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Healthy Outlook For Healthcare Careers

By Kathie Hightower and Holly Scherer

Summer 2005

Nursing and healthcare always top the list of promising career fields for military spouses. It makes sense: Hospitals and medical offices are everywhere, even in rural areas, and growth prospects are bright.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, healthcare services accounted for almost 20 percent of all job growth from 1994 to 2005. Employment opportunities in the health services industry are projected to increase 28 percent through 2012, compared with 16 percent for all industries combined.

Many military spouses can personally testify to the availability of healthcare jobs. Coast Guard spouse Elaine Wilhelm-Hass is in nursing and nursing administration. During her 25 years of being married to the military, she has moved more than 15 times and has been able to find a job with each move – and each new job usually pays more than the previous one.

Army spouse Jennifer Apke says, "I've found it somewhat easy to find labor and delivery nursing jobs wherever I go because of the ongoing nursing shortage across the country."

Similar shortages apply to many other healthcare positions, from dieticians to dental hygienists to laboratory technicians.

You must remain flexible and open to new possibilities, as with most mobile career fields. You might find work with each move but perhaps not always the exact position or shift you prefer. Certification and continuing education requirements vary by state. The good news is that some states are trying to make things easier. Virginia, for example, has proposed legislation that would expedite licensure for military spouses who are nurses or nurse's aides.

You must always learn the ropes in each new work environment, of course. But that's true in any mobile career. And mobility brings some benefits.

Military Moves Mean Experience

"At first, I lamented that I'd always be the ‘new RN,' working all the weekends and holidays," admits Wilhelm-Hass. "But here's a secret! The new kid from out of state often is perceived as more clever or desirable than existing employees. I capitalized on that often."

"Knowing what I know now," she continues, "I'd have skipped my early pattern of lamenting and fearing the moving phase. Moving is a great opportunity for nurses!"

Like many of the other spouses we interviewed, Wilhelm-Hass took advantage of her moves to access a wider range of experiences, adding to her resume and marketability. She has worked as a staff RN, operating room manager, director of surgical and parent/child services at a hospital, and quality improvement director for a TRICARE region.

As you interview, position your constant mobility as a benefit to your new employer. Point out how you provide experience from a wide variety of hospitals and offices, bringing new ideas and innovations that already have been tested elsewhere. You bring a wide network of healthcare professionals from your previous experiences on whom you can call for resources, contacts and information. You offer the ability to adapt quickly to change, an important but not necessarily common skill in other employees.

The key is to turn what we often think is a liability – our constant moves – into a benefit, both to your new employer and to yourself.

Jennifer Apke is a midwife at the military hospital in Ft. Drum, N.Y., and she has worked in obstetrics (OB) at the very busy clinic at Ft. Campbell, Ky. "I have learned first-hand that military OB care is on the cutting edge of research findings and national standards," she says. "That's not the case in many civilian OB practices."

As Army spouse Anne Melia says, "Our moves opened opportunities that I may not have investigated had I remained a staff nurse in Pawtucket, R.I."

Expand Your Expertise

Your moves give you the perfect opportunity to keep expanding your expertise by proactively taking on new challenges. Apke chose to receive specialized training as a midwife. Wilhelm-Hass sought to expand her opportunities by obtaining a master's degree in nursing, then a master of business administration degree and certification in healthcare quality.

"One aspect that many healthcare professionals often overlook is the imperative to have computer skills," Wilhelm-Hass adds. "It is no longer sufficient to rely on your clinical skills, since medical records, specimen order entry and a host of other tasks are now computerized."

It is probably easiest to find work in traditional hospital care. The spouses we interviewed all found new positions easy to identify through newspaper want ads, hospital websites and networking with other healthcare professionals.

You need not limit yourself to hospitals, however. Healthcare training and experience can open up other options as well. Melia chose to make a change from ER nursing to allow more schedule flexibility. She worked first as a medical cost controller for an insurance company that handled workers' compensation claims. Five years later, her spouse was transferred to a state where that kind of work was unavailable. She took a job as a research RN for two years and has since worked on her own as an independent contractor monitoring research performed at hospitals, clinics and medical offices.

Similarly, Marine spouse Ginny Sattler has used her nursing and business degrees in a variety of positions from ICU staff nurse to pediatric ambulatory care office manager to school health nurse. Since 1990, she has worked for a risk management firm associated with an insurance company, working on defense of medical malpractice claims and providing risk management services to clients.

"Because the clients are all over the United States and much of the work is on the telephone, the job moves with me," she says. She also stresses the value of strong computer skills, key to the virtual nature of her position.

Knowing that she may not find a midwife position in every community where she moves, Apke believes she could "still find something in the field as a women's health nurse practitioner, a hospital maternity educator, a college nursing educator or a labor and delivery nurse."

Army spouse Kittie Elrod has worked mainly as a labor and delivery nurse. At one assignment, she was a clinical instructor for the maternal child nursing class at a university. Other potential opportunities in her field include work as a pharmaceutical sales representative for companies marketing to OB/GYN offices or as a community health nurse educator.

Dawn Berry is an Army spouse and registered dietician. She currently works as a renal dietitian but knows she can always pursue other dietary work at a hospital, nursing home, assisted living facility, fitness center or weight-loss clinic.

Another possibility involves temporary or project work, either locally or on the road. According to the Department of Labor, travel healthcare is growing faster than any other medical field. Medical recruiting firms place trained personnel anywhere in the nation on short notice for temporary and contract jobs, especially specialized nurses and technicians.

A temporary travel position probably is not an option for a spouse with children at home, especially during deployments. Yet it may prove an attractive – and lucrative – option for military spouses with no children or whose children have left the nest. Check www.HealthCareTraveler.com, www.TravelNursing.com or www.HealthJobsUSA.com for information.

The need for such companies underscores the generally rosy outlook for the entire healthcare profession.

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©2005, Kathie Hightower and Holly Scherer. Kathie and Holly write the "Married to the Military" column for the military Times newspapers. In future issues, they plan to explore careers in financial services, legal services, federal government, DoD contractors, network marketing and more. If you have questions or a story to share about these career fields, contact them at kathie@jumpintolife.net.

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