Healthcare Career Opportunities and Challenges: GWP 901 Report

This report, prepared for the GWP 901 Professional Workplace Practice course, provides a comprehensive analysis of career opportunities within the Australian healthcare industry. It examines current labor market trends, including employment rates and skill gaps, and their impact on the healthcare sector. The report specifically investigates two key areas: aged care and community health, evaluating their respective opportunities and threats. It highlights the growth potential in aged care, driven by an aging population, and the increasing demand for community health services due to rising disease rates and technological advancements. The report also addresses potential challenges such as skill shortages, limited full-time employment, and intercultural issues. Furthermore, it explores creative job-seeking strategies, including online searching and personal branding, and offers recommendations for personality development. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of informed career choices and proactive professional development in navigating the healthcare job market.

Running Head: PROFESSIONAL WORKPLACE PRACTICE
PROFESSIONAL WORKPLACE PRACTICE
Name of the Student:
Name of University:
Author Note:

1PROFESSIONAL WORKPLACE PRACTICE
Executive summary
Both the aged healthcare and the community healthcare have opportunities and challenges in the
labour market of Australia. Therefore, it depends on the decisions of the aspirant to choose the
right one associated with the needs and expectation of the aspirant. Moreover, it is also pertinent
for the aspirant to take a creative jo opportunity strategy and also develop the personality in such
a way that it can manage to step forward towards the right job.

2PROFESSIONAL WORKPLACE PRACTICE
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Body.................................................................................................................................................3
Current labour market trends in Australian healthcare industry..................................................3
Career opportunities and threats in aged care..............................................................................4
Opportunities...........................................................................................................................4
Threats.....................................................................................................................................4
Career opportunities and threats in community health................................................................5
Opportunities...........................................................................................................................5
Threats.....................................................................................................................................6
Creative job seeking strategies....................................................................................................6
Online searching......................................................................................................................6
Personal branding....................................................................................................................7
Intercultural challenges................................................................................................................8
Recommendations........................................................................................................................9
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
Reference.......................................................................................................................................11

3PROFESSIONAL WORKPLACE PRACTICE
Introduction
Choosing the right job is a very difficult but important aspect for the aspirants as the
future career development is depending on the right choice at the initial stage. Therefore, it is
pertinent for the students to put focus on the alternative markets as well so that a second option
can be created where the aspirant can take chances of getting jobs. In response to this, the current
report also emphasises on two healthcare job market in terms of aged care and community
health. The report evaluates the market opportunities of both the market and then provide
strategies that can help the aspirant to choose the right job effectively.
Body
Current labour market trends in Australian healthcare industry
The healthcare industry in Australia comprises approximately 1,758,500 employees
which accounts for 13.5% of the total workforce in Australia (Yates 2019). Over the past few
years there are drastic changes in the healthcare industry of Australia with an increase of 24.8%
employment. It is one of the promising aspect of the Australian healthcare industry. However,
the all over unemployment in the Australian labour market was 5.4% in 2018
(Employment.gov.au 2020). There is a steady growth in the unemployment rate that is
considered to be a big challenge for the new aspirants to get job in the Australian market. In fact,
challenges can also be seen in skills of the employees (McLaughlin 2019). It can be stated that in
Australia number of skilled labour is very limited and it creates a challenge to increase the
productivity and quality in different business. Nevertheless, people with higher qualification

4PROFESSIONAL WORKPLACE PRACTICE
degree or MBA have greater advantage to get promising jobs in the healthcare sector as the
industry requires skilled labour.
Career opportunities and threats in aged care
Opportunities
As per the aged care profiles in McLaughlin (2019) it can be stated that career in aged
care is very strong in growth in the future with a lower unemployment characteristic. It is very
promising for the aspirants who are willing to pursue their profession in aged care market.
Moreover, there are almost 176,000 workers are currently employed in the aged care market
(Adzuna.com.au 2016). Therefore, there is no such market vulnerability that the aspirants will
face in order to create an effective organisational practice. Moreover, it can be stated that
vacancies in the market is growing doubled in every year. Henceforth, it can be a great
opportunity for the job seekers to opt for the aged care health profession. The Australian health
care market is very stable right now with lucrative salaries. Moreover, the government also takes
some initiatives to develop the market extensively. The objective of the government is to
promote, restore and maintain health. In this regard, for a health care professional it will be a
great opportunity to seek jobs in the health care industry. In fact, the future growth of the aged
care market also provides enough confidence to the people to pursue career in this sector.
Threats
Nevertheless, there are some potential threats that the aged healthcare sector in Australia
is suffering. The most important problem is lack of skills of the professionals. It is a very
significant challenge for the job aspirants as well because they will not get enough guidance in
their profession due to the lack of skills of the existing employees. For a profession like health

