What Do Environmental Health Workers Do? Environmental health workers are responsible for carrying out measures for protecting public health, including administering and enforcing legislation related to environmental health and providing support to minimize health and safety hazards. Common duties of environmental health workers include collecting samples of water, soil, waste and animal matter; transporting and documenting samples; verifying code and regulatory compliance; investigating complaints; preparing and maintaining records; and other duties …Read More
Health Care Administrators and Medical and Health Services Managers
What Do Health Care Administrators and Medical and Health Services Managers Do? While healthcare administrators and healthcare managers share similar responsibilities, they do perform different tasks. Healthcare administrators oversee the staff of a medical facility. They may supervise and manage one department or the whole facility depending on the need and availability of administrators. Responsible for staffing and financial aspects of the medical facility in which they work, healthcare administrators …Read More
Health Educators
What Do Health Educators Do? Health educators teach people about behaviors that promote wellness and encourage people to make healthy decisions. Health educators promote and improve individuals’ and community health by identifying disease risk behaviors and developing programs that help people adopt and maintain healthy behaviors. Program development may include collecting and analyzing data to determine the scope of problems and the community needs prior to planning, implementing, monitoring, and evaluating programs and campaigns …Read More
Home Health Aides
What Do Home Health Aides Do? Home health aides work in the homes of people who need assistance in caring for themselves. They often help people who are disabled, chronically ill, or cognitively impaired. They also help older adults who may need assistance or people recovering from an illness who may live alone or need more assistance than their families can provide. Home health aides usually work under the supervision of …Read More
Horticultural Therapists
What Do Horticultural Therapists Do? Horticultural therapy (HT) integrates therapy with gardening for the purpose of physical and mental rehabilitation. Horticultural therapists work with a wide variety of patient diagnoses, such as physical or emotional trauma, and people with mental illness, and with many different populations, from children to teenagers and adults to the elderly. Horticultural therapists evaluate the physical and mental disabilities of patients and tailor programs to promote physical therapy, education, …Read More
Licensed Practical Nurses
What Do Licensed Practical Nurses Do? Licensed practical nurses (LPNs) are health professionals who work under the supervision of a registered nurse (RN) or a physician and provide basic patient care. Their duties may include: Taking vital signs, monitoring patients’ health, and keeping records about patients’ health; Administering medications, changing bandages, and other basic nursing care; Carrying out prescribed medical and nursing treatments; Educating patients and listening to their concerns and …Read More
Massage Therapists
What Do Massage Therapists Do? Massage therapists use their hands to manipulate and work a client’s muscles and soft body tissues. There are many different types of massage therapies, called modalities, such as Swedish massage, reflexology, acupressure, sports massage, reiki, and neuromuscular massage. Most massage therapists specialize in several modalities, which require different techniques. Massage therapy can offer medical benefits by helping to rehabilitate injuries and be part of a healing process by …Read More
Medical and Clinical Laboratory Technologists and Technicians
What Do Medical and Clinical Laboratory Technologists and Technicians Do? Medical and clinical laboratory technologists and technicians collect samples and perform tests to analyze body fluids, tissue, and other substances. Medical and clinical laboratory technologists and technicians have different job responsibilities: technologists perform more complex tests and procedures than do technicians, and they typically supervise technicians. Medical and clinical laboratory technologists examine blood and other body fluids, analyze samples for chemical …Read More
Medical Assistants
What Do Medical Assistants Do? Medical assistants perform administrative and clinical tasks to keep the offices of physicians, podiatrists, chiropractors, and other health practitioners running smoothly. Medical assistants aid office staff and health care practitioners in daily operations. Administrative duties include answering telephones, scheduling appointments, greeting patients, updating and filing patient medical records, arranging for hospital admissions, and some billing and bookkeeping tasks. Clinical duties vary according to what is …Read More
Medical Billers
What Do Medical Billers Do? Medical billers calculate health care provider charges, develop bills, and prepare them to be mailed to patients. By reviewing medical and hospital records and making or verifying calculations, they ensure that even the most complicated bills are accurate. Medical billers are responsible for timely submission of medical claims to insurance companies. Medical billers most often work with electronic billing systems and are responsible to make …Read More
Medical Coders
What Do Medical Coders Do? Medical coders are health information technicians who assign codes used for the billing and reimbursement of health services. These codes describe both the diagnosis of the patient and the services rendered by the health care provider. Codes may differ depending on whether the medical coder works in a hospital or clinic and the type of services provided. These coding sets are revised on a regular …Read More
Medical Records and Health Information Technicians
What Do Medical Records and Health Information Technicians Do? Medical records and health information technicians compile, process, organize, and maintain health information data and medical records of hospital and clinic patients in a manner consistent with medical, administrative, ethical, legal, and regulatory requirements of the health care system. They ensure that health information data is complete, accurate, and secure in both paper and electronic systems. They use various classification systems to code …Read More
Midwives
