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Other Health Professions

There are many opportunities for fulfilling careers in the health professions. We welcome you to explore the information in this section to learn about the many ways in which you could make a difference through your work in healthcare.

Most people are familiar with the roles of doctors and nurses because we interact with these healthcare professionals so frequently throughout our lives. Fewer college students are aware of the many professionals who provide diagnostic, therapeutic, and administrative services as essential components of a healthcare team. The cytotechnologist, the respiratory therapist, and the radiographer all fill critical needs in providing vital healthcare services. If you plan to pursue a career in healthcare you will need to know about the work of all these professionals, their training and educational backgrounds, and the services they provide.

There are many different types of healthcare fields, from those that emphasize laboratory science to those that emphasize direct patient care. You should carefully consider your individual abilities and interests in making career decisions. For many health fields, very strong abilities in the sciences may be required. Many fields involve direct patient care, and require highly developed interpersonal and communication skills.

The term Allied Health Professions is sometimes used as a subcategory of health professions. Allied Health Professionals perform diagnostic procedures, provide therapeutic services, and patient care as part of a caregiving team.

Professional practice in some health professions requires only an undergraduate (associate's or bachelor's degree), while for others many years of study beyond the undergraduate level and the completion of a graduate-level degree is required. You may complete the requirements for admission on the Indiana University Bloomington campus in order to apply for admission to any of the types of programs listed below. Admission to most health professions programs is very competitive. You will need to plan carefully and prepare systematically to be successful in gaining admission.

In addition to completing coursework, shadowing and other professional development activities are crucial parts of the process of choosing and ultimately pursuing any career path.

The lists below reflect healthcare programs for which HPPLC provides specific advising and other services. There are numerous other healthcare or healthcare-related professions, and students interested in this general career area should consider doing additional research as they make their career and program decisions.

Please explore the information below to learn more about specific health professions. If you are curious about additional possibilities, consult our Health Professions Descriptions handout, as well as Other Health-Related Majors And Programs available at IU.

ExploreHealthCareers.org is also an excellent resource for researching health fields, as is the US Department of Labor's Occupational Outlook Handbook. In the latter, we suggest scanning the A-Z Index, linked from the bottom. You will encounter dozens of health-related careers, many of which you have probably never thought about before.

For a list of many more health-related majors, minors, certificates, and programs available on the IU Bloomington campus for which the HPPLC office does NOT provide advising, click here. In addition, IU's Career Development Center web site provides a useful health professions Web Link Library.

GPA and Target GPA Calculators: Having clear, realistic projected GPA information is especially important for preprofessional students, who are usually pursuing admission to programs with moderately or highly competitive admissions. For examples of some useful GPA calculators, click here.

Graduate-Level
Health Professions Programs

Professional practice in the health professions listed below requires a graduate-level degree. These professional programs typically do not have a preference for any particular undergraduate major, so if you are preparing for a graduate-level health profession program you will have great latitude in choosing a major. When selecting a major, consider ones you'll enjoy and in which you can excel, and ones that might serve as a basis for graduate work or employment should you choose not to pursue a professional degree.

For more information on how to prepare for specific health professions please explore the links below.

Undergraduate-Level
Health Professions Programs

Completion of an undergraduate degree in the health professions programs listed below prepares you to practice in specialized healthcare areas as part of a caregiving team. Admission to these undergraduate degree programs is competitive, and, at Indiana University, often extremely so. To become eligible to apply to these programs, you must complete prerequisite courses and other admission requirements. For some programs, you may complete the prerequisites at Indiana University Bloomington, but must complete the rest of the program on another campus such as IUPUI.

IMPORTANT: Of the programs listed below, the only one which can be completed in its entirety on the IU Bloomington campus is nursing. For the other programs, the professional coursework (i.e., the coursework you would take after the prerequisites) is offered only on another IU campus, such as IUPUI. If you are a prospective student, then for the latter programs, note that some students might be better advantaged by simply completing the admission prerequisites as well on the other campus. In any case, you will need to plan carefully in order to gain eligibility and increase your competitiveness for admission to the programs below.

You are welcome to meet with a HPPLC advisor to discuss any of these options within your particular circumstances.

Related Programs and Majors

Other Health-Related Majors And Programs available at IU

High School Students and Parents

Important information for high school students and their parents. Also, an invitation to visit the Health Professions and Prelaw Center! Read more »

Exploring Health Professions?

Make sure to attend the annual Health Programs Fair, where you can meet directly with representatives of health professions programs from across the country!