Is 30 Too Old To Get a Healthcare Management Degree?

Hospitals are most associated with doctors, nurses, and other healthcare providers, but they can't run without people who have studied healthcare management.

Many students start college right out of high school, usually in their late teens, which often makes 30-year-olds think that their college window has closed.

Luckily, if you're looking to pursue a degree in healthcare management, 30 isn't too old. You might even see advantages to attending college at 30 compared to your early 20s.

Reasons To Earn Your Healthcare Management Degree at 30

Earning your healthcare management degree at 30 has multiple advantages for students. One of the biggest reasons to pursue a degree in healthcare management, regardless of age, is the desire to help people, but that's not the only reason to pursue this degree.

Career Advancement

For people already working in healthcare, especially in healthcare administration, earning a degree can open the doors to higher career opportunities, and ultimately higher pay.

In some cases, this will be earning a bachelor's degree, but for executive-level positions, a person might need a master's level degree.

Although it's possible that better career opportunities can come without more education, more career advancement will come with a degree in healthcare management.

More Stability in Life

By the time a person has turned 30, they often will have experienced more in life than a 20-year-old. This can translate into skills like time and financial management, which can help combat some of the biggest challenges associated with higher learning.

More Real-Life Experience

Having more life experiences can help a person relate their studies to the world around them. Students who are 30 will have worked other jobs, possibly worked in some form of healthcare management, or maybe have seen the benefits of healthcare management through the care of a loved one.

What Will I Learn in a Healthcare Management Degree Program?

Healthcare managers work in multiple fields ranging from human resources to facility management. As a result, the common core courses included in a healthcare management degree program include:

• Healthcare Policy
• Health Insurance and Managed Care
• Human Resource Management
• Management Principles

If you choose a concentration for your healthcare management degree, expect more focused classes around this concentration. For example, a degree with a healthcare law and policy specialization will feature more law-based classes than a degree with a financial management focus.

What Can I Do with My Healthcare Management Degree?

Earning a degree, whether to advance your current healthcare management career or switch to a new one, will open multiple career paths. Let's explore just a few of the options below.

Clinical Administration

Clinical administrators are the professionals who help run smaller healthcare facilities like private practices and medical clinics. Their role is defined with the running of the facility through such services as:

• human resources (scheduling, hiring, payroll, etc.)
• building and other facility management
• financial processing
• enforcing policies and laws for both providers and patients

Health Information Manager

Health records can quickly become out of date through ongoing care, changes in health status, and more. A health information manager will make sure that records are kept up-to-date and protected. This is especially important when transferring information and records between healthcare providers.

Hospital Manager

A hospital manager performs a similar role to a clinical administrator, except they'll work for hospitals instead of smaller facilities. Because hospitals are usually much larger, hospital managers often have more specialized responsibilities to avoid overloading a single manager.

Nursing Home Administrator

Hospitals and doctor's offices aren't the only healthcare facilities that need management. A nursing home administrator helps their facility run ethically while providing care to older patients. This often includes financial management and human resources work.

FAQs About Starting a Healthcare Management Degree at 30

Because earning a healthcare management degree at 30 is a different path than most people take, it's common to have questions about it.

Are There Benefits To Starting My Healthcare Management Degree at 30?

Yes, there are many benefits to starting a healthcare management degree at 30. One of the biggest is that a 30-year-old student often is more dedicated to their goals than a younger student.

Over time, people learn what they want and don't want from their careers. This focus can help a student commit to their degree, and this commitment can help save time and money that comes with switching a degree or major. Other benefits include better time and financial management skills and more real-life experience.

What If I Already Have a Degree in Another Field?

If the degree was earned from an accredited school, then there is a chance that you might be able to transfer credits toward a bachelor- or even a master-level degree. Many degrees have similar core classes, meaning that you might be able to apply those classes to your new healthcare management degree, even if they were earned for a different degree.

Can I Work and Go to College?

If you pursue an online healthcare management degree such as an online bachelor's degree in healthcare management, it's quite possible to work and go to school. Working while going to school becomes more complicated if you try to take on-campus classes with more rigid scheduling.

Should I Go Back to School for Healthcare Management?

Whether you should go back to school or not for a healthcare management degree will ultimately come down to your career goals.

If you are already in healthcare management and are looking to advance your career, then going back to school might be the only way to achieve this goal. If you're looking to enter the healthcare management industry, having a relevant degree will make getting hired much more possible.