The human body is both fascinating and challenging to work with on a day-to-day basis. Whether you’re interested in health care or mortuary and funeral services, or even if you work as a therapist, you’re likely to have to get up close and personal with a lot of bodies during your career. Those who are particularly squeamish may not be drawn to jobs where they have to interact with physical bodies regularly. However, for many people, that type of work is both compelling and appealing. Many of these jobs offer the ability to do something meaningful in addition to providing consistent work with reasonable pay and benefits. If you’re interested, read on to learn more about three different careers that require working with the human body.
1. Nursing
If you want to become a nurse, you have options when it comes to which type of degree to pursue. For those interested in attending college or university, getting a BSN is the most common path. You can also pursue an ADN, which is an associate’s degree that can be completed in about half the amount of time. There are also RN-to-BSN programs targeted at those who have an associate’s degree but would like to earn a BSN.
However, you can still go into nursing without one of these degrees. There are more practical nursing career opportunities than ever for those interested. Practical nursing requires a high school diploma and the completion of a practical nursing course, which typically takes about one year. These types of programs are often offered by community colleges and technical schools, making them a more affordable and accessible option for many than a BSN or ADN. Practical nurses have the ability to work in the same medical environments as an RN, albeit with different duties and responsibilities.
2. Technical Cleaning
While you may not think of cleaning as a field that interacts with the human body, there are a number of technical cleaning services that deal extensively with bodies, often post-mortem. Technical cleaning can include a variety of projects ranging from helping someone who has been hoarding to providing suicide cleanup service. Technical cleaning services often involve crime scenes, homicides, or blood, which makes them a bad fit for the faint of heart. However, many others will find this type of work both interesting and fulfilling.
3. Massage Therapy
If you’re interested in healing and therapeutic treatment without going into medicine, massage therapy is a great field to consider. Becoming a massage therapist requires several steps involving both certification and accumulation of practice hours. The requirements can differ depending on what state you work in. For example, in California, 500 hours of massage or related subject training is necessary, and at least 100 of those hours need to include anatomy and physiology.
Health care is one obvious career path to look into if you want to work with the physical body. Nurses especially are in demand, in large part due to the staffing crisis caused by the ongoing global pandemic. Practical nursing can give you the opportunity to work in a number of settings, ranging from a physician’s office to hospitals to long-term care facilities, without requiring the same amount of expensive schooling as an RN. There are also other careers that allow you to work with the body, including in fields you may not expect like technical cleaning. Areas like massage therapy are another alternative for those who prefer to care for people outside a medical setting. While a hands-on environment isn’t for everyone, there are a variety of well-paid and fulfilling career options that require working with the human body.
