Online Education for Healthcare Professionals

Benefits and Tips

Learn about MCPHS’s online healthcare programs for working professionals, designed to enhance skills and meet learners where they are.

If you’re already working in the healthcare industry, further education is available. Just because you’ve begun your career doesn’t mean you can’t continue learning and growing your skills. In fact, most employers would encourage you to enhance your existing knowledge with online professional development courses. The issue is, working professionals have less time to go back to school, which is why online education has grown in popularity.

Curious about what your options are and how these classes could help your career flourish? Use this blog as your guide.

Types of Online Healthcare Education Programs

No matter what stage you’re at in your career, online healthcare education can help you enhance your existing abilities and provide key opportunities to grow in your current or future role. And with countless types of online programs available, you can find the right solution that’s most suitable for your situation. Here are some of the most common types of online healthcare education programs:

Online Degree Programs

Online degree programs in healthcare range from associate to doctoral levels, offering flexibility for students balancing work and education. These programs include nursing, healthcare administration, public health, and medical laboratory sciences, among others.

Online Certifications and Continuing Education

Healthcare professionals can enhance their expertise and stay current with industry advancements through online certification and continuing education courses. These programs help professionals meet licensing requirements, specialize in fields such as telemedicine or gerontology, and improve patient care.

Online Professional Development and Skill Training

Beyond formal degrees and certifications, healthcare professionals can benefit from skill-building courses tailored to career advancement. Online platforms offer training in leadership, medical coding, patient communication, and emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare.

Benefits of Online Education for Healthcare Professionals

You have many options for online education, but why consider this path when you’re already working in your desired field? While getting a graduate degree or pursuing continuing medical education isn’t for everyone, the benefits that online schooling offers learners are unmatched:

Flexibility and Convenience

Online healthcare programs enable you to learn when and where you want. If you work during typical school hours, you can listen to lectures and complete assignments during the evening or early morning hours. On the other hand, if you have night shifts, you can still sleep and get an online degree simultaneously. Plus, you can live anywhere in the world, rather than relocate based on where your university is.

Cost-Effectiveness

Often, online healthcare programs are less expensive than fully in-person schooling, meaning you can gain access to the same types of learning courses without spending as much.

Access to Specializations

If you have a specific area of interest, like healthcare administration or family medicine, an online continuing education program or graduate degree can help you easily access a wide range of specializations and certificates. These courses can ensure you gain knowledge in niche areas that will enable you to make your role more specific.

Career Advancement

The more you know about healthcare administration and the medical world, the better you’ll be at your job. Professional development sets you up to advance quicker through the ranks in any healthcare setting, meaning an online nursing education can help you secure your dream role.

Choosing the Right Online Healthcare Education Program

Step 1: Set Your Career Objectives

When you know what your career goals are, it’s easier to select the perfect online schooling. Determine what your objectives are—whether that’s to get a promotion or enter a more specialized nursing profession—and this will guide your search.

Step 2: Research Accredited Programs

With your goals in mind, look at the different accredited universities with online programs available to you. Which ones have certificates or graduate programs you find interesting? Narrow your options based on what’s most important to you.

Step 3: Compare Learning Formats

Different programs will provide different learning formats. For example, some programs may be very independent, giving you pre-recorded lectures and homework assignments you can do at your own pace. On the other hand, some options may have virtual lectures and interactive activities that you complete regularly.

Step 4: Evaluate Course Curriculum

Look at the online course options and what those entail. Some subjects may appeal to you and help you meet your career goals better than others.

Step 5: Compare Tuition Costs

While cost shouldn’t be the main deciding factor when selecting a program, it does impact your overall graduate education experience. Compare university tuition costs to see which one fits best within your budget.

Step 6: Check Requirements

Identify what’s needed from you to apply and be accepted into the program. This can include certain prerequisites or a minimum number of hours you’ll need to put into the homework per week.

Step 7: Read Reviews and Stories

Hear from other like-minded healthcare professionals looking to accomplish similar career goals about their experience with the programs. Check out student success stories to see what people have gotten out of the certifications in the past.

Step 8: Apply and Enroll

Once you’ve narrowed down your options, apply and enroll to start your online healthcare education.

Emerging Trends in Online Learning

While some fads won’t stick around forever, these online learning trends are here to stay—and knowing about them can help you utilize them to your advantage:

• AI & machine learning: Artificial intelligence is being used to personalize learning experiences, predict knowledge gaps, and recommend tailored content for each learner.
• Virtual reality (VR) & augmented reality (AR): VR and AR are transforming healthcare education by providing immersive simulations for procedures and patient interactions.
• Telehealth training: As telemedicine becomes a standard in patient care, online platforms now offer specialized training in virtual communication, remote diagnostics, and patient data privacy.
• Microlearning: Bite-sized modules help healthcare workers absorb information quickly, reinforce concepts through repetition, and stay current without committing to long training sessions.
• Interactive learning: Interactive tools like case-based learning, real-time feedback, branching scenarios, and live Q&A sessions keep learners engaged and encourage deeper understanding through participation.

MCPHS Online Course Offerings for Healthcare Professionals

At Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (MCPHS), there’s no shortage of options, no matter what your specific circumstances are or what you hope to achieve. We offer continuing and professional education opportunities, online continuing education sessions, and flexible professional certificate programs.