What is a Health and Wellness Management Degree?

A Health and Wellness Management degree will put you in position to build or continue a lucrative, stable career in which you bring real utility to people’s lives, and help them overcome a host of issues, health problems, and much more. In these positions you’ll supervise systems that facilitate people living healthy lives, and you’ll be handsomely compensated for it. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median pay for Medical and Health Service Managers in 2016 was $96,540, or $46.41 per hour. In 2016, BLS found there were over 352,000 of these positions. They’re expecting a whopping 20% growth in these positions between 2016-26, which is much faster than average. If you earn a health and wellness management degree today, you’ll be in the center of this growth, which amounts to approximately 72,100 new jobs between now and 2026.

Earning a Degree in Health and Wellness that Improves your Career

You might be asking, where can I earn a degree that will qualify me for one of these jobs? You might have related career goals, and be looking for something similar, yet separate from health and wellness management. We’ve worked tirelessly to compile some of the best rankings for higher degrees in health, wellness, management, nutrition, recreation, sports, and much more at Sports Management Degree Hub. Here’s a full list of our rankings, which includes both online and on campus programs. So what are the components that make up a health and wellness management degree?

Curriculum of a Health and Wellness Management Degree

Obviously every program is different, and there are differences at the degree level as well. However, any program in health and wellness management you’re likely to find will include classes in at least some of the following, and which will help you answer questions like:

  • Nutrition: How does it affect and increase or lessen disease, obesity and more? What are the best ways to stage a nutritional intervention in a number of settings?
  • Communication: How can you take your advanced knowledge in health and wellness management and apply it to help others, letting them understand your expertise in a way they apply to their lives?
  • Management: What are the most effective tactics to create systems that run efficiently? What are the best ways to lead others to accomplish a common goal?
  • Anatomy and Physiology: How does the body and its parts function? What impacts that functioning? How will an understanding of individual organs let you make important decisions regarding people’s health and wellness?
  • Legality of Health Systems: How does health work in America? How does that determine your career decisions? Do you want to work to alter the current systems in place?
  • Exercise Science: How does exercise build, rehab and prolong people’s lives?
  • Community Health: How do different economic, racial, and geographic factors alter the healthcare that people receive? What can be done to create more localized, effective, and equitable healthcare for people through management and commitment?
  • Research: What roles do research, and staying abreast of developments in the healthcare industry have in being a successful health and wellness manager?

All this and more can be found in a comprehensive Health and Wellness Management education. But you need to start somewhere. If you’ve earned an associate’s, high school diploma or equivalent, you’re ready to go on a Bachelor’s in Health and Wellness Management. Here we’ve ranked The 8 Best Online Bachelors in Health and Wellness Management Degree Programs. If you’ve earned an undergraduate degree, no matter what discipline it was in, there are Master’s programs in Health and Wellness Management that would be lucky to have you. We’ve ranked the The 10 Best Online Masters in Health and Wellness Management Degree Programs, and top online Master’s programs in Health Education at the preceding links.

Bachelor’s and Master’s in Health and Wellness Management

Bachelor’s in Health and Wellness Management:

  • Give a foundation in the field of health and wellness management.
  • Cover fundamentals in the field including scientific, legal, and leadership factors and qualities that impact it.
  • Learn to plan, promote and execute a number of different events, programs, and understand what goes into the successes and failures of those who have come before you.

Master’s in Health and Wellness Management:

  • Tackle advanced aspects of health and wellness management.
  • You’ll learn more about the intricacies in health science and legality, while building further research and leadership skills.
  • Specialize in different aspects of health and wellness management, and prepare for a career through quality internships and culminating projects.

Qualities, Attributes and Skills Needed for Health and Wellness Managers

Careers are a combination of skills, experience and credentials. However, your skills, attributes, and qualities are often overlooked in favor of so-called pragmatism. That doesn’t mean you should overlook them, especially in deciding what you want to do with your life. Here are some attributes that will give let you look at your personality in relation to working in health and wellness management. Ask yourself, how strong am I in these categories, and how big of an impact on the work I do in school and beyond will my strengths and weaknesses in them have?

  • Patience
  • Empathy
  • Communication
  • Analytical Thinking
  • Technology Skills
  • Organization
  • Time Management
  • Legal Understanding
  • Attention to Detail
  • Creativity
  • Relationship Building
  • Resiliency

Obviously there are many more qualities needed to work in health and wellness management, but this is a good start. The next thing to consider is what jobs/careers you’d like to have in this multi-faceted, blossoming world:

Jobs and Careers in Health and Wellness Management

  • Public Health Educator: You’ll work to educate communities on health practices and implement programs to improve their lives. The median salary for these roles was $51,960 in 2015, and these roles were projected for a 9-13% growth between 2014-24.
  • Community Health Worker: Work on the cutting edge of providing access to healthcare to the people who need it the most. The median annual salary for these roles was $36,300 in 2015, and there was a 14%+ growth predicted between 2014-24.
  • Health Services Manager: In this role, you’ll shape and organize health services for a clinic, department or facility. The median annual salary for these roles was $94,500 in 2015, and there was a 14%+ growth predicted between 2014-24.
  • Health Coach: Here you’ll work with clients or organizations to promote and build healthier lifestyles, figure out health needs, and much more. The median annual salary for these roles was $51,960 in 2015, and there was 9-13% growth predicted between 2014-24.

These are just some of the many jobs within this rapidly developing field. You might also want to consider some related degrees here:

Fields and Degrees Related, yet Separate from Health and Wellness Management

  • If you’re more interested in Sports Management, consider these these rankings, which tackle sports management, sports management MBA’s and sports medicine.
  • If you’re looking to break into Kinesiology, look here.
  • Perhaps you want to specialize in health education or nutrition.

At all of those links you’ll find highly researched rankings of undergraduate and graduate degrees in those fields. For a full list of our rankings, go here.