What Can I Do with a Health Science Degree?

Key Infor­ma­tion:

• A health sci­ence degree opens doors to var­i­ous fields such as phys­i­cal ther­a­py, med­ical sonog­ra­phy, health edu­ca­tion, and more.
• Depend­ing on the career, require­ments can range from short-term cer­tifi­cates to advanced degrees.
• Many pro­grams offer spe­cial­iza­tions in areas like health­care admin­is­tra­tion, emer­gency man­age­ment, or geron­tol­ogy.

Careers with a health sci­ence degree vary wide­ly, and there are too many to list. How­ev­er, it’s pos­si­ble to look at the sam­pling of careers with a health sci­ence degree to get a bet­ter idea of what to do with a degree in health sci­ences. If you want to know what to do with a health sci­ence degree, look no further.

A degree in health sci­ence careers could be applied to numer­ous health pro­fes­sions, such as phys­i­cal ther­a­py, occu­pa­tion­al ther­a­py, or oth­er forms of med­i­cine. Some careers with a degree in health sci­ence require a two-year degree such as a den­tal hygien­ist while oth­er health sci­ence degree careers require a master’s degree or beyond.

For those won­der­ing what can you do with a health sci­ence degree, here are a few bach­e­lor of health sci­ence jobs to consider:

• Behav­ior analyst
• Patient care advocate
• Doc­tor
• Hear­ing aid specialist
• Reg­is­tered med­ical sonographer
• Phar­ma­cy sales representative
• Health edu­ca­tor
• Reg­is­tered radi­o­log­ic technologist
• Com­mu­ni­ty health worker
• Men­tal health counselor
• Reg­is­tered dietitian
• Phys­i­cal or occu­pa­tion­al therapist
• Research assis­tant or associate

Keep in mind that many degree in health sci­ence careers require a cer­ti­fi­ca­tion or licensing.

Careers with a degree in health sci­ence con­sist of two main types, as follows:

• Health sci­ence degree careers at the entry-lev­el. Get­ting a two-year degree or cer­ti­fi­ca­tion can help you hone in on what job oppor­tu­ni­ties most appeal to you. These degrees allow you to begin work­ing and keep your options open for fur­ther education.
• Careers that require a Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence in Health Sci­ence. Some fields require spe­cial­iza­tion such as pre-phar­ma­cy, pre-occu­pa­tion­al ther­a­py or pre-phys­i­cal ther­a­py. Choos­ing these paths allows you to pre­pare for health sci­ence major jobs or grad­u­ate school.

Accreditation for Health Science Degree Programs

The best col­lege for health sci­ence should include an insti­tu­tion with the prop­er region­al and nation­al accred­i­ta­tion. Rep­utable col­leges with health sci­ence major pro­grams take the nec­es­sary steps to prove their aca­d­e­m­ic rig­or by going through the accred­i­ta­tion process. When stu­dents choose the best col­lege for health sci­ence, nation­al and region­al accred­i­ta­tion should be one of the pri­ma­ry fac­tors for their selec­tion. Let’s take a clos­er look at the accred­i­ta­tion process for col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties, includ­ing col­leges with health sci­ence major programs.

The Com­mis­sion on Accred­i­ta­tion of Allied Health Edu­ca­tion Pro­grams is an accred­i­ta­tion body spe­cif­ic to Health Sci­ences. CAAHEP has a com­mit­tee on accred­i­ta­tion that reviews the cre­den­tials of more than 2,100 pro­grams in 32 fields. When con­sid­er­ing health sci­ence online degrees, stu­dents should deter­mine whether each goal has a CAAHEP accred­i­ta­tion. There are many health sci­ences degree online and on-cam­pus options. How­ev­er, stu­dents can imme­di­ate­ly rule out health sci­ence degrees online schools with­out the right credentials.

CAAHEP is one of the largest accred­i­tors for health sci­ences and it eval­u­ates online degree in health sci­ence pro­grams for pro­gram con­tent and qual­i­ty. Once they obtain accred­i­ta­tion, col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties can­not rest on their lau­rels. Instead, they sub­mit to an ongo­ing eval­u­a­tion to ensure they keep up with stan­dards and guide­lines demand­ed by each pro­fes­sion. CAAHEP belongs to the Asso­ci­a­tion of Spe­cial­ized & Pro­fes­sion­al Accred­i­tors (ASPA).