5PROFESSIONAL WORKPLACE PRACTICE
care there is no margin for error. Henceforth, it is crucial for the aspirants to have proper
expertise and skills in the profession (Adzuna.com.au 2016). Furthermore, the vacancy in the
healthcare service is growing at a rapid pace. It almost surpasses the number of aged people lived
in Australia. This negative growth for the job market is not a good sign as the aspirants can doubt
the future of their profession evidently. In addition to this, the percentage of full time employees
is also limited with 33% only with an average rate of 47 years (Joboutlook.gov.au 2020).
Therefore, those figures are very demotivating for the aspirants and considered to be serious
threat for future career profession.
Career opportunities and threats in community health
Opportunities
The figure presented by Australian Bureau of Statistics represents that the number of
diseases in Australia is growing at a rapid pace with smoking, alcohol, poor diets and so on. New
breakthroughs in medical treatments and technologies also make the job role more lucrative for
the new aspirants. Moreover, the financial benefits and attractive salary packages is also attract
the job seekers to pursue their career in the community health care. For instance, the average
salary of a doctor is $65,000 and a trained nurse gets approximately $56,000 (Yates 2019).
However, the research of McLaughlin (2019) predicts that the average salary of the nurses,
doctors and other employees will be increased in the next 5 to 100 years with a considerable rate
of 2-3% per year (Employment.gov.au 2020). As a matter of fact. The healthcare professionals in
Australia are identified as the highest paid professions. Apart from this there are still
opportunities for the community health care professionals to get constant learning opportunities
which is a strategic advantage for them to develop their professional skills through on-job
experiences. Such kind of attractiveness and flexibility is not available in other professions.

6PROFESSIONAL WORKPLACE PRACTICE
Therefore, there is no point for the young aspirants to choose the community development
services as their profession.
Threats
There are still some issues regarding the community healthcare sector. First of all, it can
be stated that lack of infrastructure can bring challenges to the professionals to pursue toward
success. It also hampers the growth of the professionals because they do not get proper
experience in profession and in the process it will damage the future success as well. In addition
to this, lack of skills and unprofessionalism is also a considerable threat to the community health
care services. In fact, the entire health care industry of Australia is suffering from the same
problem of unskilled professionals (McLaughlin 2019). One of the major reason is the limited
percentage of full time professionals. Mostly the professionals are employed in the part time
basis so there are some relaxations that are provided to the part time professionals. It includes the
skills and qualification as well. Therefore, despite of having enough vacancies in the market, no
solid growth of the market has been seen due to the shortage of full time employees. In fact, the
healthcare organisations are also interested more in recruiting part time professionals as it will
help to pay them low in compare to the full time professionals.
Creative job seeking strategies
Online searching
The online search for jobs is a very popular and effective measures that the aspirants are
practices in order to get enough alternatives and pick the right one (Agbali et al. 2019). There are
several authentic job websites that can help to choose and enlist the most effective jobs. One of
the major advantage for the online searching is the time effective measure. It means the online

7PROFESSIONAL WORKPLACE PRACTICE
job search helps the interested people to get enough information and details about any specific
job (Stange, Kotzyba and Nürnberger 2-17). However, there are direct sites of selective
organisation on which the aspirant want to get the job. Therefore, he or she can submit the
resume on the official portal of the organisation or mail to the HR so that an effective
communication can be met. In the job sites there are severe filtration options that the aspirant can
take in order to find out the specific jobs on which he or she is very interested (Hardy III, J.H.,
Ness, A.M. and Mecca, 2017). Therefore, to find out the best possible job the aspirant can seek
help of some of the driving factors like the salary package, the job responsibility, required
qualification, venue of the job and so on. It is important to note that there are further alteration of
the driving factors as it is completely depends on the mind-set and the expectations of the
aspirants.
Personal branding
Personal branding is associated with promotion self so that the respective companies can
get interested in appointing or interviewing the person. As per the research of Agbali et al.
(2019) the role of the personal branding is highly effective after the advent of social media
platforms. Now it becomes easier for the aspirants to upload their resume in the social media
platforms or attaching some images that can help to gain the attention of the respective
companies. For instance, social media platforms like LinkedIn is dedicatedly used for the
professionals who wish to get better jobs and placements in reputed companies (Hardy Ness,
and Mecca 2017). However, for the healthcare services it is less effective as the sector has less
presence in the social media platforms. There are some benefits though for the aspirants to use
the social media platforms as the right mode to attract more employers in the healthcare industry.
There are several professionals who are indirectly associated with the health care industry. They

