The Roles and Careers You Don’t Think About That Keep Kids Safe and Healthy

There are many obvious career paths that are beneficial to families or even the wider communities that they occupy. We understand, of course, the value of healthcare professionals and maybe even social workers.

But how often are parents thanking their lucky stars for a community of toxicologists or public administrators? There are so many ways to make a difference in modern society.

In this article, we take a look at a few of the more obscure career paths that don’t get the same recognition as doctors and nurses, but are weird jobs that matter.

Toxicologist

What does a toxicologist do? It sounds like the sort of job you would see on a CSI show, maybe helping investigators solve a murder. In fact, toxicologists are not focused on crime so much as general safety.

Does metal in food impact a person’s health? What about microplastics? Chemical hazards? These are the questions that weigh on the toxicologist’s mind. They are scientists who study the long-term effects of chemicals and other common environmental hazards on the human body.

They are often the ones who identify how certain foods or behaviors can increase the risk of cancer, for example. Often, they are working with governments to provide a scientific foundation for regulatory requirements. In other words, politicians drafting, say, a public safety bill can support their claims through the findings of a toxicologist, or have them refuted.

Their work is very scientific in nature and often requires hands-on sampling from water sources or other areas where pollution is suspected. They then research both the sample and its possible long-term effects on the human body.

There are, by the way, forensic applications to toxicology that are in fact used in the aiding of criminal justice. This could involve determining if a person has been poisoned, but it might also mean helping to provide an objective answer for how much drugs or alcohol influenced someone’s behavior in the event of a car crash or even a crime.

In many cases, however, their work is broader, not necessarily done with children only in mind, but carried out in a way that positively impacts the entire population.

Public Administrators

What is public administration? Public administration is all about developing policies and procedures that have a positive impact at the community level. Some people refer to these careers as civil service jobs.

To work in this position, you need, perhaps uninventively enough, a degree in public administration. And again, this will sometimes fall under the heading of civil service depending on where you study. This degree will typically fast-track you into a community leadership position.

The course of study will focus not specifically on children, but on the wider needs of a diverse community. Public administrators will have at least a peripheral understanding of risk factors, but their job is also, in many ways, organizational. This requires at least an equally keen grasp of communication and organization.

There are different career paths that a person with a public administration degree can take: emergency management, corrections, municipal operations, research and analysis, human resources, and more. Job prospects tend to increase when the person has obtained a graduate degree.

Regardless of what precise path a professional takes, it’s a good job for anyone who wants to make a difference, particularly through strategic decision-making.

Nursing Specializations

Did you know that there are many dozens of different specializations that a nurse can take if they want to focus on specific areas of care?

For example, a nurse who is particularly moved by the needs of diabetic patients might focus on diabetes education. A nurse who loves working with kids and only kids could specialize to work in the school setting.

A nurse who finds their job most fulfilling when they are working with very high-need young patients could emphasize neonatal care.

Basically, almost any healthcare situation you can imagine has a corresponding nursing specialization – an entire host of professionals who work on this and only this. Some specializations are specific to working with children. Others are not.

Regardless, to specialize as a nurse is to satisfy several different needs. One, it ensures that a community has robust access to highly specialized care. This is something that almost no healthcare system can take for granted in an age of shortages.

It also helps prevent system bottlenecks. Many healthcare systems in larger areas might have a wide variety of professionals, but they don’t have the capacity to handle significant influxes of patients, particularly not when people from neighboring communities are also coming in for that rare and specialized care.

But a nurse with a certification is able to offload some of those patients who would otherwise see a physician. This is helpful because nurses take three to five years to train, whereas MDs take around fifteen years.

A healthcare system that is good at helping its nurses specialize will ensure that it has a healthy and diverse range of employees ready to help children and adults alike.

Social Work Specializations

Again, not exactly a surprising job, except when you take into account how many different variations of social work there really are. In fact, just getting the base credential of a BSW really doesn’t take you very far in the world of social work.

Most professionals are highly encouraged and possibly even required to get a graduate degree and the corresponding certification. This both increases their earning potential and maximizes their opportunities. But at a community impact level, it also gives them the chance to help more people in deeply specific ways.

Sometimes, the impact a social worker will have on a child will be direct. Some social workers, for example, work only with at-risk youth in the hopes of helping them shape their lives toward a successful and productive future.

Other social workers address environmental concerns that could negatively impact a child. Any social worker helping someone navigate the parole system or manage an addiction is probably inadvertently touching the lives of multiple children in the process.

It’s a high-impact career with many different applications. If you’re interested in the world of social work, understand that while graduate education is typically expected, it’s not as cumbersome an obligation as many people assume. Social work graduate degrees can typically be completed in one year or less, making it a relatively accessible course of study for the right person.

Conclusion

Did we forget a job that you hold in high esteem? Almost certainly we did. There are so many ways to keep children safe, and not all of them lie on the other side of a college degree.

You could make a case that EMTs, police officers, or the person holding a stop sign in your school’s crosswalk are all doing their part to help keep kids safe. Add to that mix city code enforcers, public safety officers, parole officers, addiction counselors, and so on.

For communities to truly take into account the needs of their youngest and most vulnerable segments of the population, they need robust social infrastructure. The jobs that help sustain that infrastructure are very diverse.

If you are interested in helping children as part of your career path, think first about what social causes move you the most. There’s a very good chance that there is a job that will allow you to work within that specific niche.