Besides CAAHEP accred­i­ta­tion, the Coun­cil for High­er Edu­ca­tion Accred­i­ta­tion (CHEA) rec­og­nizes oth­er region­al or nation­al accreditations.

Regional vs. National Accreditation

Pri­or to select­ing an online bachelor’s in health sci­ence, stu­dents need to under­stand the dif­fer­ence between region­al and nation­al accred­i­ta­tion. Both are impor­tant but they are two dif­fer­ent cri­te­ria that may be applied to the qual­i­ty of a bach­e­lor of health sci­ences online.

Region­al Accred­i­ta­tion is the main accred­i­ta­tion type for col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties in the Unit­ed States. Many online bach­e­lors of health sci­ence degree pro­grams and 85% of all col­leges have region­al accred­i­ta­tion rec­og­nized by the US Depart­ment of Edu­ca­tion. These health sci­ence bach­e­lor degrees have under­gone rig­or­ous test­ing to ensure they meet the stan­dards expect­ed of insti­tu­tions of high­er learn­ing. Grad schools and future employ­ers care about region­al accred­i­ta­tion and stu­dents may not get finan­cial aid if they choose a pro­gram that has not received the prop­er accreditation.

Region­al­ly accred­it­ed schools are non­prof­it or state-owned and fall under one of the six agen­cies that over­see the accred­i­ta­tion process in their region:

• New Eng­land Asso­ci­a­tion of Schools and Colleges
• Mid­dle States Com­mis­sion on High­er Education
• North­west Com­mis­sion on Col­leges and Universities
• South­ern Asso­ci­a­tion of Col­leges and Schools
• High­er Learn­ing Commission
• West­ern Asso­ci­a­tion of Schools and Colleges

Schools with nation­al accred­i­ta­tion focus on voca­tion­al and trade degrees. Some health sci­ence degrees fall under this cat­e­go­ry, includ­ing online degree in health sci­ence pro­grams. Nation­al accred­i­ta­tion takes place every three to five years instead of every 18 months to three years as per region­al accred­i­ta­tion. CAAHEP is an exam­ple of a nation­al accred­i­ta­tion agency for online bach­e­lor of health sci­ence degrees. There are many agen­cies that eval­u­ate spe­cif­ic pro­grams such as an online bachelor’s degree in health sci­ence. Where­as nation­al accred­i­ta­tion applies to the entire col­lege or uni­ver­si­ty, region­al accred­i­ta­tion applies to spe­cif­ic pro­grams. Many region­al agen­cies are rec­og­nized by the US Depart­ment of Edu­ca­tion, but they don’t have geo­graph­ic limitations.

Types of Health Science Degrees

Health sci­ence degrees are ver­sa­tile and give stu­dents a chance to choose a broad­er degree or spe­cial­ize in their area of inter­est. Health sci­ence bach­e­lor degrees often involve tak­ing cours­es in inter­dis­ci­pli­nary pro­grams. Stu­dents study ani­mal and human health from a vari­ety of per­spec­tives. For peo­ple, this includes men­tal health and relat­ed dis­ci­plines such as psy­chol­o­gy and counseling.

Like many oth­er fields of study, health sci­ence online degrees give stu­dents a chance to choose which spe­cial­iza­tion they wish to go into. Most health sci­ence degrees fall with­in the bac­calau­re­ate lev­el with options to spe­cial­ize fur­ther with a master’s degree. How­ev­er, there are also many oppor­tu­ni­ties for those who wish to pur­sue an associate’s health sci­ences degree online.

Health sci­ence degrees online pro­vide stu­dents with foun­da­tion­al skills to ful­fill var­i­ous roles in health­care. Some stu­dents go on to receive cer­tifi­cates in areas of Health Sci­ence to deep­en their knowl­edge and enhance their prac­tice. Some schools spe­cial­ize in par­tic­u­lar nich­es. This is a good thing to research before choos­ing a school for an online bachelor’s in health science.

