Best programs to become a healthcare practitioner
You do not need a college degree to become a healthcare practitioner. BLS lists a postsecondary nondegree award (a certificate) as the typical entry-level education. The fields of study that lead most directly to this job are Medical/Health Management and Clinical Assistant/Specialist; Bioethics/Medical Ethics; and Traditional Chinese Medicine and Chinese Herbology (IPEDS completions).
4 college programs at 84 schools train for this job, graduating 2,298 people a year (IPEDS completions). The job pays a median of $65,790 (BLS OEWS May 2025).
About healthcare practitioners and technical workers, all other
All healthcare practitioners and technical workers not listed separately.
Best programs to study to become a healthcare practitioner
Ranked by graduates per year (IPEDS completions). Graduate earnings and debt are College Scorecard figures for people who finished the program, reported at the 4-digit CIP level, so specializations within one field share a figure. That is a different measurement from the occupation-wide wages further down this page.
| # | Program | Graduates / yr | Share of pipeline | Schools | Grad earnings (1 yr) | Median debt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CIP 51.0711 | 1,344 | 58.5% | 20 | $30,774 | $17,375 |
| 2 | CIP 51.3201 | 779 | 33.9% | 49 | $99,851 | $21,475 |
| 3 | CIP 51.3302 | 119 | 5.2% | 13 | $27,262 | $18,492 |
| 4 | Herbalism/Herbalistmain feeder CIP 51.3702 | 56 | 2.4% | 5 | — | $29,166 |
Top 50 schools by graduates into this job
Counting every feeder program a school offers, not just its largest one.
Fields of study that lead to this job
Grouped at the 4-digit CIP level, the tier our program pages are built on. Numbers are graduates per year.
What healthcare practitioners and technical workers, all other earn
What people already working in this job earn (BLS OEWS May 2025). Not graduate earnings.
Top-paying states
Top-paying metro areas
Job outlook
Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections, 2024 to 2034.
Where the jobs are, state by state
Pick a state for in-state pay, the schools there, and the programs they run.
| State | Median pay | Jobs | Concentration | Schools | Graduates / yr |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Indianalimited | $81,290 | 500 | 0.70× | 1 | 762 |
| Illinois | $72,610 | 970 | 0.71× | 7 | 252 |
| Arizona | $62,860 | 690 | 0.95× | 6 | 141 |
| Ohio | $60,670 | 350 | 0.28× | 6 | 138 |
| Pennsylvania | $45,360 | 2,490 | 1.82× | 8 | 127 |
| Massachusettsmoderate | $80,240 | 310 | 0.38× | 3 | 99 |
| New York | $102,990 | 1,110 | 0.51× | 10 | 91 |
| Californiamoderate | $75,800 | 4,180 | 1.02× | 4 | 60 |
| Marylandlimited | $75,000 | 2,110 | 3.39× | 2 | 54 |
| Texasmoderate | $62,420 | 1,460 | 0.46× | 3 | 49 |
| Missourimoderate | $86,110 | 450 | 0.69× | 3 | 48 |
| Oregonlimited | $67,270 | 210 | 0.48× | 1 | 48 |
| North Carolinamoderate | $57,390 | 940 | 0.85× | 3 | 31 |
| Virginialimited | $63,410 | 530 | 0.57× | 1 | 27 |
| Tennesseelimited | $63,400 | 1,650 | 2.24× | 1 | 26 |
| Washingtonmoderate | $80,730 | 880 | 1.10× | 3 | 23 |
| Georgiamoderate | $63,230 | 1,770 | 1.60× | 3 | 20 |
| Utahlimited | $67,320 | 160 | 0.41× | 1 | 19 |
| Coloradolimited | $74,480 | 200 | 0.31× | 2 | 16 |
| Wisconsinmoderate | $81,580 | 470 | 0.70× | 4 | 15 |
| Michiganlimited | $77,130 | 1,160 | 1.17× | 1 | 13 |
| North Dakotalimited | $52,240 | 80 | 0.79× | 1 | 12 |
| Floridalimited | $75,900 | 1,070 | 0.48× | 2 | 10 |
| Idaholimited | $62,490 | 110 | 0.57× | 1 | 10 |
| Iowalimited | $42,070 | 410 | 1.16× | 1 | 8 |
| Nebraskalimited | $49,400 | 200 | 0.88× | 1 | 7 |
| District of Columbialimited | $113,640 | 130 | 0.83× | 1 | 2 |
| New Jerseylimited | $76,570 | 720 | 0.75× | 1 | 2 |
| Connecticutlimited | $78,980 | 420 | 1.11× | 1 | 1 |
Skills and knowledge
From O*NET, the U.S. Department of Labor's occupational database. Importance is a 1 to 5 scale.
What they do day to day
- Monitor maternal condition during labor by checking vital signs, monitoring uterine contractions, or performing physical examinations.
- Identify tubal and ectopic pregnancies and refer patients for treatments.
- Provide necessary medical care for infants at birth, including emergency care such as resuscitation.
- Conduct ongoing prenatal health assessments, tracking changes in physical and emotional health.
- Monitor fetal growth and well-being through heartbeat detection, body measurement, and palpation.
- Establish and follow emergency or contingency plans for mothers and newborns.