What Do Midwives Do? Midwives are health care professionals who provide primary and preventive reproductive health care to women: first exams, pre-conception counseling, gynecological exams, and family planning advice. Midwives also manage pregnancies, deliver babies, and provide prenatal and postpartum care to women and their infants. Midwives also perform newborn evaluation and resuscitation, if necessary, and refer infants for further assessment or treatment at the time of delivery. The scope of practice …Read More
Nuclear Medicine Technologists
What Do Nuclear Medicine Technologists Do? Nuclear medicine technologists (NMTs) use a scanner to create images of various areas of a patient’s body. They prepare radioactive drugs and administer them to patients and then monitor the characteristics and functions of tissues or organs in which the drugs localize. The radioactive drugs cause abnormal areas of the body to appear different from normal areas in the images. The particular drugs NMTs are …Read More
Nurse Practitioners
What Do Nurse Practitioners Do? Nurse practitioners (NPs) are registered nurses (RNs) with advanced training in a practice specialty. NPs specialize in areas such as acute care, adult health, women’s health, family health, school health, community health, oncology, gerontology, psychiatry, geriatrics, pediatrics, palliative care, mental health, and others. NPs serve as primary and specialty care providers, providing a blend of nursing and health care services to patients and families. NPs …Read More
Nursing Assistants
What Do Nursing Assistants Do? Nursing assistants provide basic patient care under the supervision of a registered nurse, licensed practical nurse, or other medical staff. Nursing assistants may take and record a patient’s temperature, pulse, and blood pressure; assist patients with activities of daily living, such as feeding, bathing, dressing, and toileting; help patients to get in and out of bed; and assist with nursing procedures. They also answer calls for assistance and help, …Read More
Occupational Therapists
What Do Occupational Therapists Do? Occupational therapists (OTs) treat patients with injuries, illnesses, or disabilities through the therapeutic use of everyday activities. They help people with chronic or new disabilities develop, recover, and improve the skills needed for daily living and working, and help patients learn or regain the skills they need to live as independently as possible and have productive, satsifying lives. OTs help patients improve their ability to perform …Read More
Occupational Therapy Assistants
What Do Occupational Therapy Assistants Do? Occupational therapy assistants (OTAs) work under the direction of occupational therapists to provide rehabilitative services to patients with physical, emotional, or developmental impairments. They help patients develop, recover, and improve the skills needed for daily living and working through the therapeutic use of everyday activities. Following a treatment plan developed by an occupational therapist, OTAs may assist patients with activities and exercises designed to …Read More
Ophthalmologists
What Do Ophthalmologists Do? Ophthalmologists are medical doctors who specialize in eye and vision care and function, including diagnosing and treating eye diseases and injuries. Eye M.D.s, as ophthalmologists are often called, are specially trained to provide the full spectrum of eye care, from prescribing corrective glasses and contact lenses and medications, to performing complex and delicate surgical procedures of the eye, including laser eye surgery, to prevent the occurrence …Read More
Opticians
What Do Opticians Do? Opticians design, measure, fit, and adapt eyeglasses, frames, and contact lenses for clients according to prescriptions from ophthalmologists or optometrists. Opticians measure a client’s eyes, including the distance between the centers of the pupils and between the eye surface and a lens to determine the best fit for each individual. Opticians use a range of factors to determine and recommend frames and lenses for a client, …Read More
Optometrists
What Do Optometrists Do? Optometrists, also known as doctors of optometry, or ODs, are health care professionals who specialize in vision and eye care, but are not medical doctors. They examine people’s eyes to diagnose vision problems, such as nearsightedness and farsightedness, and they test patients’ depth and color perception and ability to focus and coordinate the eyes. Optometrists may prescribe eyeglasses or contact lenses, or they may prescribe or …Read More
Patient Care Coordinators
What Do Patient Care Coordinators Do? Patient care coordinators facilitate communication between patients, family members, medical staff, administrative staff, social service organizations, and other health care providers. They assess the person’s physical, social, psychological, and financial needs. They are often the first contact for provision of information to the patient or physician on behalf of attending physicians. Patient care coordinators may also explain policies, procedures, or services to patients using medical …Read More
Patient Care Technicians/Associates
What Do Patient Care Technicians/Associates Do? Patient care technicians or associates (PCTs or PCAs) provide various aspects of patient care under the direct supervision of a registered nurse (RN) or doctor. They provide communication, comfort, and safety for the patient and typically have more clinical responsibility and technical skills than nursing aides. They assist patients with walking, bathing, eating, dressing, and getting in and out of beds, wheelchairs, and stretchers. …Read More
Perfusionists
What Do Perfusionists Do? Perfusionists are skilled allied health professionals. They use medical technology to sustain the heart, lungs, circulatory, and respiratory functions of the body during surgery. Specifically, perfusionists operate a heart-lung (or cardiopulmonary bypass) machine that keeps oxygenated blood flowing throughout the body during surgery, and they also monitor blood circulation. If a patient requires additional blood products or medications during the procedure, the perfusionist can administer these …Read More
Pharmacists
What Do Pharmacists Do? Pharmacists are licensed health care professionals who distribute prescription drugs. As specialists in the use and clinical effects of drugs, they also advise patients, as well as physicians and other health practitioners, on the selection, dosages, interactions, and side effects of medications. Pharmacists monitor the health and progress of patients to ensure the safe and effective use of medication. They are responsible for making sure medications …Read More