With a bach­e­lor of health sci­ences online, stu­dents can often choose between a more gen­er­al degree or imme­di­ate­ly choose a spe­cial­ized degree for par­tic­u­lar job roles. With an online bach­e­lor of health sci­ence degree, stu­dents already work­ing in health care or oth­er fields can pur­sue their career, bring home a pay­check, and meet fam­i­ly oblig­a­tions, all while attain­ing their degree.

Broad-based online bachelor’s degree in health sci­ence pro­grams pre­pare stu­dents to work in a vari­ety of set­tings. This gives grad­u­ates flex­i­bil­i­ty when it comes to choos­ing between con­tin­u­ing their edu­ca­tion and pur­su­ing jobs in healthcare.

Oth­er online bach­e­lors of health sci­ence degree pro­grams require stu­dents to spe­cial­ize and fol­low a tighter career path. This is the way to go for those who already know what they want to do and want to take the short­est route to get their education.

What can you do with a bach­e­lor’s in health sci­ence? Areas of spe­cial­iza­tion may include the following:

• Radi­og­ra­phy Advanced Patient Care
• Pre-Phar­ma­cy
• Nuclear Med­i­cine
• Pre-Physi­cian Assistant
• Diag­nos­tic Med­ical Sonogr
• Com­put­er Tomography
• Fam­i­ly Dynamics
• Pre-Phys­i­cal Therapy
• Bio­med­ical Sciences
• Clin­i­cal Research Administration
• Post-PTA
• Health Care Quality
• Trau­ma
• MRI
• Glob­al Health
• Health­care Informatics
• Reg­u­la­to­ry Affairs
• Aging Stud­ies
• Health­care Administration
• Child Health

Certifications/Licenses for Health Science Professionals

Health sci­ence cer­ti­fi­ca­tions are use­ful for stu­dents who want to change careers to health sci­ences or to health sci­ence pro­fes­sion­als who want to deep­en their knowl­edge in a par­tic­u­lar area.

Stu­dents can choose from a vari­ety of health sci­ence cer­ti­fi­ca­tions. Some employ­ers require cer­tain pro­grams or tracks as a con­di­tion of employ­ment. There are myr­i­ad health sci­ences cer­tifi­cate pro­grams avail­able. Stu­dents can meet with advi­sors or talk with a men­tor regard­ing the best career path for par­tic­u­lar health sci­ences jobs.

Choos­ing a health sci­ence cer­tifi­cate online allow stu­dents to get their degree from the com­fort and secu­ri­ty of home.

The Nation­al Health Sci­ence Cer­tifi­cate (NHSC) is one of the major cer­tifi­cate pro­grams avail­able to health sci­ence pro­fes­sion­als. The cer­tifi­cate offers for cumu­la­tive cer­tifi­cates includ­ing the following:

• Foun­da­tion of Health­care Professions
• Essen­tials of Health­care Practices
• Human Struc­ture, Func­tion and Dis­ease A & B

Stu­dents who obtained their NHSC have proven their com­mit­ment to improv­ing the Health Sci­ence field. These cer­tifi­cate hold­ers emerge from their pro­gram pre­pared to meet the needs of their patients and employers.

This cer­tifi­cate pro­gram aligns with the expec­ta­tions of the Nation­al Health Sci­ence Stan­dards. Stu­dents who obtain this cer­ti­fi­ca­tion often go on to lead­er­ship posi­tions that move the field forward.

Cer­ti­fi­ca­tions are also a great way to brush up on cer­tain prac­tice areas. Stu­dents who want to change jobs with­in the health sci­ences field often take cer­ti­fi­ca­tions to boost their resume and to gain knowl­edge that will open oth­er job roles to them.

Careers in Health Science

What job can you get with a health sci­ence degree? Jobs with a health sci­ence degree range from becom­ing a den­tal hygien­ist to a phys­i­cal ther­a­pist assis­tant. Health sci­ence bach­e­lor degree jobs include cer­tifi­cates and bachelor’s degrees that lead to jobs in ani­mal or human health care. Some bach­e­lor degree in health sci­ence jobs involve men­tal health treat­ment pro­fes­sion­als such as psychologists.

