Health Education Specialists

Also Called:

Clinical Instructor,

Health Education Specialist,

Health Educator,

Public Health Educator

What they do: Provide and manage health education programs that help individuals, families, and their communities maximize and maintain healthy lifestyles. Use data to identify community needs prior to planning, implementing, monitoring, and evaluating programs designed to encourage healthy lifestyles, policies, and environments. May link health systems, health providers, insurers, and patients to address individual and population health needs. May serve as resource to assist individuals, other health professionals, or the community, and may administer fiscal resources for health education programs.

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Human Services

Career Cluster

What do they typically do on the job?

  • Prepare and distribute health education materials, such as reports, bulletins, and visual aids, to address smoking, vaccines, and other public health concerns.
  • Develop and maintain cooperative working relationships with agencies and organizations interested in public health care.
  • Maintain databases, mailing lists, telephone networks, and other information to facilitate the functioning of health education programs.

Personality

People interested in this work like activities that include helping people, teaching, and talking.

Integrity

Cooperation

Dependability

Attention to Detail

Concern for Others

Independence

Interests

Career interests describe the perspectives and interests of people who enjoy the type of work involved in this career.

Discover what your interests are by taking the Interest Profiler Quiz

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Social

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Investigative

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Conventional

Knowledge

People who want to pursue this career have knowledge in these areas.

Business

  • Customer service

  • Administrative services

Education and Training

  • Teaching and course design

Arts and Humanities

  • English language

Math and Science

  • Psychology

Abilities

Whether you have received formal training or not, these types of abilities are helpful in this career.

Verbal

  • Communicate by speaking

  • Communicate by writing

Ideas and Logic

  • Make general rules or come up with answers from lots of detailed information

  • Notice when problems happen

Skills

People who want to pursue this career have skills in these areas.

Basic Skills

  • Listening to others, not interrupting, and asking good questions

  • Talking to others

Social

  • Understanding people's reactions

  • Changing what is done based on other people's actions

People and Technology Systems

  • Thinking about the pros and cons of different options and picking the best one

  • Figuring out how a system should work and how changes in the future will affect it

Work Values

Work values describe how your core beliefs align with those commonly needed for this career.

Relationships

Occupations that satisfy this work value allow employees to provide service to others and work with co-workers in a friendly non-competitive environment. Corresponding needs are Co-workers, Moral Values and Social Service.

Independence

Occupations that satisfy this work value allow employees to work on their own and make decisions. Corresponding needs are Creativity, Responsibility and Autonomy.

Achievement

Occupations that satisfy this work value are results oriented and allow employees to use their strongest abilities, giving them a feeling of accomplishment. Corresponding needs are Ability Utilization and Achievement.

Does this sound like something you'd like to do?

1. Do some research
  • Identify how your interests, values, and strengths match this occupation
  • Talk to someone who works in this field or spend a day job shadowing
  • Use the colleges and training directory to explore programs related to this career
2. Plan your next move

Data for NSI career cards comes from the following: Idaho Department of Labor, US Bureau of Labor Statistics, O*NET, MyNextMove, and Career OneStop