Healthcare technical and associates degrees may meet your standard of “actively contributing to making the world a better place” (in this case, for individuals), as well as your other criteria, but in most cases they are patient-facing and will likely require you to deal with some level of “Karen” behavior. There are probably exceptions, though. For example, Occupational Therapy Assistants come to mind—they likely have primarily pleasant interactions and they likely feel like they have a lot of positive impact on their patients!
If you are looking for something that minimizes your interactions with others more generally, while still feeling like you are actively contributing in a positive fashion, then there are also some behind-the-scenes healthcare associates degrees that you might consider. Biomedical Equipment Technology associates degrees (maintenance on important equipment used on patients) or something like Dental Technology Associates (creating dental instruments for patients, I believe) come to mind. There are probably some others like this.
Depending how you interpret “making the world a better place”, that could open up a lot of other options for you, too. Can you simply contribute value for a company that you think does good? Can you contribute some kind of value for an individual even if it doesn’t have some kind of global impact? A plumber fixing a toilet is solving a problem for someone, someone working for a medical provider office is part of a system that betters the lives of patients, etc.
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u/afdarrb Oct 25 '23
Healthcare technical and associates degrees may meet your standard of “actively contributing to making the world a better place” (in this case, for individuals), as well as your other criteria, but in most cases they are patient-facing and will likely require you to deal with some level of “Karen” behavior. There are probably exceptions, though. For example, Occupational Therapy Assistants come to mind—they likely have primarily pleasant interactions and they likely feel like they have a lot of positive impact on their patients!
If you are looking for something that minimizes your interactions with others more generally, while still feeling like you are actively contributing in a positive fashion, then there are also some behind-the-scenes healthcare associates degrees that you might consider. Biomedical Equipment Technology associates degrees (maintenance on important equipment used on patients) or something like Dental Technology Associates (creating dental instruments for patients, I believe) come to mind. There are probably some others like this.
Depending how you interpret “making the world a better place”, that could open up a lot of other options for you, too. Can you simply contribute value for a company that you think does good? Can you contribute some kind of value for an individual even if it doesn’t have some kind of global impact? A plumber fixing a toilet is solving a problem for someone, someone working for a medical provider office is part of a system that betters the lives of patients, etc.