Many peo­ple start careers in the health­care sys­tem with an asso­ciate degree, but the health­care field is large. Med­ical pro­fes­sion­als in health­care jobs often need a grad­u­ate degree, licen­sure, and course­work in a specialty.

What jobs can you get with health sci­ence degree? Some bach­e­lor of health sci­ence degree jobs are entry-lev­el posi­tions that allow stu­dents to get their foot in the door in var­i­ous clin­i­cal or oth­er work set­tings. There are non-clin­i­cal health sci­ences bach­e­lor degree jobs for those want to help peo­ple but do not want to work in a hos­pi­tal or tra­di­tion­al health­care set­ting. Jobs with a bach­e­lor of health sci­ence degree exist in near­ly every sec­tor of health­care. How­ev­er, some grad­u­ates go on to work for insur­ance com­pa­nies and oth­er com­mer­cial sec­tor employers.

What job can you get with a health sci­ence degree? Stu­dents pur­su­ing jobs you can get with a health sci­ence degree can choose from tra­di­tion­al col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties where they take class­es on cam­pus or online degrees. Jobs you can get with a health sci­ences degree often depend on what area of the coun­try you work in and your expe­ri­ence and cre­den­tials, includ­ing your per­for­mance in school.

What jobs can a health sci­ence degree get? Jobs for a health sci­ence degree have com­pet­i­tive pay rates and many major in health sci­ence jobs allowed stu­dents to help peo­ple with their med­ical and oth­er needs. Jobs for a health sci­ence major include car­ing for elder­ly cit­i­zens and children.

What can you do with a health sci­ence major? Many health sci­ence majors careers require licens­ing or cer­ti­fi­ca­tion after grad­u­a­tion. There­fore, it’s impor­tant to choose a col­lege or school that will pre­pare you to take the exam and obtained the nec­es­sary license or cer­tifi­cate need­ed to prac­tice careers with a health sci­ence major.

What Is Allied Health?

What is an allied health pro­fes­sion­al? Allied Health pro­fes­sion­als deliv­er health­care and oth­er ser­vices that lead to the iden­ti­fi­ca­tion and pre­ven­tion of dis­or­ders and dis­eases. Allied health careers may include spe­cial­iza­tion in dietary and nutri­tion ser­vices or health sys­tem man­age­ment. Oth­er allied health pro­fes­sion­als choose reha­bil­i­ta­tion and oth­er careers. BS in health sci­ence jobs are plentiful.

What jobs can a health sci­ence degree get? Allied health career paths could include the fol­low­ing list of allied health careers:

• den­tal hygienists
• dieti­tians
• occu­pa­tion­al therapists
• radi­og­ra­phers
• medi­al technologists
• phys­i­cal therapists
• res­pi­ra­to­ry therapists
• diag­nos­tic med­ical sonographers
• health ser­vices managers
• reg­is­tered nurse
• social work­er
• nutri­tion­ist

What jobs can you get with health sci­ence degree with the high­est pay? Speech lan­guage pathol­o­gists, res­pi­ra­to­ry ther­a­pists and occu­pa­tion­al ther­a­pists are among the best allied health careers. Fol­low­ing, find exam­ples of the high­est paid allied health careers:

• Reg­is­tered res­pi­ra­to­ry ther­a­pists – $61,810
• MRI Tech­nol­o­gist – $70,490
• Diag­nos­tic Med­ical Sono­g­ra­ph­er – $73,200
• Ortho­tist and Pros­thetist – $70,97
• Den­tal Hygien­ist – $74,680
• Occu­pa­tion­al Ther­a­pist – $84,600

Data comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

These are just some of the jobs with a health sci­ence degree avail­able to those who get their bachelor’s degree. Some of the high­er-pay­ing health sci­ence bach­e­lor degree jobs also require a master’s degree or high­er. Bach­e­lor degree in health sci­ence jobs have lots of room for advance­ment. There’s a great need for qual­i­fied can­di­dates for bach­e­lor of health sci­ence degree jobs.

