Now What? Career Advancement Tips for Licensed Providers

The healthcare field is vast and offers a wealth of opportunities for career advancement. However, many professionals hit a roadblock when they reach a salary ceiling or an end to significant promotions within their own field. If you're looking to take your career to the next level, there may be ways you can advance within a patient care role, or it may be time to explore non-clinical work opportunities. In this article, we'll discuss some of the best ways to advance your healthcare career and break through that salary ceiling.

What Is a Salary Ceiling?

The term "salary ceiling" refers to the highest salary an employee can earn at a given job or position. A salary ceiling may be determined by internal policies, external market forces, or other factors. When healthcare professionals hit a salary ceiling within their own field, it's often due to limited opportunities for further promotion and advancement. This can make it difficult to think about a career path for healthcare professionals.

For example, physical and occupational therapists often do not gain significant salary increases after becoming practicing clinicians. The same is true for many other healthcare roles, such as registered nurses, medical assistants, and other patient care professionals. This is because, despite years of experience, insurance reimbursements often stay the same.

Fortunately, there are still many opportunities to find an advanced career path for healthcare professionals and break through the salary ceiling. Though, it may look a little different than you'd expect.

How to Advance Your Healthcare Career

Advancing your career path as a healthcare professional is often a non-linear process. It may involve transitioning into a non-patient care role, such as consulting or management. It could also involve taking on additional responsibilities within your current field. Here are some of the best ways to take your career to the next level:

1. Develop Specialized Skills
2. Transition Into Management
3. Open Your Own Practice
4. Explore Emerging Practice Areas
5. Consider Non-Clinical Work Opportunities

Develop Specialized Skills

This is often the first choice of clinicians looking to break through the salary ceiling: specializing in a particular area of medical care. By homing in on one area - such as geriatrics, pediatrics, cardiology, oncology, etc. - you can become more valuable to employers who need that specific skill set. And when it comes time for compensation negotiations, you'll be able to use this specialized knowledge as leverage for higher pay and more promotions.

Clinicians who love the patient care aspect of their work but need more of a challenge may also benefit from pursuing fellowships in specialty areas. A fellowship offers additional training and expertise while providing access to larger networks and potential job opportunities.

Specialization, fellowships, and other advanced clinical training programs can help you break through the salary ceiling while remaining in a patient care role. However, in some disciplines, these certifications do not result in higher pay or promotions. It's important to discuss these with your manager prior to committing to any advanced training to ensure your investment will be worthwhile.

Transition Into Management

Leadership roles are becoming increasingly available in the healthcare field, particularly as organizations strive towards creating a culture of quality and safety. Whether it's through a formal position like director or manager, or an informal role such as mentor or coach, there are many opportunities to lead teams and initiatives that will help you develop your skill set and promote career advancement.

In some healthcare professions, such as nursing, there are formal certificates and degrees that you can obtain to demonstrate your leadership capabilities. Consider exploring these options if you're looking for a more structured path into management.

Then, search within and outside your current organization for opportunities to demonstrate and refine your management skills. This could include taking on additional projects, volunteering for committees, or even joining industry groups that can help you connect with other healthcare leaders. If staying within your organization, be sure to discuss your goals and progress with your manager to find out what skills they would be looking for once a position becomes available.

Ultimately, though, you may have to search outside your organization. In these cases, it's beneficial to seek guidance from a career advancement advisor or career path coach to discover the best path to transition from patient care to leadership and management.

Open Your Own Practice

For healthcare professionals who have hit a salary ceiling, there is always the option of opening your own practice. Whether it's a solo operation or a multi-specialty group, practice ownership provides numerous opportunities to make more money and improve patient outcomes.

The healthcare field is governed by a complex set of laws and regulations, so you'll need to be well-versed in these before beginning the process. You will also have to consider other aspects, such as legal issues related to ownership, accounting needs, financial considerations, administrative tasks, and marketing efforts. And depending on what type of practice you open (solo or group), there could be additional issues to consider.

Opening a practice is a risky but potentially rewarding venture, and it's important to weigh the pros and cons before taking this step. Make sure you understand what is involved in the process so that you can make an informed decision about whether or not this is the right career path for you as a healthcare professional.

Explore Emerging Practice Areas

New fields are emerging in healthcare all the time - from telemedicine to genomics and precision medicine. By exploring these emerging practice areas, you can stay up to date on the latest technologies and trends in healthcare. This knowledge can then be used to negotiate higher salaries or look for leadership roles in a new field.

