Bachelors Degree in Healthcare Management

By obtaining your bachelor's degree in healthcare management you are securing your future to work in one of the largest industries in the United States. This bachelor's program is ideal for students who are fresh out of high school as well as individuals who have experience in the healthcare industry and want to broaden their career horizons.

As with any other degree program, a student should first obtain their high school diploma (or the equivalent) before they can begin working towards their bachelor's degree. Once you have selected a higher learning institution that you want to attend, you will probably have to submit a copy of your ACT scores, a copy of your high school transcript, and a few letters of recommendation that will demonstrate your academic ability level. In a healthcare management degree, students will be completing course work related to public health, healthcare management, human resources, and healthcare law. For most colleges and universities, students who want to work in healthcare management pursue their degree program in a bachelor of science.

This course of study will have students learning specific concepts related to the healthcare field as well as from the business administration field. Specifically, students will be learning the knowledge and techniques that are used in the areas of financial management, business administration, human resource management, general management, accounting, and quality assurance. Keep in mind, as you are working to complete your course work you will be learning from a multi-discipline instructional approach. This learning approach addresses learning from law, psychology, ethics, physiology, management, and planning. Depending upon the post-secondary school you choose to attend, you will likely be required to successfully complete courses like: human resource management, ethics and law for administrators, issues in public health, managerial communications, healthcare delivery systems, health services organization and delivery, and issues and trends in the healthcare industry.

Once you have completed your program in healthcare management you will be able to seek employment as a healthcare manager, a hospital executive, a home healthcare administrator, a group practice executive, a healthcare consultant, or a public health planner. Keep in mind, since this is a growing field of study, additional job opportunities are continuing to be created. Therefore, this list of possible occupations is not complete. Thanks to recent technological advances, many students choose to pursue this degree program through an online learning format.

This allows students the opportunity to continue their education while functioning normally in their schedule. Generally speaking, students use videos, slideshows, recorded lectures, audio recordings, group discussions, and textbooks to complete their assignments. In a distance learning format, assignments are typically submitted in an online format. In your capacity as a healthcare manager, you will work to plan, direct, organize, and oversee the health care services of a hospital or a doctor's office. Being a manager of a hospital or a doctor's office is just as important as a restaurant having a manager to handle things.

Top Qualities to have in Healthcare Management

If you are serious about earning your Bachelor’s degree in healthcare management then you’ll also need to have the right attitude and qualities that are needed in the fast-paced healthcare field.

Understand Future – Good healthcare professionals understand what it takes to be a good manager and the ability to plan for the future. This could mean hiring and staffing needs or the ability to see growth in a particular area of your company.

Motivator – People want to follow a good leader. The #1 reason why people leave their job is because of poor motivation or the lack of respect they have for their leader. People want to be inspired at their job and as a healthcare manager you’ll need to be able to motivate your employees to work hard and get tasks done on-time without causing internal issues.

Business Focused – The healthcare industry is big business. As a manager your focus should always be on the bottom line numbers. Let the doctors and nurses worry about patient care but as a manager you need to be focused on the financial side of the business in order to grow the facility you work for.

People Skills – Without a doubt a manager needs a high level of people skills if he or she wishes to be successful. In the healthcare field it is all about communication. It is recommended during your Bachelor’s degree to take as many communication elective classes as you can the skills you learn will help you throughout your healthcare career.

Positive – No employee wants to work for someone that is always negative. Good managers are always positive to help motivate their staff.

Employee Growth – A main priority as a manager is the future growth of your employees. In the healthcare industry your employees are often attending school trying to move into a higher paying position. As their manager you need to foster growth within your team and encourage them to continue with their education.

Team Player – In manager you’ll have to deal with nurses, doctors, front office administrators and board of directors. Without a doubt you need to be a team player since so many different employees and management levels are involved.

Scheduling - Be a master scheduler. Learn how to schedule projects and keep your team on track as hospitals are extremely fast paced and without a good schedule your team will be lost.

What Makes a Good Healthcare Management School

Externship – One of the first areas to look into is where the school will want you to internship. Also find out if the internship or externship will be a hospital, clinic or doctor’s office. Sometimes student’s think they are going to land a really good externship at a hospital and gain tons of experience when in fact they are assigned a clinic.

Courses Covered – Does your Bachelor’s program cover both front and back end training? Make sure the school focuses on courses such as accounting, finance and management which are all important course you’ll need to take.

Reputation – Does the school you want to attend focs on healthcare management or healthcare related degrees? If the school doesn’t then perhaps you should keep looking for another school. You want the school to be experienced in teaching you about the career and it is hard if they have other non-healthcare related programs.

Student Support – Does the school offer student support? If so then what are their hours? Do they assist you after graduation with job leads and have connections in the industry that can help you land a job? Often the term “student support” gets thrown around and every school claims to have the best support in the industry and that it will be a piece of cake to get a job after graduation. Let me be the first to tell you that no school can promise you a job and that finding a job is 100% up to you after graduation, even if the school doesn’t help you out a little.