Guest author: Kevin Hopkins

The field of healthcare is growing by leaps and bounds, and the healthcare industry is estimated to contribute around six million new jobs to the workforce over the next decade. This represents a nearly 30 percent growth in jobs from the healthcare field alone. There are many different career paths that a student can take, whether your interest ultimately lies in healthcare administration jobs, healthcare management jobs, or some other facet of the medical and healthcare field. A great place to start can be earning a healthcare administration or healthcare management degree online or offline, which can prepare you to climb to the heights of your chosen career path, regardless of where you may choose to specialize or focus your efforts once you graduate.

However, because some terminology used in healthcare can sound surprisingly similar, including terms such as “administration” and “management,” it can be helpful as well to learn before you enroll in an advanced degree program what the differences are between these terms so you are sure you focus your education towards the correct area.

The Role of Education
Education is one of the major differences between the fields of healthcare management and healthcare administration. Healthcare management professionals are most likely to have an educational background that matches their career, whether that may be management of medical staff, informatics and information technology, oncology research studies, or another area. Healthcare administration professionals, on the other hand, are likely to start out in a more business-related field with an advanced degree to match, such as finance, business management, accounting, marketing, or operations. This also speaks directly to the difference in job description between healthcare managers and administrators.

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