The growth in the number of people looking for online health care degrees is no big surprise. Healthcare reform, an aging baby boomer population and longer life expectancy have all fueled a demand in degrees that puts it at one of the top spots for job openings.

In addition, while the healthcare industry demand is there, so are your personal life's demands. Because of this, and the simple fact that the demand for workers is outweighing the supply, it's also no surprise that the availability of more flexible online degrees is on the rise too.

While online healthcare degrees are available for nursing, other specialty online healthcare degrees are available as well. Degree programs including respiratory therapy, radiology, and medical assistant are just a few of the other online degree programs available.

In an industry with so much personal and clinical hands-on contact, it's obvious that these degree programs are going to require some time spent in classrooms, clinics and/or hospitals as well. Part of your online health care degree search should be to uncover exactly how much clinical time requirements you will need to allow for. As with any other online program though, the bulk of your class work will still likely be done from the luxury of your home.

For those looking for a position in a hot industry but in a non-clinical role, healthcare certificate programs are available in fields like medical billing, medical assistant or medical transcription as well. Unlike the clinical positions (nursing, respiratory therapy, radiology...etc.), these certificate programs can usually be completed entirely online.

For those already in the field, there are online health care degrees available for those pursuing advanced degrees too. Finding a classroom environment is challenging for a 9-5'er. Try finding a classroom environment that fits into a nurses 3-11 calendar or their Sunday-Wednesday 12 hours/day schedule. You already know this would be hard, if not impossible. In response, many universities are offering online health care degrees for both Bachelor and Master degrees in nursing as well as other fields of study.

Take some time and request free detailed information including admissions requirements, costs and general course requirements from several schools. If it seems like a pain just remember that you're taking a big step here. You owe it to yourself to have at least a few options to put next to each other to truly do an apples-to-apples comparison of the different programs.