8PROFESSIONAL WORKPLACE PRACTICE
can recommend the healthcare organisations to check and execute an interview with the aspirant.
Therefore, social media integration in job seeking is high effective and advantageous for the
young aspirant to get better placement even in the competitive market. Therefore, it can be
argued that the social media platforms are somewhat help the aspirants to find better job
opportunities.
Intercultural challenges
There are several potential challenges that the aspirant can face in a multicultural
healthcare sector. The intercultural challenges are as follows,
 Acceptance and respect are most challenging part that a person can face in intercultural
workplace. As opined by Zelenková and Hanesová (2019) respect from the colleagues
and the patients are the fundamental basis of working in a intercultural workplace.
However, the new aspirant can face challenge in organisation due to the cultural stigma
and malpractices. It can be stated that lack of acceptance by the patients and colleagues
can also jeopardize the organisational success to a great extent.
 Challenges in communication can also be a great intercultural challenge. It can be seen
that lack of understanding of the other cultural norms can create serious threat for
aspirant (Rozkwitalska 2017). In a healthcare facility high professionalism is required
and the lack of cultural acknowledgement from both the colleagues and patients and the
new aspirant can definitely foster a communication gap that damages the professional
approach of the aspirant heavily.
 Cultural discrimination and disrespect is a grave threat while working in culturally
diverse workplace. People from different cultural background often get bullied due to

9PROFESSIONAL WORKPLACE PRACTICE
cultural indifferences (Li and Lim 2017). It often turns into catastrophe and racially
abusive that should not be tolerated as a professional behaviour.
Recommendations
There should be some recommendations that can help the aspirant to become an effective
professional in healthcare and at the same time able to choose the right job for his future career
development. The recommendations are as follows,
 Personality development is the most important aspect that the aspirant must build up for
getting better professional approach in occupation. It is important to note that the
personality development also has a long term benefit in terms of paving the career
towards promotion. It is important to note that the personality development also brings
positive vibe within the colleagues and the patients as they cannot overlook the
professional presence of the person.
 Moreover, communication development is another crucial aspect for the aspirant as it will
help him to communicate with the colleagues and at the same time also putting a great
deal of emphasis of the cultural differences in communication. Therefore, it can be stated
that the communication development over the cultural differences is a very important and
significant aspect for the aspirant that can help him to prepare for working in culturally
diverse workplace. Moreover, putting deep stress on the cultural factors also help the
aspirant to gain strategic advantage in developing an effective personality and effective
organisational practice.
 Prioritising the needs and expectation of the aspirant in choosing the right job is also a
pertinent aspect. For this, it is important for the aspirant to initiate a self-assessment. The
purpose of the self-assessment is to understand the inner-strengths and weaknesses that

10PROFESSIONAL WORKPLACE PRACTICE
can help in prioritising the best job. Moreover, the self-assessment also is also capable of
developing a self-development planning that is highly effective for the aspirant to get a
placement even in the competitive market.
Conclusion
The report critically narrates the benefits and challenges in both the two healthcare
market. It can be stated that both the aged healthcare and community healthcare market are
facing severe challenges regarding lack of skills in the workforce and the pressure from the part-
time employees. Based on the evaluation, two potential job seeking strategies have also been
discussed in the report so that the can provide strategic advantage to the aspirant. Furthermore,
some potential challenges from intercultural workplace are also defined in the report that can be
mitigated thoroughly so that the professional development of the aspirant can make a smooth
progress. Therefore, some recommendations are suggested that the aspirant must follow to shape
his career effective and sound. Therefore, it can be concluded the report is very much relevant to
the job opportunities and creates an in-depth analysis over the prospect of the two healthcare job
markets.

11PROFESSIONAL WORKPLACE PRACTICE
Reference
Adzuna.com.au, 2016. Aged Care Job Vacancies Exceed Candidates. [online] Adzuna.com.au.
Available at: <https://www.adzuna.com.au/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Adzuna-February-
Job-Report-Aged-Care1.pdf> [Accessed 27 March 2020].
Agbali, M., Trillo, C., Ibrahim, I.A., Arayici, Y. and Fernando, T., 2019. Are smart innovation
ecosystems really seeking to meet citizens’ needs? Insights from the stakeholders’ vision on
smart city strategy implementation. Smart Cities, 2(2), pp.307-327. Retrieved from
https://www.mdpi.com/2624-6511/2/2/19/pdf
Employment.gov.au, 2020. Demand For Personal Care Workers Growing | Department Of
Education, Skills And Employment. [online] Employment.gov.au. Available at:
<https://www.employment.gov.au/newsroom/demand-personal-care-workers-growing>
[Accessed 27 March 2020].
Hardy III, J.H., Ness, A.M. and Mecca, J., 2017. Outside the box: Epistemic curiosity as a
predictor of creative problem solving and creative performance. Personality and Individual
Differences, 104, pp.230-237. Retrieved from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/306421187_Outside_the_box_Epistemic_curiosity_as_
a_predictor_of_creative_problem_solving_and_creative_performance
Joboutlook.gov.au, 2020. Aged And Disabled Carers | Job Outlook. [online] Joboutlook.gov.au.
Available at: <https://joboutlook.gov.au/Occupation?search=Industry&Industry=Q&code=4231>
[Accessed 27 March 2020].