If you're a fan of TV shows like "ER," "Scrubs," and "Grey's Anatomy"
and live vicariously through on-screen doctors, nurses, and hospital techs, you
should consider real-life health care careers. Take your science-field
aspirations off the couch, out of primetime, and into the classroom at health
care schools. You'll be rewarded both financially and emotionally. In fact, some
hospitals offer experienced nurses up to $14,000 as signing bonuses alone apart
from their salaries. And, statistics show that 400,000 nursing positions will be
available come 2012. If nursing's not your forte, there are plenty of health
care programs that focus on lab tech training and lead to lucrative health care
careers. For instance, radiological technologists and technicians earned an
average salary of $43,410 in 2003. X-ray and nuclear medicine programs get you
ready to earn even higher pay than that.
