Health and Wellness Coach
Career Area: Health Care including Nursing
Occupation Group: Health Education and Counseling
Salary
Percentile wages tell how much a certain percentage of an overall population in a geographic area or within a given industry or field makes. The percentile wage estimate is the value of a wage below which a certain percent of workers fall.
An example would be the 25th percentile, 25 percent of workers employed in that occupation earn less and 75 percent earn more than the estimated wage value. At the 75th percentile, 75 percent of workers employed in that occupation earn less and 25 percent earn more than the estimated wage value.
A typical Health and Wellness Coach earns the following wages (national and state):
State
The average salary in North Carolina for those pursuing this career is $42,728
National
The average salary in the United States for those pursuing this career is $45,126
What Does a Professional in this Career Do?
Works with clients to establish goals for improving their health and helps them to follow healthy behaviors. Coaches and supports clients; may focus on fitness, nutrition, stress management or other issues that affect health and wellness.
Employment Trends
The job demand and job growth statistics shown here were derived from job posts over the past year. Expected job growth projections are extrapolated from year-over-year job post listing history.
Job demand and job growth is expected at the following rates:
| Location | Growth | |
|---|---|---|
| North Carolina | 123 | +10.2% |
| Nationwide | 4183 | +10.3% |
Skills
A professional in this position typically utilizes the following skills in the course of everyday work in this exciting and challenging field:
Baseline Skills
The following are baseline skills every Health and Wellness Coach is expected to have in order to experience success in this field:
- Communication Skills: The ability to convey information to another effectively and efficiently.
- Computer Literacy: The ability to use computers and related technology efficiently for work tasks.
- Listening: Expertise in focusing on the words and intention being communicated by another in a way that demostrates focus and enhances the effectiveness of the interaction.
- Teamwork / Collaboration: Experience working in collaborative efforts with a team to achieve a common goal or to complete a task in the most effective and efficient way.
- Multi-Tasking: In computing, multitasking is a concept of performing multiple tasks (also known as processes) over a certain period of time by executing them concurrently.
Specialized Skills
These skills are specific to working in this career:
- Scheduling: Working experience making schedules, which are basic time-management tools, consisting of a list of times at which possible tasks, events, or actions are intended to take place withing an organization.
- Health Education: Health education is a profession of educating people about health.
- Health Promotion Programs: Health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve, their health.
- Sales: Experience selling products or services to consumers.
- Motivational Interviewing: Motivational interviewing (MI) refers to a counseling approach in part developed by clinical psychologists William R. Miller and Stephen Rollnick.
Distinguishing Skills
Any Health and Wellness Coach that possesses the following skills will stand out against the competition:
- Community Health: Community health is a major field of study within the medical and clinical sciences which focuses on the maintenance, protection and improvement of the health status of population groups and communities as opposed to the health of individual patients.
- Mental Health: Mental health is a level of psychological well-being, or an absence of mental illness.
- Care Planning: Patient care is providing care that is respectful of, and responsive to, individual patient preferences, needs and values, and ensuring that patient values guide all clinical decisions.
- Stress Management: Stress Management refers to the wide spectrum of techniques and psychotherapies aimed at controlling a person's levels of stress, especially chronic stress, usually for the purpose of improving everyday functioning.
- Condition Management: Disease management is defined as a system of coordinated healthcare interventions and communications for populations with conditions in which patient self-care efforts are significant.
Experience
This position typically requires the following level of experience. The numbers presented in the pie charts below were derived from actual job posts over the past year. Not all job postings list experience requirements.
| Experience Required | % |
| 0 to 2 years | 53% |
| 3 to 5 years | 45% |
| 6 to 8 years | 1% |
Many of the programs offered through NC State are designed for working professionals who need additional credentials to enhance existing work experience.
Students who do not have the expected level of experience may wish to look into internship and employment opportunities.
Common Job Titles
It is possible to find work in this field in positions commonly listed as the following job titles:
- Health Coach
- Health/Wellness Coach
- Health & Wellness Coach
- Wellness Specialist
- Health Promotion Specialist
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