ABSTRACT
The healthcare provider workforce is composed of a widely varying array of professional clinical specialties, support staff, and administrative and support personnel. Nursing is by far the largest single profession in the healthcare provider system’s workforce. Registered nurses have professional opportunities in a wide array of settings and functions. Those roles include, among others, direct patient care in the clinical setting, organizational management, information technology, operational management, research, education, the legal profession, and others. Physician assistants practice medicine with a substantial level of independence but under the supervision of physicians and surgeons. In the hospital, the pharmacist supports the medication needs of both inpatients and outpatients. Medical technologists or Clinical Laboratory Technologists work in the laboratory and are responsible for the wide variety of laboratory tests on bodily fluids and tissues that are ordered for diagnostic purposes. Radiology technologists staff the X-ray services at hospitals, health systems, ambulatory centers, diagnostic radiology centers, and other related sites.
