Financial Challenges in Non-Clinical Careers

If You Were A Clinician, You Could Have Made Twice The Money!

In this article, you will read about the financial challenges associated with non-clinical careers. This article can help you in deciding what to expect from a non-clinical career and whether you should choose a non-clinical career or not.

Income Disparity in The Medical Profession - Clinical Versus Non-Clinical 

Clinicians get paid much more than non-clinical MBBS/MD doctors, especially in the private sector. The wage gap among the different types of doctors is a social reality.



Salary of non clinical doctors
Image Credit: Steve Buissinne from Pixabay

Society usually assigns more value to clinical work which is seen as a direct effort for saving lives. On the other hand services of non-clinical doctors are seen as the back end work and an indirect contribution towards saving lives.

Even among the clinicians, primary care doctors/general practitioners do get paid much less than specialists. Among the specialists, surgeons mostly get paid a lot more than physicians. A non-clinical doctor earning more than the specialist physician or the surgeon is an exception rather than the norm.

Income Disparity Within Non-Clinical Roles

Even among the non-clinical jobs, the wages for teaching jobs are generally lower than those offered by the industry.

Even those who work in the industry would have a lot of variation in their wages, with the senior and management roles being paid disproportionately higher than the junior or technical roles. Roles having client-facing work, significant travel, and work of commercial nature are usually better paid than just desk jobs or roles purely related to in-house activities like training.

Possible Personal Effects of Lower Income in Non-Clinical Roles

his reality of earning lower wages than their clinician friends would be faced by non-clinical doctors many times in their lives. For those who love to compare their salaries with their friends and family, the non-clinical setup would often produce disappointing results and at times significant discomfort. If earning money is the sole priority for making a career choice, then the non-clinical specialty would not be the right choice.

The sooner the non-clinical doctor accepts this reality, the higher the professional satisfaction he/she may derive from work, otherwise continuous sulking has got the huge power to diminish careers.

Ideal Reasons To Choose a Non-Clinical Career

The most successful non-clinical doctors were, and are never driven by money. They are driven by their love for science, research, teaching, public policy, prevention, etc.

Some of them may be moved by life events such as by drought to become a nutritionist or their conscientiousness to become a pioneer in a scientific discipline or by the sheer sight of a homeless person to open an NGO in their service. See the section on Journey of famous non-clinical doctors

Sometimes life circumstances dictate people's career choices. Non-clinical jobs are highly accommodating and offer space for physicians who are disabled due to medical reasons or struggling with personal problems. Non-clinical roles also offer flexibility to work from home and avoid shift duties, which is especially helpful for doctors who have dependents to be taken care of. Non-clinical roles may also turn out a better choice for individuals who are more inclined to be spiritual. 

"Money and materialistic possessions mean nothing without joy, peace, and love. We were made to serve people, not serve things." - The Spiritual Diva


Did you get a pulse of the challenges faced by non-clinical doctors? Feel free to share your views.



Views expressed are personal

Last Updated On 08/22/2019 07:30 PM


Author Profile

Dr. Naval Asija is a New Delhi-based non-clinical doctor having health administration postgraduate training. Since 2018, he has been writing/blogging full-time on health issues. In the past, he has worked for a decade in healthcare, in different organizations, namely Innodata India Pvt. Ltd., Win-Medicare Pvt. Ltd., National Institute of Health and Family Welfare, Integrated Disease Surveillance Project, and the National Polio Surveillance Project. The author can be contacted through https://www.linkedin.com/in/navalasija/


journey of a non clinical doctor


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