Good health promotes the well-being of everyone and is important for building prosperous communities to attain the Sustainable Development Goals 2030 in order to transform our world. According to United Nations, more than six million children still die before their fifth birthday each year, and only half of all women in developing regions have access to the health care they need.  This brings us to the next career field that we will be talking about among the marketable career fields in Uganda, Health Science.

HEALTH SCIENCES

Health Science career field is about the delivery of health care to humans and animals through the application of science, engineering, mathematics and technology. In other words, it is the field in which knowledge is taken from pure science and other related sources and applied to practical and clinical practices to maintain and improve the health of living beings. The branches of health science are many, spanning from traditional and conventional Western medicine to alternative and folk medicine.

Health workers work directly with people as a doctor or physical therapist or on your own by conducting research on diseases and other important health information. The ratio of health workers to the population in the country is very alarming for example; the dentist to patient was estimated at 1 : 175,000 people, the doctor to patient ratio was estimated at 1 : 24,725 in 2013, with a nurse to patient ratio of 1 : 11,000. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends 1 physician per 1,000 people.

According to the survey conducted by the New Vision newspaper to analyze job opportunities advertised in 2015 and 2016, Health Science took 12% (1,024) of the advertised jobs. The health sector has a shortfall at 59% of the 57,050 required health workers according to the Ministry of Health.

FUNCTIONS

The functions of the health science careers are planning, managing and providing therapeutic services, diagnostic services, health informatics, support services, and biotechnology research and development.

FUTURE JOBS

The Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Sports, Career Guidance Handbook shows the following jobs in this career field:

  • Physicians
  • Nurses
  • Dentists
  • Pharmacist
  • Paramedics
  • Medical Clinical Officer
  • Clinical Psychiatric Officer
  • Dental Officers
  • Nutritionist
  • Environmental Health Officers
  • Medical Entomologist
  • Medical Radiographer
  • Medical Records’ Officer
  • Respiratory therapy
  • Pharmaceutical
  • Veterinarian
  • Orthopedics Technologist
  • Pharmacists
  • Physiotherapist
  • Audiologist
  • Microbiologist
  • Speech pathologists.

JOB QUALIFICATIONS

The major requirement was work or job-oriented skills. About 41% of the employers required applicants to have an undergraduate degree and 51% wanted people who are skilled. Here is a summary of the job qualifications.

COURSES

An applicant can apply for the following courses;

COURSE ENTRY QUALIFICATIONS

  • Direct Entry; the candidates should have a minimum of two (2) principle passes in Science A ‘level subjects obtained at the same sitting or its equivalent in relevant subjects.
  • Diploma entry scheme; the candidate should hold a relevant diploma in any Health Science courses.
  • Mature age entry scheme; the candidate should have a pass in the mature age entry examinations with at least 50% and must be 25 years and above with a certificate or diploma in any Health Science course.

NOTE: Candidates who have obtained one (1) principle pass or its equivalent in relevant subjects can apply for diploma and certificate programmes. For certificate courses, candidates must have attained a minimum of 5 credits at O ‘level.

(SOURCES: The New Vision newspaper university guide, the Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Sports, Career Guidance Handbook, the Ministry of Health, World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations and the Uganda Bureau of Statistics)