Here at Healthcarelink, we do everything we can to keep up to date with changes and trends when it comes to healthcare jobs and medical practices. As you may have noticed, alternative medicine has been drawing a lot of attention lately and, for those pursuing medical jobs, is an increasingly popular career path. Let’s take a look at what this means for both medicine and the industry.
What’s changed
In the past, Western health has tended to be focus on conventional medicine. If you wanted medical jobs, you would go to university to earn a doctor’s degree. If you were sick, you would head to your local GP, where the treatment would usually comprise of pharmaceuticals.
These days, however, the landscape has changed dramatically. While traditional medicine continues to work wonders, it doesn’t have the answers for every single problem. Both patients and professionals have become interested in exploring alternatives.
Treatment
A conventional approach focuses on ‘allopathic’ medical practices: the application of pharmalogically active substances and/or physical intervention to particular problems. In other words, the issue is identified and then treated with either drugs and/or surgery.
Alternative treatment, on the other hand, is often driven by a holistic approach. This might involve allopathic medicine, but it usually includes other strategies, too, such as naturopathy, osteopathy, nutrition and/or ethno-medicine. At its heart is a philosophy that healing should focus on overall health, instead of specific ailments. In practice, this could mean changing diet, increasing exercise, working on unhelpful attitudes and behaviours, and counselling, as well as using pharmaceuticals.
Alternative medicine teaches individuals to take responsibility for their own health. Rather than popping a pill to cure pain, they must work hard to develop healthy habits. Of course, the difficulty with this is that it can be time-consuming and involves commitment.
Employment
The increase in alternative medicine has opened up plenty of healthcare jobs. Those in conventional medicine usually have the choice of becoming a GP, or taking further study to specialise in a particular area, such as radiology or surgery.
Some employment opportunities available in the alternative sphere include: naturopathy, which combines herbal medicine, diet and nutrition; osteopathy, which involves studying the impact of the skeleton, joints, muscles, nerves and circulation on overall health; acupuncture, a Chinese practice that requires the insertion of needles into the skin to stimulate the body; chiropractics, which involves manipulating the spine to solve muscular and skeletal issues; and reflexology, which involves the massaging of the feet, hands or ears, to promote healing in other sections of the body.
The verdict?
Both conventional and alternative medicine have their place. But it’s exciting that Western approaches are becoming more open-minded. It really comes to down to each individual deciding which path works best.
Comment below and share your experiences!