- Identify, monitor, or treat pregnancy-related problems such as hypertension, gestational diabetes, pre-term labor, or retarded fetal growth.
- Obtain complete health and medical histories from patients including medical, surgical, reproductive, or mental health histories.
Skills
- Monitoring4.0
- Critical Thinking4.0
- Active Listening3.8
- Speaking3.8
- Reading Comprehension3.6
- Active Learning3.4
- Learning Strategies3.3
- Writing3.1
Knowledge areas
- Customer and Personal Service4.6
- Medicine and Dentistry4.5
- Psychology4.2
- Therapy and Counseling3.9
- English Language3.6
- Biology3.5
Abilities
- Oral Expression4.0
- Problem Sensitivity4.0
- Inductive Reasoning4.0
- Deductive Reasoning4.0
- Oral Comprehension4.0
- Written Comprehension3.9
Core activities
- Assisting and Caring for Others4.7
- Documenting/Recording Information4.5
- Establishing and Maintaining Interpersonal Relationships4.4
- Making Decisions and Solving Problems4.4
- Getting Information4.3
- Identifying Objects, Actions, and Events4.3
How to get in
How to become a healthcare practitioner
- Typical entry education
- Postsecondary nondegree award
Most of these occupations require graduate school. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D. (law degree).
Extensive skill, knowledge, and experience are needed for these occupations. Many require more than five years of experience. For example, surgeons must complete four years of college and an additional five to seven years of specialized medical training to be able to do their job.
Employees may need some on-the-job training, but most of these occupations assume that the person will already have the required skills, knowledge, work-related experience, and/or training.
Every major mapped to this job
The official federal mapping behind the rankings above.
All 4 majors mapped to Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Workers, All Other4 of them graduated someone in the latest IPEDS year. NCES CIP 2020 → SOC 2018 crosswalk.+
- 51.0711Medical/Health Management and Clinical Assistant/Specialist
- 51.3201Bioethics/Medical Ethics
- 51.3302Traditional Chinese Medicine and Chinese Herbology
- 51.3702Herbalism/Herbalist
Related careers
Jobs O*NET identifies as close to this one, with their own pay and outlook.
Common questions
What degree do you need to become a healthcare practitioner?+
You do not need a college degree to become a healthcare practitioner. BLS lists a postsecondary nondegree award (a certificate) as the typical entry-level education. The fields of study that lead most directly to this job are Medical/Health Management and Clinical Assistant/Specialist; Bioethics/Medical Ethics; and Traditional Chinese Medicine and Chinese Herbology (IPEDS completions).
Which college majors lead to becoming a healthcare practitioner?+
The fields of study that lead most directly to this job are Medical/Health Management and Clinical Assistant/Specialist; Bioethics/Medical Ethics; and Traditional Chinese Medicine and Chinese Herbology (IPEDS completions). In all, the NCES CIP-to-SOC crosswalk maps 4 programs to this job, which together graduate about 2,298 people a year.
How much do healthcare practitioners and technical workers, all other earn?+
The median is $65,790 a year (BLS OEWS May 2025). The middle range runs from $38,660 at the 10th percentile to $129,830 at the 90th. This is pay for people already working in the occupation, not the same thing as graduate earnings one year after finishing a degree.
Is demand for healthcare practitioners and technical workers, all other growing?+
BLS projects a +3.6% change in employment between 2024 and 2034, about as fast as average, with roughly 2,600 openings a year nationally once retirements and job changes are counted.
How many schools offer programs for this career?+
84 institutions reported graduates from at least one of the 4 programs that feed this occupation in IPEDS 2024-25. Rankings on this page use graduates per year, because the federal data publishes no enrollment count by program.
What other job titles do healthcare practitioners and technical workers, all other work under?+
Employers advertise this work under many names. O*NET records Homebirth Midwife, Licensed Midwife (LM), Certified Professional Midwife (CPM), Licensed Certified Professional Midwife among the most commonly reported, all mapping to SOC 29-9099.
About the data on this page
Rankings use IPEDS completions 2024-25, degrees awarded per year. That is the closest federal measure of how many people a program puts into a career, because no federal dataset publishes enrollment by program. Wages and employment come from BLS OEWS May 2025, growth and openings from BLS Employment Projections 2024-34, and which majors lead to which jobs from the NCES CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 crosswalk. Occupation descriptions, tasks, skills and tools are O*NET 30.3 (CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor/ETA).
BLS Occupational Employment & Wage Statistics
May 2025Wages, employment counts, location quotients and metro breakdowns.
BLS Employment Projections
2024–34Projected growth, annual openings and typical entry-level education.
IPEDS Completions
2024-25 (provisional)Graduates per year by program and institution — the ranking metric.
College Scorecard, Field of Study
2020-21 cohortsMedian graduate earnings one year after completion, and median debt.
Census Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes
latest availableGraduate earnings 1/5/10 years out, where the state participates.
NCES CIP 2020 and the CIP-to-SOC 2018 crosswalk
CIP 2020 / SOC 2018Which college programs officially lead to this occupation.
O*NET Database 30.3
30.3Tasks, skills, knowledge, tools, job zone and alternate job titles.
Official source →CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor / ETA
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