The generic anwer to the question of what is a health educator is someone who educates the general public on how to lead a healthy lifesytle. This teaching consists of teaching people about living healthy lives in many different areas which the main categories can include physicial, mental, emotional among others, with subcategories that conist of; healthy body image, avoiding STD’s, smoking and drinking cessation, early detection of diseases, eating right, working out and how to do so safely, eating disorders and much more and can be taught in the form of lectures, video format, in classrooms, one on one as well as to groups of people in the community which teachers that do this are often referred to as a “community health educator”.
A health educator generally must attain a bachelors degree to enjoy an entry level position, and can choose to acheive degrees as high as PHD’s and can earn anywhere from the lowest percentile which is around $40,000 a year to over $150,000 depending on which specialty one works in. A health educator can also choose to get a Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES) certification through the National Commission for Health Education Credentialing (NCHEC) which can give one seniority over other applicants as the NCHEC is a maing force in the Health Education feild.
To follow up the question of what a health educator is, they are also people that enjoy working with people aside from teaching them the methods to acheive better and/or optimal health. Health educators tend to possess attributes such as:
- Great communicators.
- Comfortable when speaking to both individuals as well as adults.
- Have a sensitivity to different cultures and acceptance for all types of people as a health educator will be administering their knowledge to all races.
- Posess creativity that is vital for one to have when it comes to creating health education programs which need to cater to the audience that is going to be spoken to.
- One must also live a healthy lifestyle.
What is a Health Eductor – Job Desciption
As far as what a health educator does, below is a list of what health educators do on the job.
- Assessing one and getting familiar with their condition which then they can offer alternatives therapies to help them cope as well as recover.
- Marketing their health education program through different methods of advertisement which can include; news paper ads, social meida campaigns, word or mouth, flyers, radio advertising and more.
- Applying for government and private grants that will allow them to fund their health education programs.
- Writing articles on health education for the purpose of publishing.
- Networking with other people and organizations who are interested in health education as well to both collaborate as well as inform them with information. This also includes maintaining a database of the contacts that one makes.
- Most important of all, convincing and empowering people to lead a healthy lifestyle through the education you are teaching.
If after you read this information of what a health eductor is, and want to learn about schools in which you can attain a degree through, visit the following which will take you to all the information you need to know about health education schools as well as what is taught and more.
