Key data
Job description: Health Manager
Company: Breitenstein health facility and hospital of the VAEB Social Insurance Institution for Railway and Mining
I work in: Breitenstein, Lower Austria
I’ve worked here since: 2009
My contact
What I do:
I act as an interface between the medical management and administration management in terms of the strategic and economic focus and the transfer of information relating to core VAEB issues. My tasks including implementing health goals concerning the health policy focus of this social insurance institution.
I manage the following projects:
* Standardised nutrition at the VAEB
* Diabetes prevention – standardised care for those at risk of diabetes
I also contribute to various projects such as the Diabetes Mellitus Health Dialogue, a VAEB telemedicine follow-up programme and Serious Games for Health at the VAEB.
Why I love my job:
- Innovative thinking
- Developing creative results as a result of interdisciplinary team work
- Project work and internal project controlling
Important skills in my job:
- Well-founded knowledge and understanding in the field of health promotion and prevention
- Independent and reliable work approach
- Ability to work under pressure, time flexibility and communication skills
My biggest accomplishment so far:
Development of a nutritional standard. The issues of healthy eating, obesity and Diabetes mellitus were standardised and these standards were actively implemented across the country by all of the VAEB nutritional experts. This ensures that holistic care is provided to the patients during treatment and prevention.
How I found my current job:
In 2009, I applied for a job as a dietician at the VAEB in Breitenstein after seeing a job advert posted by the Austrian Association of Dieticians. I also completed my Master’s degree part-time while working as a dietician and also explored an internal VAEB issue as part of my Master’s thesis. In 2014, I was given the opportunity to switch to a position in health management.
What I learned for this job during my studies:
My studies in Dietetics and Nutrition and the various internship positions I feel left me very well prepared to tackle the challenges I faced in my future profession. The ‘guided’ internship offered me the chance to gather initial experience in nutritional counselling with patients within a ‘protected’ setting.
Job prospects in my field:
Nutrition-related illnesses are on the increase. A career in dietetics involves gaining a broader perspective, for example, applying new technologies in consultations and patient care so as to transfer the fundamental expertise of the profession to other fields as well This opens up other fields of activity and other areas of responsibility.
I am:
- innovative
- goal-oriented
- a team worker with highly developed social skills
About my job:
The VAEB Social Insurance Institution for Railway and Mining is a very innovative social insurance agency with a strong focus on prevention. Pilot projects, such as the Diabetes Health Dialogue project in telemedicine, are used to guarantee a sustainable method of care. Involvement in designing new methods of training, such as the Serious Games for Health, makes for an exciting and very varied professional environment.
I also completed further studies in:
After completing my Bachelor’s course in Dietetics and Nutrition, I completed a Master’s in Applied Nutrition Medicine at FH JOANNEUM.
I continued my studies because:
Essentially, I wanted to further develop my professional and scientific expertise. The course is aimed at developing the collaboration between doctors and dieticians. A mutual exchange of core competences will help to reinforce interdisciplinary collaboration within the medical professions.
How I made studying compatible with my job:
A part-time course always presents challenges. Balancing leisure time, a career and a family is something of an organisational feat. However the fact that the course is divided into blocks of weeks and based on e-learning made it possible for me to participate. There is an initial intensive week focusing on the individual core issues but after this week, there is more time for your job and leisure time. No pain, no gain as they say and I believe it would not have been possible for me to secure my current position as a Health Manager without the course.
