Chronic illnesses, cancer, and pandemics are just a few reasons why healthcare workers are critical to our nations well being.  But we are facing a critical shortage of qualified workers.  Those who are looking for the best career opportunities will find that earning a medical degree online can get you ready for an important career.

“There is no doubt that acute public health workforce shortages need to be addressed in Southwest Virginia, Virginia, the United States, and beyond,” said Elvinger, who is working closely with Kerry Redican, professor of education in Virginia Tech’s College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences and Susan West Marmagas, assistant director for public health program development.

“In the United States, the public health workforce has been shrinking in the last decades, and an additional quarter-million public health workers need to be trained and deployed by 2020 to ensure appropriate capacity in public health,” said Marmagas, adding that the Association of Schools of Public Health stated, in a 2008 report entitled “Confronting the Public Health Workforce Crisis,” that the graduation rate of schools and programs of public health must be tripled over the next 12 years to meet demand.

The need for qualified medical professionals will continue to grow, and those who get an online medical degree will find themselves very employable. This is a potentially lucrative field with many options and room for growth.