Why Study Healthcare Professionals Courses?.

If you’re looking at the prospect of becoming a healthcare professional, you have no doubt noticed the sheer amount of healthcare courses on offer. As we can utilise healthcare services for so many reasons, naturally, the ways in which you can work in healthcare is incredibly varied.

Each healthcare professional is crucial in their own way, and each role can be just as uniquely rewarding as the other. No matter if you work in mental health, assist the elderly within nursing homes or perform life-saving surgeries, you are positioned to help people every single day.

The knowledge required for careers in healthcare means many jobs require you to study a degree specific to the role. Though, if you’re not sure what role you want to pursue, this can be a big decision to make.

This is where an Access to Higher Education Diploma (Health Professionals) is more beneficial than college courses that focus on one area. It gives you time to explore the healthcare sector before you choose your career path.

Explore Healthcare Opportunities

Healthcare is an amazing sector to work within. When you think of the many creative and innovative ways in which it can help people, it’s truly awe-inspiring.

From the increased survival rate of premature babies in sophisticated incubation systems to amputees living in a way that wasn’t possible before the use of lifelike prosthetics. Our healthcare system changes lives every day.

Unless you had a particularly keen interest in it, you wouldn’t necessarily be aware of the entire scope of healthcare services. So, you could choose to study a degree in one area and later find out that you want to work in another.

This is why the Access to HE Diploma (Health Professionals) is so beneficial, as it opens your eyes to just how diverse the sector is.

Throughout the course you will learn about:

• Health and Wellbeing
• Cell Biology
• The History of the National Health Service
• Human Reproduction, Growth & Development
• The Roles & Responsibilities of Health Care Professionals
• Introduction to Psychology 
• Human Nutrition & The Digestive System
• Social Factors in Health and Social Care

In addition, you will explore:

• The Human Endocrine & Nervous System
• Understanding Dementia
• The Human Muscular and Skeletal System
• Classification and Use of Social Drugs and Medicines
• Mental Health and Illness
• Human Immunity
• Understanding Poverty
• Human Disease & Prevention 
• Equality and Diversity within Healthcare

Through varied modules like these, you can find your feet and discover the areas of healthcare you find most interesting. So, if you were wondering ‘what do you gain from a healthcare course?’, you can rest assured it will help you make an informed decision on your career.

Study Different Healthcare Degrees

While there are careers in healthcare that don’t require you to have a degree, the vast majority of positions do. This is because healthcare professionals must know in detail how to perform a variety of procedures, deliver treatments or administer medications, all of which take considerable time to learn.

For instance, a Registered Nurse must study a degree in nursing, whereas a Midwife must study a midwifery degree before they can practice. This is an unavoidable step for many healthcare professionals, and to complete it, you must first meet the universities entry requirements.

Previously, it was a very limited process as you had to have a certain combination of GCSEs and A Levels for each degree, otherwise you couldn’t move forward. This made many people’s dreams of a healthcare career seem unreachable.

Now, the courses you can take to meet university entry requirements are much more varied. If you don’t have certain GCSEs, Functionals Skills qualifications can be accepted in their place. Then if you don’t have A Levels, Access to HE Diplomas provide a Level 3 equivalent.

In fact, an Access to HE Diploma (Healthcare Professionals) can go in place of up to three individual A Levels. This is because you can earn anything between 48 and 144 UCAS Points from the course. So, if you achieve a higher grade, you can come out with the equivalent of 3 As at A Level.

Gaining such a good grounding in the healthcare sector at these grades positions you perfectly to study many healthcare-related careers. So, you can channel your wide-ranging knowledge into the degree of your choice when you’re ready.

If you’re not sure what courses are at uni to do with healthcare, you could study:

• Dental Nursing
• Midwifery
• Clinical Psychology
• Forensic Psychology
• Nursing (Adult, Child, Mental Health, Special Educational Needs Learning Disability)
• Radiography
• Physiotherapy
• Pharmacy
• Medicine
• Paramedic Practice
• Dental Surgery
• Occupational Therapy

Those listed above are only a few of the available subjects and careers you could move towards. Just bear in mind that each university sets its own entry requirements and while most accept Access to HE Diplomas, we advise that you check beforehand.

Go into Numerous Healthcare Careers

With a degree in healthcare, you can move into a number of fascinating careers.

You could become a:

• Radiographer – Use state-of-the-art diagnostic equipment to capture images that help diagnose various illnesses and injuries
• Paediatric Nurse – Provide care and safeguard neonates, children and young people who are experiencing various illnesses and health conditions
• Mental Health Psychologist – Deliver psychological treatments like Cognitive Behavioural Therapy to individuals experiencing complex mental health or behavioural problems, learning difficulties, depression or anxiety
• Dental Nurse – Work alongside your dentist to provide preventative treatments and reconstructive procedures to dental patients in a sterile environment. Assisting the wider team to run the practice effectively and reassuring nervous patients

Each of these careers helps people in their own way, which can provide you with a great sense of fulfilment. You can find out more about the other pros of healthcare jobs in our blog.

Study Healthcare on Your Terms

Previously, the people going into healthcare careers were typically those who went straight from school to college, then university. Anyone looking to go into healthcare later on in life likely missed out because getting the education required wasn’t possible alongside their other commitments.

In recent years, educational institutions have realised the benefit of making courses accessible to more people. Not only does it help get more professionals into in-demand roles, it allows more people to work in a job they love.

There has been an explosion of part-time, evening and online alternatives to traditional courses in recent years. So, you can choose the option most suited to your lifestyle.  

Now, you don’t have to drop everything to go back into the classroom full-time. With online courses especially, you can learn where and when it suits you.

Stonebridge Associated College’s Access to HE Diploma (Health Professionals) is studied completely online. You can complete the course within a year, and it’s possible to qualify much sooner, it's all down to your pace.

That’s why our Access to HE Diplomas are so popular because you can be on your way to university within a year!

What College Courses are Available in Healthcare?

Besides the Access to HE Diploma (Healthcare Studies) or those that focus on more specific areas of healthcare, many other college courses are available in healthcare.

Once you become a qualified healthcare professional, you have to maintain your registration through Continuing Professional Development (CPD). This is training that directly adds to your professional skillset but isn’t a part of your mandatory or statutory training. There are many ways to gain your CPD, and one of them is through online courses.

What’s more, completing additional college courses in healthcare can help you become a specialist and progress in your career.

Stonebridge offers college courses in healthcare such as:

• Family Healthcare
• Evaluative Research Methodology, Nursing and Health
• Diabetes Awareness
• Dental Practice Administration
• End of Life Care
• Grief and Bereavement Counselling
• Prevention and Control of Infection

You could also go on to study:

• Legal Aspects of Healthcare
• Pharmacology and Pain Control
• Vulnerable Patients – Safeguarding Adults/Children
• Anatomy and Physiology
• Complementary Therapies
• Mental Health Awareness
• Caring for People with Learning Disabilities

To view all the healthcare college courses Stonebridge offers, visit our website.

Why Study Healthcare with Stonebridge?

There are so many reasons why kicking off your healthcare career through a Stonebridge course is highly beneficial. Not only does learning online allow you to study on your terms, it gives you a wider range of courses to choose from. You can get the skills you need to shape your career in the way you want.

Whether you want to specialise in mental health or become a department manager, we have an online course to help you get there.

You’ll also receive dedicated tutor support and the option to spread your payments to make your course fees more manageable. Plus, you can get started right away!

Find out more by talking with our Course Executives. They can help you find the exact healthcare course to suit your needs and identify those that will advance your career.

Simply call them on 0121 392 8288 or contact them online.