Career Ladders Need Solid Foundation

To move ahead in your own career, you may need to understand changes that are shaping the future of healthcare as a whole. Staying alert to health care reform, changes in technology and the economy are among the foundations for your professional success.

By Laura French, Star Tribune Sales and Marketing

Last update: June 30, 2009 - 10:51 PM

In the past, moving ahead in a healthcare career required you to focus on the steps in your own specialty's career ladder. These days, according to Dr. Noel Peterson, president of the Minnesota Medical Association, planning for the future requires a broader picture. You need to stay in touch with changes in government, technology and business that can have a direct impact on your professional future.

Currently, Peterson says, There are many factors now that seem to indicate that healthcare reform will actually occur. Those reforms, Peterson says, will make an impact on healthcare professions across the board, increasing demand in some areas and possibly decreasing demand in other areas.

Move Toward Preventive Care

For the long haul, Peterson says, positioning yourself to specialize in preventive care or wellness might make it easier to advance your career. Traditionally, the focus has been treating acute illnesses and managing chronic illnesses. Instead, he says, there will be stronger incentives for management strategies that keep people from getting sick, and that help patients with chronic illnesses, like diabetes, to prevent secondary problems, like loss of sight or kidney function.

In addition, Peterson says, all health care professionals need to support their professional associations, which help shape their discipline's responses to healthcare reform. The issues are very complex and constantly changing. It takes people who carefully review and understand the possibilities the future may hold, he says.

More Technology

Fortunately, Peterson says, most medical professionals are already lifelong learners, accustomed to the idea of continuing education to stay up on new developments. From now on, however, it will be important to stay current not only in medicine but also in technology. If you are not computer literate, getting a job in healthcare will be difficult, Peterson says. In his practice as an urologist at Olmsted Medical Center in Rochester, he no longer has CT films sent to his office. Instead, he says, Now I go to my computer to view the films. I'm old enough that it's been a change, but the new system is far better than what we had before.

The impact of economic factors on healthcare institutions is already apparent. Peterson says that in future years, there could be dramatic changes in the distribution of healthcare services. In the next couple of decades, with the movement toward more preventive care, will there be a gradual movement to more people in primary care and fewer in subspecialty services? he wonders. Will specialties like bypass surgery be done only at a few `centers of excellence?'

Flexibility Is Key

At this point, the exact shape of the future of healthcare is impossible to determine. It is safe to say that successfully shaping a health care career will require being tuned in to changes as they occur.

For every health care profession, Dr. Peterson says, the new motto is: Semper Gumby - Always Flexible.

Laura French is principal of Words Into Action, Inc., and is a freelance writer from Roseville.

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