What Nonclinical Careers Exist Other Than Utilization Review? Part 3
Sales jobs will be the focus of today's nonclinical careers review. Among nonclinical careers, sales jobs often have the greatest potential for higher income since pay is influenced by the job's commission and/or bonus structure instead of the number of hours worked. Sales roles tend to be more inclusive of therapy assistants than many other nonclinical career options. Here are 4 different options for nonclinical sales:
1) Assistive Technology
This role can be for Assistants, OT, PT, and/or RN. It commonly involves selling customized equipment for individuals, such as power wheelchairs, manual wheelchairs, pediatric equipment and/or communication devices. One of the most common certifications obtained for this role is Assistive Technology Professional (ATP). The requirements to become an ATP can be found here. Those who obtain ATP status can later apply for a Seating and Mobility Specialist (SMS) certification. This would be a worthwhile role for those who want to utilize their clinicals skills interacting with patients and other clinicians. The pay can be 6 figures if able to generate enough sales.
Interesting information I found: For a history of Assistive Technology, check out the virtual museum at The Museum of disABILITY History. Unfortunately, the physical museum in Buffalo, NY closed December 2020 after 22 years due to lack of funding during the pandemic. They do have a lot of educational resources for children and adults!
2) Clinical Specialist
This is a job where Assistants, OT, PT, and/or RN can work. It combines sales and education to patients and clinicians on the equipment being sold. Often times these positions are to sell equipment to help neurological issues causing gait and/or fine motor deficits. There are other general medical sales positions that use the title Clinical Specialist. They involve products like pacemakers/defibrillators, spinal cord stimulators, deep brain stimulators, and spine/neurosurgical equipment. Again, the pay can be 6 figures depending on sales.
3) Medical Device Sales/Product Specialist
Although similar to a Clinical Specialist, I put it as a separate category because the range is fairly broad and involves a different title when searching for job descriptions. Some medical sales positions that may be more within a therapy niche include Patient Handling/Care Devices, sports medicine products, biologics, and equipment/devices for joint replacement surgery, orthopedic surgery and trauma surgery. Other Medical Device Sales jobs can be found selling products for the treatment of multiple medical conditions including diabetes, cardiac conditions, pulmonary conditions, urological conditions and more. It does appear that multiple companies want prior sales experience for these positions. The majority of these sales positions involve travel and attending trade shows/conferences. A website that may be useful for various job postings related to medical sales is medreps.com. However, the website does require you to pay for a membership to apply for the jobs.
One thing to consider is that there are different Medical Sales Colleges (or Medical Sales Institutes in some states) throughout the United States that do hybrid online and onsite courses. They have 8-12 week programs with full-time and part-time options, but they are not cheap! For example, one 12 week program can cost close to $20,000, but at least one website says it is worth it. The college/institute does boast high job placement rates of 97.2% on their website. As an alternative. some of these colleges do have 12 month paid internships, but I am uncertain how the pay is during the internships.
4) Recruiter/Talent Acquisition/Sourcer
Assistants, OT, PT, and/or RN are all able to apply for recruiting jobs. The role of a recruiter is to find the best person to hire for the open positions available. I include this as a sales position because many times this role involves trying to "sell" the idea of working for the company or "sell" the idea of having a prospective employee being hired. In healthcare, many work for healthcare travel companies, contract agencies, home health agencies, hospitals and large medical companies. It does appear that this has the widest range of salaries of the sales positions, but it likely depends on how much is salary versus incentives/bonuses. One benefit to this position is that many companies have made this a fully remote job!
Thank you for your time reading more about nonclinical sales jobs. I hope you found this insightful!
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