Beginning your Hospital Administration Career

Job hunting, job seeking, or job searching is the act of looking for employment, due to unemployment, underemployment, discontent with a current position, or a desire for a better position. The immediate goal of job seeking is usually to obtain a job interview with an employer which may lead to getting hired.

If you are looking for an administration position in a healthcare setting, the first step in the process is updating your resume, where you should highlight your relevant skills and certifications, experiences, and any healthcare-related knowledge. Consider earning certifications related to healthcare administration, such as Certified medical administrative assistant (CMAA).

The next step could be posting your CV on platforms such as LinkedIn, or Indeed, as well as specialized healthcare job boards, to find a position in a healthcare setting. On these platforms you can ususally browse jobs by location and category. In addition, joining online forums, LinkedIn groups, and social media communities related to healthcare administration can expand your network.

Moreover, attending healthcare events, workshops and seminars can offer opportunities to meet professionals in the industry.

Apply for positions that closely match your skills and interests. Write a cover letter expressing your interest in healthcare administration and how your skills align with the needs of the position you are applying for.

Vocabulary

Preparing your curriculum vitae (CV) is an important step in the job searching process. There are different CV templates, but they should all include these common elements:

• Contact information: your name and surnames, address, telephone number, your e-mail address, your LinkedIn address (optional), and your professional website, if you have one. Your photo is optional, except when especifically required.
• Summary: Summarize your key qualifications and experiences, including a brief statement highlighting your career goals and what you can contribute to the company. It will serve as the employer’s first impression of you, so it should encourage them to know furhter details about your background and skills.
• Work experience: your relevant job experience should be listed in reverse chronological order, that is, starting with your most recent job. Include the name of the company, your job title (administrative assistant, medical assistant, coder, etc), dates of employment, and a brief description of your responsibilities and achievements (I managed a team of 10 people, I contributed to creating a good working atmosphere, etc.).
• Skills: highlight technical and soft skills.
• Education: include any relevant certifications or training programs that you have completed. Include the name of the school, degree you had in each one, and the date you completed them.
• References: here it is common to write “References available upon request”, which means that you will give the information when necessary. Employers do not look for references until the end of the interview, so it is not really necessary to include them in your CV. However, you may choose to include actual references, if you consider it necessary.

See a chart with an overview of Spanish educational system:

Source: todofp.es

The Spanish and the British school systems

Spain, the UK and the USA have different school systems, so it is often complicated to explain your education in English from the point of view of the Spanish school system. Here is the list of the educational levels in Spanish and English:

When you write your CV in English, you will have to face the challenge of translating your Spanish academic degrees into English. Given the differences between the school systems of Spain and those of Great Britain or the USA, a literal translation of your degree often lacks clarity. For instance, a title in the formative cycle of Health Documentation for un títol del cicle formatiu de documentació sanitària is not easy to understand for a British person. Instead, you could say: a higher national certificate in Health Documentation.

The following table shows the approximate equivalences between the Spanish and the British academic degrees.

There is no exact correspondence between the names of the professional studies in English and Catalan. You can use a general term. For example:

Similarly, you can say:

Please note that these are not standard terms in English, but they serve to explain something that does not exist in the British educational system.

In Great Britain and the USA, there are no language schools equivalent to the Escola Oficial d’Idiomes (EOI). There’s no specific term for this type of schools, but you can say Official School of Languages. For a smaller, private language school, generally called acadèmia d’anglès, the correct term is simply language school. It is wrong to say English academy.

See the names of the schools in each educational level:

• If you are in the nursery school, you go to a nursery school or kindergarten.
• If you are in primary education, you go to a primary school or, simply, a school.
• If you are in secondary education, you go to a secondary school (BrE) or to a highschool (AmE)
• If you are in vocational training, you go to a technical college or a technical school.
• If you are at the university, you go to a university or to a college.

Guinadell Forn completed studies in Health Documentation and Management. She is currently working as a health documentation specialist at Hospital Clínic, in Barcelona, and she is seeking new opportunities to progress in her career. She came across a job advertisement on ‘FindyourJob.co.uk’. Read it:

Guinadell prepared her curriculum for the health documentation technician position. Read it:

The cover letter is a way of introducing yourself and explaining which vacancy you are applying for. You have to make the reason you are writing clear and sell yourself, highlight your most remarkable achievements and focus on those skills that make you a good candidate for the position. Pick up the top qualities the employer is requesting for in the job advert and then revise your CV to make sure they are included there.

Do some research into the company or the organization. Include information about them and tell them what attracts you to the company. Finally, revise your letter, make sure that it has the correct layout with no typing or spelling mistakes.

These are some useful phrases to use in your cover letter:

See Guinadell’s email to apply for the position as a health documentation technician at Pacific Ocean Hospital:

The job interview is one of the significant factors in hiring, which will help the employer to determine if the candidate’s qualifications, experience, workplace preferences, and salary needs are congruent with the position and the organization.

Before going for a job interview, candidates should prepare for it. First, they should conduct a research about the company or organization and read the job description thoroughly. They should also locate the place for the interview and plan the trip to reach there on time. They should dress properly, and feel confident. Previously, they should review common interview questions and prepare responses.

Read the following job interview between the job interviewer, Lea Graham, and Guinadell Forn, whose application was taken into consideration: