Looking For a New Job in Healthcare? There’s an App for That

If you’re on the job hunt, there’s a new, recently unveiled tool that can make the job search more accessible to you. 

It’s a free iPhone and iPad job searching application from physician search firm Merritt Hawkins. Since it’s on your phone, you can search for job openings anywhere, anytime. You can also use the app to search for jobs by specialty and region.

This tool is especially handy for physicians now, because there are so many healthcare job openings nationwide.

In fact, in a statement announcing the new app, Merritt Hawkins’ President Mark Smith said physicians are the targets of a “tsunami” of recruiting activity.

Last December, U.S. News and World Report predicted that healthcare careers would be among the 50 best in 2011. Healthcare is a “high-opportunity” profession, the article noted, “With an aging baby boomer generation, healthcare continues to make a strong showing.”

The report was right. In the past 12 months, healthcare added 306,000 jobs. And, just in the month of August alone, it added 30,000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

It’s also worth noting that despite all the buzz about hospitals eating up physicians, physicians' offices hired an impressive amount of employees in August (5,600 of them), according to HealthLeaders Media. That’s about 18 percent of the total 30,000.

And the good news just keeps coming - for those on the job hunt. Experts agree that the number of healthcare jobs available will only increase as a result of health reform.

"The big provisions of health reform, such as the health exchanges, won't kick in until 2014. When they do, it will give millions more access to healthcare," Nigel Gault, chief U.S. economist with IHS Global Insight, told CNN Money. "There's some concern in the industry about whether there's enough qualified health care professionals to meet this demand," he said.

Clearly, if you’re considering looking for a new job it’s a good time to start looking. But proceed cautiously.

There are more ways to search for jobs than ever before, and while that’s a good thing, it can also make it difficult to search productively and efficiently. As a result, it’s especially important to narrow down your job criteria before beginning your search.

One of the biggest things to consider is location. Of course, the geography, weather, culture, etc., of a new location are important. But where you choose to practice can also have a huge influence on your work life and your wallet.

For instance, if you worry a great deal about medical liability rates, where you practice could affect how much you will pay. That’s because these rates vary state-by-state, as does average cost of living, Medicare pay, taxes, physician density, and the number of medical board disciplinary actions taken against physicians.

We recently added an interactive map to our website which provides a sneak peak at our 2011 Best States to Practice Report. You can use the map to identify where states stand when it comes to all of the above criteria. Hopefully, if you are looking for a new job, it will help you identify the best area in which to begin your search.