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New Career Opportunities in Healthcare Management

Dr. Sudhir Rana, Associate Professor, Program Director, College of Healthcare Management and Economics at Gulf Medical University, talks about the rising demand for healthcare management programme

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One of the prominent questions that every student should ask before enrolling in any course is whether it is relevant to their career or only to their first job? We often observe that students remain confused about choosing the course to balance their careers and job opportunities. Therefore, it is always important to choose a course that offers both multi- and cross-discipline opportunities. Healthcare management education is a combination of medical science with business and management orientation. The recent experience of Covid-19 made us realise that ‘health is wealth’. If you see this phrase together or as separate words, you will find that to have a balanced approach towards life, the basic requirements in today's life are ‘good health’ and ‘good wealth’.

The question may arise as to what exactly healthcare management education is and what skills are needed to have a career in this field. The landscape of healthcare education has progressed significantly, especially in the last decade. The scope of healthcare education is not limited to the medical field today. Candidates who are equipped with multiple skills and can work across the departments and disciplines are given priority. Hence, the need for a multi-skilled workforce and a special focus on ‘business and management skills’, have resulted in the collaboration between medical, business management, social science, tourism, and economics. Therefore, this is denoted as a cross- and multi-disciplined education. Undoubtedly, this field offers more scope to the students, who are interested in exploring career options across the industries. The candidates who aspired for leadership, higher management positions (such as CEOs, COOs, CXOs) and are team players, empathetic, critical and design thinkers are most suitable. However, all these skills can be crafted, developed or improved over a period of time. Therefore, don’t be scared or give up if you don’t have or have not tried and tested these skills. The world of healthcare management is still open for you.

As far as the scope of education is concerned, almost every country has realised the need for healthcare facilities in their nation. Therefore, the courses related to healthcare management are going to be most in demand, compared to others. The involvement of regulatory frameworks, accreditations and quality standards in the healthcare industry have raised the needs of professionals in these fields. However, there are many options available in healthcare management education related to short and long-term programmes. But being an education enthusiast, my advice is to balance your job and career. Therefore, an undergraduate and postgraduate course carries more weight. However, short-term courses can be helpful as cherry on the cake for improving the skills. No doubt, this field offers an accelerated and safe career option at a low cost.

For more information regarding the programmes, visit www.gmu.ac.ae