Within the vast and vital universe of health care, there are pharmacists and phlebotomists, optometrists and orthotists, sonographers and speech therapists — to name just a half-dozen of the many specialists who keep us healthy and happy.
In fact, these professionals work in a field so vast that simply calling it all “Medicine” doesn’t quite cut it.
That’s why this month, the Boy Scouts of America is introducing the Health Care Professions merit badge, a STEM-focused, career-oriented badge designed to introduce young people to the roles that health care professionals play in the delivery of health care.
The badge will replace the Medicine merit badge and will feature a new merit badge pamphlet and new requirements, available here. The design of the merit badge emblem will not change.
“When the Medicine merit badge was first introduced in 1991, it was primarily developed to focus on the ‘doctor’ side of human health care delivery,” says Lisa Balbes, advancement lead of the Scouts BSA Committee. “As the fields of human medicine expanded through specialization, support services and technology, it became apparent that Scouts were interested in learning about other areas of human health care and medical support.”
Trying to develop an individual merit badge for each health care specialization would see the number of available merit badges more than double.
Instead, “the BSA has decided to create a single merit badge that will encompass a wide variety of health care careers,” Balbes says.
