Are you seeking to pursue a career as a non-clinical physician assistant? Here are the most-rewarding non-clinical PA roles.

There are job openings that look for your particular skill, and this article aims to highlight such. As a health professional, you’d find these non-clinical physician assistant jobs helpful to your career pursuit.

Non-Clinical PA Jobs

Also known as non-traditional physician assistant jobs, these positions involve utilizing medical knowledge and expertise in non-traditional healthcare settings.

Here, you aren’t directly involved with patient care but in other areas of expertise, contributing to the overall enhancement of healthcare practice.

  • Why are Non-Clinical Physician Assistant Jobs Becoming More Attractive?

In recent years, there has been an upward trend in the number of people going for nonclinical physician assistant jobs for obvious reasons.

First, physician assistants (PAs) tend to have greater flexibility in various healthcare settings.

Today, PAs enter various niche areas, including intensive radiology, practice managers, hospital administration, and medical sales.

More non-clinical PA jobs include forensic medicine, consulting, life insurance, disability & health, worker’s compensation, and medical clinical trials.

As a PA seeking non-clinical job roles, you may also consider regulatory affairs, research & development, and expert medical witness.

Other non-clinical PA jobs include instructors, professors, leaders at university PA programs, medical writing & editing, etc. Let’s discuss some of these non-traditional physician assistant jobs.

i. Practice Managers

A practice manager is one of the non-clinical roles or jobs you can hold as a physician assistant.

Here, you have a variety of responsibilities that include handling various administrative duties, financial management, strategic planning, regulatory compliance, and human resources.

As a practice manager, part of your responsibilities includes hiring, training & monitoring administrative staff.

Also, the organization of patient records and inventory monitoring for medications & medical equipment are additional roles of practice managers.

ii. Hospital Administration

This is another non-clinical role you can hold as a physician assistant.

Hospital administration involves the performance of a wide range of responsibilities. Such includes managing human capital, which provides for hiring policies, staff schedules, and performance reviews.

Other responsibilities for this non-clinical role include managing staff within a department or facility and managing client care and patient experience.

PAs holding this position are also saddled with overseeing the department’s or organization’s financial health.

iii. Medical Sales

If medical sales interest you as a PA, you might want to explore it to see what it offers.

Here, roles include keeping detailed records of all contacts, assessing client needs, attending conference calls, sales meetings, and training sessions.

You’ll also be required to present & deliver product information and samples.

iv. Consulting

How does getting involved in consulting sound?

This is a non-clinical role or job you can hold as a PA. You have a variety of responsibilities that include helping organizations reduce costs and increase revenue.

Prioritizing patient safety and satisfaction and preparing business plans for implementation are more responsibilities.

v. Life Insurance

Another non-clinical niche area or job you can explore as a PA is life insurance.

Here, you’ll be providing insurance purchase advice to clients. Other responsibilities include expanding your customer base, assisting clients with the claims process, and recruiting new talent.

What more? As a life insurance expert, you’ll need to educate your clients on the types of policies available. You also receive customer payments and issue receipts while verifying your balance.

A life insurance agent also needs to establish and meet set marketing goals.

vi. Disability & Health

Are you interested in working in disability & health? This is another non-clinical position you can hold as a PA.

Within this field are several sub-specialties: independent living specialists, vocational rehabilitation specialists, assistive technology specialists, disability case managers, etc.

vii. Worker’s Compensation

As a PA seeking non-clinical roles, you can be involved in worker’s compensation.

Here, you can choose from various niches such as medical records reviewer, workers’ compensation claims adjuster, rehabilitation consultant, medical case manager, utilization review specialist, etc.

viii. Medical Clinical Trials

The field of medical clinical trials also holds enormous advantages for PAs seeking to follow the non-clinical path of their professions.

While the area has clinical aspects, we’re more interested in the non-clinical ones. Good examples include medical affairs consultant and medical writer.

You can also become a clinical trial auditor, data manager, project manager, and clinical research manager. Other positions you can hold include clinical quality assurance specialist, healthcare research analyst, and many more.

ix. Regulatory Affairs

Pursuing a career in regulatory affairs involves a wide range of responsibilities.

These include premarket regulatory strategy, marketing applications, post-market surveillance, and developing solutions to product safety concerns.

As a regulatory affairs expert, you’ll be involved in maintaining regional, state, national, & global compliance.

This is in addition to offering technical & strategic advice and communicating with regulatory agencies to stay abreast of current trends.

x. Research & Development

There are non-clinical job positions for non-clinical PAs. You might want to explore such if you wish to work in research & development.

Examples include the regulatory affairs specialist, research project manager, grant writer, research scientist, clinical data manager, and research scientist.

xi. Expert Medical Witness

You can pursue a rewarding career as an expert medical witness. This job involves several vital responsibilities that include working with attorneys.

Other responsibilities include medical records review, testifying in medical proceedings, interpreting medical information, and determining liability & damages.

xii. Instructors

This non-clinical role is for persons interested in academia. As a PA, you can offer your services as an instructor while taking up various responsibilities.

Such include mentorship, continuing education, supervision, assessment & evaluation, classroom instruction, and curriculum development.

xiii. Professor

A professorship role is also non-clinical and can be pursued by PAs. You’ll be involved in committee, departmental, and faculty meetings here.

In an academic position, professors help develop curricula while delivering course material. Writing reports and conducting research and fieldwork are more professorial roles.

There you have it! The above non-clinical physician assistant jobs include basic information on the role. Also, we’ve included subfields or niches within each.

If any of these jobs excites you, you only need to explore further by discovering what’s required to start your journey.