Patient care means being on the front lines of healthcare delivery, working directly with patients facing difficult circumstances, and helping them meet these challenges head-on. In contrast to healthcare administrators or other behind-the-scenes healthcare professionals, or even other healthcare providers that deal directly with patients such as doctors or EMTs, patient care technicians must have extraordinary communication skills to discover and respond to a patient’s emotional and physical needs.

If you have these skills, a career in patient care can be incredibly rewarding. And, as with the rest of the healthcare industry, virtually all of these careers are in high demand.

Nurses are perhaps the most well-known patient care professionals, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that nursing employment will rise by 12% from 2018 to 2028 - much faster than the average of the rest of the economy. Physical therapists are another familiar example of patient care professionals. They work with injured or ill patients to help them regain or improve their range of movement or manage pain. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that this will be a fast-growing field, with an increase of 22% in physical therapy jobs projected from 2018 to 2028.

As the population in the U.S. and other countries ages, there is also fast-increasing demand for home health and personal care aides. These jobs require working with a wide range of patients, including the elderly, disabled, chronically ill, and cognitively impaired. These jobs only require a high school diploma or equivalent, but people in this field must have a high level of emotional intelligence and patience to be successful. This is also an extraordinarily fast-growing field, with the Bureau of Labor Statistics projecting a 36% increase in jobs from 2018 to 2028--one of the highest rates of increase of any field over this period.

Absolutely! Even though patient care is an intrinsically people-focused career path, today’s online education platforms can equip you with the required medical knowledge and the one-on-one interactions with teachers and classmates that build essential interpersonal skills. Thanks to virtual classrooms, live office hours with teachers, and collaborative projects with fellow learners from around the world, you no longer need to pay on-campus prices and follow an on-campus schedule to get a top-quality education in patient care from anywhere in the world.

Coursera offers a number of courses relevant to patient care from highly-ranked universities, including subjects like patient safety, early childhood education, and addiction treatment. Specializations covering multiple courses in this area are also available, including Newborn Baby Care as well as Palliative Care from the University of Colorado.