I’m a college freshman at CSU-San Bernardino starting in a little over 2 weeks. Since I was 14, I’ve always wanted to major in political science given my strong passion for social justice and grassroots politics. However, for the last couple of months I’ve been pondering with a career in the medical field, specifically a nurse or physician’s assistant. I’m focusing on my General Ed right now and I’m a bit reluctant to try and change my major to Nursing given the waiting list. So Health Science is my alternative. I’ve heard about the lack of jobs in for political science majors, therefore nursing is my 2nd choice. Should I change it or stick with my original plan?
CSU-San Bernardino’s Health Science degree has three areas of concentration and they are all practical. Much job growth is expected in Health Care Management and in Public Health Education (http://www.bls.gov/ooh/Management/Medical-and-health-services-managers.htm and http://www.bls.gov/ooh/Community-and-Social-Service/Health-educators.htm), and they really seem to set you up in Environmental Health Science (“Students who are certified by the Environmental Health Coordinator will have met the academic and experience requirements for admittance to the State Environmental Health Specialist Registration Examination.”). Jobs in Health Care Management are office-based, Environmental Health Science jobs can get you out in the field a lot inspecting things, maybe Public Health Education gives opportunities to go to different sites. Environmental Health Science and Public Health Education provide critical services to society.
Health science won’t necessarily lead you to clinical practice, so be careful if that is your goal. Nursing and PA courses of study have prerequisites that you’d have to take, particularly if you are applying into the nursing major for your junior year. PA master’s programs not only have prerequisites, they also have a required number of clinical care hours you have to have worked - so most PAs were nurses, EMTs, or other allied health professionals before going to become PAs. I think the best route for a bachelor’s degree candidate is to major in nursing, work as a nurse for 2-4 years, and then apply to PA school.
But there are jobs in health policy, too; you just have to be more imaginative. Nursing shows an easy professional route to a job and health policy is less direct, but there are still jobs. There are, and will be, lots of jobs in healthcare management. If you are interested in PS and health sciences, jobs in health policy will position you well (especially if you can crunch on health economics).