After taking a few years off with the birth of my children, I am ready to start thinking about being employed again.
I have a BA in Psychology (minor was in cellular/molecular Biology) with a 3.6 GPA, and a MA in Behavioral Science/Psychology with a GPA of 4.0. After getting the master's, I worked for 2 years at a large cancer hospital in their behavioral science department as a Research coordinator (one step above a Research Assistant - all I could get with no previous experience.) I was basically recruiting and training patients on studies.
That job involved heavy patient interaction, but not in a medical way (only behavioral, though I was required to have an understanding of some medical terminology in order to prescreen potential study candidates).
Though I have always thought I would enjoy the medical side of things, I was never able to invest the time/money in medical school. And from what I knew about nursing (mainly the strange hours/shifts) I never had interest in that field.
In my work at the hospital, I observed Physician Assistants and it seems like a career I would enjoy, but again I don't know with three very young children that I would be able to invest the time/money in an additional master's degree (especially considering that I'm missing many prerequisites in chemistry and anatomy.) Another field I thought about was Genetic Counseling, but again the same problem with the time/money and missing prerequisites. I'm not sure I want to do the PhD in Psychology either; I don't really want an academic job, but rather something more hands-on with patients and probably more on the medical side.
The reason I don't want to go back to doing what I was doing before as a Research coordinator is that the pay was just way too low to justify putting three kids in daycare. The pay was in the mid $30k's, and to justify working I really need to be making at least $50k per year.
I'm looking for some suggestions or ideas, please! I'd really appreciate some help.
I have a BA in Psychology (minor was in cellular/molecular Biology) with a 3.6 GPA, and a MA in Behavioral Science/Psychology with a GPA of 4.0. After getting the master's, I worked for 2 years at a large cancer hospital in their behavioral science department as a Research coordinator (one step above a Research Assistant - all I could get with no previous experience.) I was basically recruiting and training patients on studies.
That job involved heavy patient interaction, but not in a medical way (only behavioral, though I was required to have an understanding of some medical terminology in order to prescreen potential study candidates).
Though I have always thought I would enjoy the medical side of things, I was never able to invest the time/money in medical school. And from what I knew about nursing (mainly the strange hours/shifts) I never had interest in that field.
In my work at the hospital, I observed Physician Assistants and it seems like a career I would enjoy, but again I don't know with three very young children that I would be able to invest the time/money in an additional master's degree (especially considering that I'm missing many prerequisites in chemistry and anatomy.) Another field I thought about was Genetic Counseling, but again the same problem with the time/money and missing prerequisites. I'm not sure I want to do the PhD in Psychology either; I don't really want an academic job, but rather something more hands-on with patients and probably more on the medical side.
The reason I don't want to go back to doing what I was doing before as a Research coordinator is that the pay was just way too low to justify putting three kids in daycare. The pay was in the mid $30k's, and to justify working I really need to be making at least $50k per year.
I'm looking for some suggestions or ideas, please! I'd really appreciate some help.