W-1-2: Basic Information in Planning for a Health Career 1

• Steps for professional progress

  1. Make yourself indispensable

  2. Undergo training programs to develop full potential and discover other things to enhance performance

  3. Succession planning to fill key positions and ensure career development and progression

  4. Being open to transfers and lateral moves
• Succession planning


  • Helps employees fill each key position within a company
  • Ensures career development and progression
• Common health career pathways

  • Personal health care settings (hospitals, physician offices, dentist offices, mental health facilities, rehabilitation clinics)
  • Maternal and child care
• Mental health careers

  Careers that involve properly caring for, diagnosing and treating people with mental illnesses, emotional difficulties, and behavioral problems
• Skills needed for mental health careers

  • Excellent listening, verbal communication, interpersonal, critical thinking, and decision making skills
  • Help facilitate interactions with individuals who are in distress
• Mental health careers to consider

  • Clinical and counseling psychologists
  • Marriage and family therapists
  • Clinical social workers
  • Psychiatric registered nurses
  • Psychiatric nurse practitioners
  • Psychiatrists
  • Mental health counselors
• Clinical and counseling psychologists


  • Diagnose and treat people with behavioral, emotional, and mental disorders
  • Help clients and patients deal with crises, illnesses, or injuries
  • Require a Ph.D. or Psy.D. degree in psychology, taking 5-7 years to complete
• Marriage and family therapists


  • Help couples, families, and individuals overcome or manage mental illnesses and disorders within the context of their relationships
  • Require a master's degree in marriage and family therapy
• Clinical social workers


  • Diagnose patients' mental, behavioral, or emotional disorders and provide treatment through individual and group therapy
  • Require a Master's Degree in Social Work (MSW)
• Psychiatric registered nurses


  • Registered nurses who specialize in psychiatric and mental health work, caring for patients with mental, behavioral, and emotional disorders
  • Nursing education includes psychiatric-mental health education
• Psychiatric nurse practitioners


  • Provide assessments and therapeutic interventions to patients with psychiatric disorders and addictions in outpatient and inpatient settings
  • Require a master's degree or doctorate in nursing practice and a state-issued NP license
• Psychiatrists


  • Physicians who specialize in treating psychiatric disorders
  • Require 4 years of medical school, a 4-year residency in psychiatry, and a medical license and certification
• Mental health counselors


  • Help people overcome emotional and mental disorders and addictions
  • Require a master's degree in mental health counseling or a related field and a state-issued license