You can also explore these emerging practice areas as a way to open your own business or work with different organizations. For instance, if you have an interest in telemedicine, consider joining a startup or consulting firm that focuses on this area. Or, if you're interested in a field such as genomics, look for opportunities to become a research consultant or data analyst.

Emerging practice areas can be a great way to stay engaged in the healthcare field while also expanding your career advancement options.

Consider Non-Clinical Work Opportunities

If none of the above opportunities ignite your passion, it may be time to consider non-clinical opportunities within the healthcare field. These options include positions such as health informatics specialist, health insurance analyst/administrator, physician practice manager/administrator, or sales representative/marketer for a pharmaceutical company or medical device manufacturer. All of these roles offer impressive salaries and immense growth potential - and they don't require direct patient care.

These may also be beneficial for clinicians who are advancing in age. As much as you may love patient care, the physical demands of working with patients can become more challenging as you age. Non-clinical work opportunities provide a way to continue using your healthcare knowledge and skills while avoiding the physical strain of direct patient care.

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Career Options for Doctors

Physicians have the unique opportunity to explore a variety of career paths outside of patient care, allowing them to utilize their unique skill sets and knowledge. If you have hit a salary ceiling, you may want to apply your medical degree to a different sector of the job market and explore alternative careers for physicians. These may include:

1. Leadership roles
2. Teaching
3. Research

Leadership Roles as an Alternative Career for Physicians

Leadership roles are a great way to diversify your career while continuing to work within the medical industry. Whether you become a manager of a clinic or a director of a healthcare organization, you can mentor other physicians and make decisions that will shape the future of healthcare.

Teaching Career Options for Doctors

If teaching is more your calling, then becoming a professor at a medical school is another job for doctors looking to step away from direct patient care. Teaching future physicians can be an immensely satisfying career. While you are not treating patients directly, you are shaping the minds of future physicians and making a difference across multiple healthcare areas.

Research as Another Job for Doctors

For those who want to pursue the research aspect of medicine, you may want to become a principal investigator at a university. Here technology can be explored, and more data-driven approaches to medicine can be implemented, revolutionizing how we practice medicine in the future. This can be an attractive career option for doctors who enjoy learning and academia without the public speaking aspect of teaching.

Overall, it is important to consider all of the alternative career options for doctors. Other jobs for doctors exist that can help to fulfill your unique career and income goals. If you have hit a salary ceiling, then exploring the vast array of career options for doctors can be beneficial.

Non-Clinical Career Options for Nurses

Non-clinical career options for nurses are a growing trend for professionals that have hit a salary ceiling. These roles provide nurses with the opportunity to leverage their skill set outside of direct patient care. With the range of education, knowledge, and experience nurses have in healthcare, those skills can be transferred to roles across the healthcare sector in industry, government, and education.

For nurses considering a career move, there are a host of job roles available which are dynamic and offer professional growth. These can include roles in:

• Consulting
• Research
• Health information technology
• Informatics
• Health policy
• Health administration
• Insurance

While some of these - such as consulting and research - are relatively straightforward, informatics and health policy do not have intuitive nursing roles. 

Health informatics combines nursing skills with technology to create and utilize communications systems, medical records, and databases. As the connection between technology and health care continues to progress, the need for nurses to bridge the gap between technology and patient care will continue to increase.

Health policy is another exciting option for nurses looking to transition away from direct patient care. This encompasses everything from setting health agenda to creating and monitoring policy. In this area, nurses are involved in creating policy or determining how policy is implemented. Nurses may assess how policies impact patient care and how changes may affect outcomes and costs. This provides nurses with the chance to influence the industry and shape healthcare policies.

Non-clinical career options for nurses provide the opportunity to remain connected to the healthcare industry while enjoying career growth and personal satisfaction. By exploring these career options, nurses can find roles that allow them to continue patients centered approaches to care while using their professional knowledge and expertise to progress their careers.

Career Advancement in Healthcare Is Possible

No matter what career path for healthcare professionals you choose, it's important to stay flexible and open to new possibilities. The healthcare field offers an array of options for professionals looking to take their careers further than ever before.

When considering ways to break through the salary ceiling or end of promotions within patient care roles, think outside of the box. Explore leadership opportunities in your organization, develop specialized skills, look into emerging practice areas, or even consider non-clinical work. Each of these opportunities can give you insight into different aspects of the industry while also helping you earn more money and reach higher levels in your career path as a healthcare professional. With some research and dedication, there’s no limit to what you can accomplish.

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