Some healthcare careers, such as nursing, provide a straight path up the career ladder. You may start as a certified nursing assistant and continue studying to become a licensed practical nurse, registered nurse, nurse practitioner and doctor of nursing practice.

For most other healthcare careers, the climb looks more like a jungle gym. For instance, you can't earn an associate's degree to become a physical therapist's assistant and take a few more classes to become a physical therapist. (PTs need a doctorate.) The same goes for laboratory jobs. You can't earn a two-year degree to become a histology technician or a cytotechnology technician, and add on two more years to become a clinical laboratory scientist, says Laura Beeth, director of talent acquisition for Fairview Health Services (www.fairview.org).

Accreditation is key

However, if you know you want to get a two-year degree and return to school later for a bachelor's, make sure your two-year school is accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, one of six regional accrediting organizations recognized by the U.S. Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation. Without that accreditation, your credits may not be accepted by your next school.

"We have people coming to us who think they're part of the way toward a baccalaureate and they're not," explains Greg Steenson, associate dean of admissions at the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul (www.stkate.edu). "They've wasted time and money."

Credits should transfer

Those with two-year degrees from accredited institutions easily transfer their credits into St. Catherine's Weekend College, where radiation technicians, sonographers and occupational therapy assistants, among others, continue on toward a healthcare management degree, for example.

"The paths people choose are really all over the map," Steenson says. "The main lesson is to ask lots of questions and ask them early."

"People want specific answers and there are not any specific answers. We have to counsel people individually," adds Beeth, who belongs to the executive alliance of HealthForce Minnesota, one of four industry Centers of Excellence appointed by Gov. Tim Pawlenty to improve Minnesota's workforce.

State gets involved

St. Paul College, in partnership with Winona State University, HealthForce Minnesota, Allina and the University of Minnesota won a $3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor to streamline the path from laboratory technician to clinical laboratory scientist, according to Executive Director Jane Foote. Eighty to 90 percent of patients use the services of laboratory personnel for diagnoses, and there is a shortage of qualified lab personnel to run those tests, Foote explains.

"The vision of the grant is to increase the number of people with two-year lab credentials and create an online program for attaining the four-year degree," she says. "It's increasing capacity across the pathway for lab science and increasing the ease by which students can access both those types of programs."