gerard Michaels is one of the newest health care managers for one of the largest hospital networks in Austin, Texas. On any typical day, his calendar is filled with meetings with physicians and health care executives. He has to read and respond to 20 E-mail and voicemail messages from the previous evening, study ten new health care projects requiring information from him, oversee the daily operation of his own department, and report in writing on strategic planning for two proposed facilities.

Michael has a college degree in multi-disciplinary health care programming. This specialty is usually a part of a public health program. Most students think of public health programs as one strictly for doctors and nurses. But it is really one of the most dynamic and expansive fields with a wide range of multi-disciplinary opportunities leading to careers in health care. Michael himself has two years of graduate study, a one-year administrative fellowship, and participation in seven national health care educational conferences. He acquired his present position after networking with a hundred health care administrators, mailing over 200 resumes and five interviews. He is now one of a handful of African Americans in health care management. His organization has 5,000 health care employees.

Although health care is a multibillion dollar industry, and African Americans constitute a major patient population for many of the country's 5,500 health care facilities, only 16% of the nation's five million hospital workers are Black. Nevertheless, the viability of a career in health care for African Americans hinges on their ability to continuously elevate their skills and adjust to the daily mutations of a field that changes more rapidly than any other.

Trends of the Market

According to the …

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Publication information: Article title: The Health Care Industry: Multi-Disciplinary Opportunities Leading to Careers in Health Care. Contributors: Griffin, Michael - Author. Magazine title: Diversity Employers. Volume: 28. Issue: 2 Publication date: February 1998. Page number: 125+. © 1998 IMDiversity, Inc. COPYRIGHT 1998 Gale Group.

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