Health sci­ences bach­e­lor degree jobs are very ver­sa­tile in terms of job set­tings. Some jobs with a bach­e­lor of health sci­ence degree involve work­ing in a hos­pi­tal, while oth­er jobs you can get with a health sci­ence degree involve work­ing in a pri­vate office or cor­po­rate setting.

What job can you get with a health sci­ence degree? For stu­dents will­ing to put in the nec­es­sary time and effort in col­lege, jobs you can get with a health sci­ences degree can improve your finan­cial sta­bil­i­ty and give you a sol­id career path to follow.

Where Can You Work?

Jobs for a health sci­ence degree hold­er are numer­ous and gives stu­dents a broad scope of work­place choic­es. Those who want bach­e­lors in health sci­ence jobs can find them­selves work­ing in the fol­low­ing settings:

• Schools
• Admin­is­tra­tion
• Gov­ern­ment agencies
• Non-prof­it organizations
• Gov­ern­ment agencies
• Reha­bil­i­ta­tion facilities
• Hos­pi­tals
• Nurs­ing homes
• Health­care facilities
• Med­ical laboratory
• High school

Some of the best allied health careers fol­low the most com­mon career cours­es. This could involve the high­est paid allied health careers such as phys­i­cal ther­a­pist or more mod­est pay­ing posi­tions that only require a two-year degree and certification.

Those who choose to go into ther­a­py def­i­nite­ly fall with­in the high­est pay­ing job ranges as seen from our lists above. Ther­a­peu­tic ser­vices include coun­sel­ing, patient edu­ca­tion, and long-term care. This scope of prac­tice includes speech, phys­i­cal, and occu­pa­tion­al ther­a­pies as well as psychology.

Careers with a health sci­ence major also include diag­nos­tic ser­vices. Tech­ni­cians mon­i­tor­ing labs and sched­ul­ing or per­form­ing diag­nos­tic ser­vices come from health sci­ence fields. Health sci­ence majors careers also include sup­port roles. In fact, some of the most reward­ing allied health careers involve help­ing med­ical per­son­nel for peo­ple and ani­mals. These posi­tions include vet­eri­nary assis­tants and med­ical assis­tants in doctor’s offices and elsewhere.

The list of allied health careers includes a spe­cial­iza­tion in infor­ma­tion tech­nol­o­gy and health care equip­ment. Health infor­ma­tion applies tech­nol­o­gy to healthcare.

What is allied health? Allied health involves a wide vari­ety of health care and relat­ed sup­port careers. What is an allied health pro­fes­sion­al? These health pro­fes­sion­als can work in biotech­nol­o­gy, research­ing process­es and organ­isms that can treat at cure dis­eases. On the oth­er hand, some allied health pro­fes­sion­als serve as tech­ni­cians who oper­ate sono­gram an imagery machines to help clients get the right diag­no­sis for their health concerns.

Jobs for a health sci­ence major vary across such a wide spec­trum that this might be a great place to build a career if you don’t want to pigeon­hole your­self into a sin­gle job for the rest of your life. What is a health sci­ence major? Health sci­ence majors may be broad based or very spe­cif­ic, and stu­dents should choose the best school and pro­gram for their career goals.

What can you do with a health sci­ence major? Health sci­ence majors careers help peo­ple stay healthy and save lives. There are many allied health career paths to fol­low. It’s a good idea to com­pare salary infor­ma­tion before choos­ing your career.

Health Science Degree Salary

A bachelor’s in health sci­ence salary could involve non-clin­i­cal posi­tions that require a knowl­edge of health­care as a whole. These bach­e­lors of health sci­ence salary jobs can be quite lucra­tive, espe­cial­ly if some­one holds a train­ing or super­vi­so­ry role. Oth­er health sci­ences degree salary roles involve train­ing oth­er health sci­ence work­ers. Keep in mind that many health sci­ence degree salary posi­tions require at least a bachelor’s degree.

