i am certain i want to go into the medical field, but doing something more behind the scenes and not direct patient care. i am also an extreme outdoorsy person, and i love to travel. are there any careers that would allow me to be outdoors and traveling but also in the medical field ?
Generally speaking all medical careers are involved in direct patient care. That’s what medical care is–patient care.
For non-patient care careers—
What about global public health? Environmental and ecological sustainability fields? Epidemiology?
You could also look into jobs that provide behind-the-scene administrative & logistic support for rural & emergency health care in developing countries. Like MSF (Doctors Without Borders), international disaster relief agencies (think International Red Cross) or international public health NGOs.
Have you looked at NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School)?
I’d suggest wilderness medicine, but that involves direct patient care. (Wilderness medicine is subspecialty of Emergency medicine and requires 4 years of med school, 3-4 years of residency in EM and 1 year of fellowship training. Wilderness paramedic or wilderness nurse require the basic training to obtain certification as a paramedic (2 years) or nurse (3-4 years) plus an additional post-grad specialized course in wilderness medicine.) Wilderness med is a fun specialty, but there just aren’t many jobs in wilderness medicine. Most wilderness med personnel are volunteers who donate their time & expertise.
Thank you for your response! Some else also replied back and recommended wilderness medicine, and I am going to look into it! thank you again!
I wouldn’t really call radiology or pathology “direct patient care” specialties but they are also DEFINITELY not outdoors, lol.
got any recommendations that are outdoors ? something similar to a biologist.
Lots of Rangers in the Public Park are involved in biological type of work. Also North or South Pole expedition teams need a lot of biologist.