You drag your body out of bed each morning, dreading another day spent staring at the lifeless green screen. The human element is definitely missing from your job. our only consolation? Crashing on the couch to catch the latest saves on ER and Scrubs.

Veg no more -- in more than 469,000 health care establishments across the country, workers fuse human compassion with advanced medical technology to tend to the needs of real people. From cleansing a child's scraped knee to caring for the terminally ill, dedicated professionals like you work hard to improve the lives of those around them.

You Should Know
• There's a tremendous amount of rewarding work available in the health services field, particularly in hospitals. Even though they account for less than two percent of all health care facilities, they employ almost 45 percent of all industry workers, including government-run hospitals.

• Health care positions employ over 11 million people nationwide, including the self-employed.

• Approximately 13 percent of all jobs created between 2000 and 2010 will be in the health services field. Nine out of the 20 occupations expected to grow the fastest in coming years are in the health care industry.

• The health care industry includes establishments ranging from small private practices, which may only have one or two employees, to large, highly active inner-city hospitals that employ thousands of people in a wide variety of capacities. Over half of all non-hospital establishments employ fewer than five workers, and conversely, nearly two-thirds of hospital employees work in establishments with more than 1,000 employees.

Break It Down
So what is this career going to cost you, timewise? In 2000, nonsupervisory workers averaged 33.1 hours per week, compared with 34.5 for all private industry workers. Home health care workers put in 29.5 hours per week on average, and employees of nursing and personal care facilities worked 32.6 hours. Finally, hospital workers averaged 35 hours, so any way you slice it, you’re clocking below the average 40-hour work week.