Here are some more exam­ples of health sci­ence degree salary averages:

• Med­ical ser­vices man­agers direct and plan health ser­vices in clin­ics, hos­pi­tals and pub­lic health agen­cies. They make about $96,000 per year.
• Claims review­ers can make $57,000 per year to work in a non-clin­i­cal set­ting. They eval­u­ate insur­ance and med­ical claims and return them to an investigator.
• Health edu­ca­tion spe­cial­ists bring home health sci­ence salaries of $53,000. This involves teach­ing peo­ple about well­ness and encour­ages indi­vid­u­als and com­mu­ni­ties to live health­i­er lives.
• Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal sales rep­re­sen­ta­tives make about $79,000 per year and sell med­ical equip­ment and phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals to wholesalers.
• Com­mu­ni­ty health spe­cial­ists have one of the low­er salary for health sci­ence ranges and make about $37,000 per year.
• The degree in health sci­ence salary for an occu­pa­tion­al ther­a­pist is $82,000 and phys­i­cal ther­a­pists bring home an aver­age health sci­ences degree salary of $85,400.
• Speech-lan­guage pathol­o­gists treat adults and chil­dren who have dif­fi­cul­ty swal­low­ing or speak­ing. These pro­fes­sion­als make around $75,000 per year.
• As a phar­ma­cist, Health Sci­ence pro­fes­sion­als can bring home one of the high­est salaries at 100 and $23,000 for dis­pens­ing save prescriptions.
• The bachelor’s of health sci­ence salary for a den­tist is $160,000.
• Audi­ol­o­gists diag­nose hear­ing and bal­ance issues and make about $76,000 per year.
• A physician’s assis­tant can bring home over $100,000 on average

What­ev­er bach­e­lors in health sci­ence salary you choose, health sci­ence salaries are some of the most com­pet­i­tive among all jobs. Join­ing a pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tion can help you make con­nec­tions that lead to oppor­tu­ni­ties for a high­er salary for health sci­ence jobs. With a degree in health sci­ence salary, you can also change oth­er con­cen­tra­tions that inter­ests you lat­er in your career.

Professional Organizations in the Health Sciences

The Health Sci­ences Asso­ci­a­tion is a pre­mier pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tion for health sci­ence work­ers. Pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tions can help stu­dents net­work and make con­nec­tions that lead to career oppor­tu­ni­ties and allow them to stay on top of advance­ments in their field. The Health Sci­ences Asso­ci­a­tion has 16,000 mem­bers across numer­ous com­mu­ni­ties. These can also help you find jobs with health sci­ence degree. There’s no bet­ter way to answer the ques­tion, what can you do with health sci­ence degree?

Exam­ples of pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tions for work­ers include the following:

Den­tal Medicine

• Amer­i­can Den­tal Edu­ca­tion Asso­ci­a­tion (ADEA)
• Amer­i­can Soci­ety of Den­tist Anes­the­si­ol­o­gists (ASDA)
• His­pan­ic Den­tal Asso­ci­a­tion (HDA)

Health and Rehabilitation

• Amer­i­can Asso­ci­a­tion of Peo­ple with Dis­abil­i­ties (AAPD)
• The Amer­i­can Phys­i­cal Ther­a­py Asso­ci­a­tion (APTA)

Phar­ma­cy

• Acad­e­my of Man­aged Care Phar­ma­cy (AMCP)
• Amer­i­can Phar­ma­cist Asso­ci­a­tion (APA)
• Asso­ci­a­tion of Black Health-Sys­tem Phar­ma­cists (ABHP)

Pub­lic Health

• Asso­ci­a­tion of Schools and Pro­grams in Pub­lic Health (ASPPH)
• Soci­ety of Pub­lic Health Education

Choos­ing the right pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tion can allow stu­dents to keep up with the lat­est advances in their fields. Orga­ni­za­tions also often post bach­e­lor of health sci­ence jobs oppor­tu­ni­ties. They’ll help you find out what can I do with a bachelor’s in health science.

Relat­ed Rankings: 

25 Best Bach­e­lor’s in Health Science

15 Best Online Bach­e­lor’s in Health Science

10 Fastest Online Bach­e­lor’s in Health Science

10 Most Afford­able Bach­e­lor’s in Health Science