Healthcare Administration Degree

The healthcare industry is currently one of the biggest and set to grow explosively in the coming years. As more medical facilities and doctors are produced this creates an even greater demand for professional healthcare administrators. Most reputable colleges now provide a healthcare administration degree, and so do some business schools. In fact some hospitals prefer to recruit master of business administration (MBA) graduates as hospital administrators. A career transition from healthcare administration to healthcare management is also easier for physicians and nurses who have the upper hand in terms of medical background on their competing administrators.

So what does a healthcare MBA entail? Following are some of the skills you need to become a qualified MBA in health administration.

Quantitative Skills

The level of quantitative skills required varies from program to program. Some courses have begun to de emphasize quantitative skills in favour of the soft skills such as communication and interpersonal skills. But the need for basic college algebra level mathematics is everywhere, and it would be better to have some knowledge of basic statistics and elementary calculus.

Technical/Computing Skills

Personal computers are integral in every facet of business and life. At a minimum you are expected to have the basic computing skills of word processing, spreadsheet calculations, and database manipulation or maintenance. Some programming knowledge or familiarity with specialized software would present an advantage.

Team player skills

Every major or minor project is accomplished with teamwork and gone are the days of solitary geniuses. Be it part of a team of highly specialized individuals with common fields or a team of inter-disciplinary members, you are required to have the skills to navigate and perform in diverse teams. Most business degrees focus on team work precisely for this purpose, as a poorly formed team can dramatically increase the time wasted on internal communication and delay project completion.

Basic Business skills

Accounting, economics, finance, organizational behavior, marketing, statistics, and operations form the primary business disciplines and skills and are expected of any MBA. Healthcare MBA is no exception as it often requires the above courses to be completed prior to enrolment in a postgraduate degree. This is because there are other clinical and medical background courses to be covered in the program itself that pertain to the healthcare industry.

Some examples of healthcare administration programs are:

  • Associate of Arts (A.A.) in Healthcare Administration
  • Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Healthcare Administration
  • Master of Business Administration (MBA) - Healthcare Administration
  • Master of Management (MS Mgmt.) - Healthcare Administration
  • Master of Healthcare Administration (MHA)

If you would like to make a difference in people’s lives and thrive in stressful emergency situations, consider a Healthcare Administration career.