If you’re deciding to transition from healthcare to IT, know that it is possible. One point that let’s me know most healthcare professionals can transition is that most healthcare roles require a type of certification. From CNA / GNA to Phlebotomy to Radiology to all the Therapies to Pharmacy Assistance to Lab Tech to LPN to Physician Assistance to Radiology, you’ve had to scale a hurdle to attain your current healthcare role. Some of you have even had to get certified in multiple roles as you’ve climbed the ladder in your career. Attaining the qualifying certifications for these roles demonstrate tenacity, aptitude and the wherewithal, qualities needed to thrive in tech. Beyond certifications, you also need a bit of self awareness. What do I mean by that? Fundamentally from an educational perspective, healthcare professionals are split into 2 main categories, those with math intensive paths and those without. From a job perspective, you’re either working directly with a patient or not. The part that’s suited your abilities and preference in healthcare can be portable to tech. What that means is you can earn a good living and have peace of mind as you excel and build your career.
Why the transition?
Another question to ask yourself is why do you want to transition. Everyone has a different reason. You should do some soul searching to know your why, because when the going gets tough, and it will, you’ll have a north star that keeps you going. All reasons are valid, even pay. I’ll try to address some common reasons here:
Pay
A popular reason for the desire to transition from healthcare to IT is often pay. Yes, there’s a pay jump between most blue collar healthcare roles and several technical IT roles. Some things to know ahead is that there’s usually no differential in tech. So the pay stays the same for night and weekend shifts. Also, a lot of tech roles are contract work that don’t pay on holidays. There’s also fixed pay and hours for most roles. So that means you may not be able to pick up extra hours to boost your pay. This may take some adjustment, but the pay bump should more than make up for it.
Work Schedule
Most healthcare schedules are 12 hour shifts in the AM or PM, that can be grueling for most people. Some even have to work weekends and holidays without choice. Compounded over time, it can become unbearable. A lot of tech roles are 9-5, weekdays only. If this is part of why you want to transition into tech, ensure your desired tech role is in the appropriate industry. Some industries have tech roles that are 24/7, others have similar schedules to healthcare. Be clear about the role’s hours so it’s not deja vu. However, for the most part, you’ll have your nights, weekends and holidays to yourself in the typical tech role.
Job Type
Another reason for the transition may be the type of work and the working environment. Perhaps you’re tired of scrubs, fluorescent lighting, medication, needles, blood and the sick. Maybe you want to work in front of a computer, have meetings in conference rooms, wear regular clothes, work 8 hours a day, or from home sometimes. Whatever it is, you’ll get a chance at that in tech.
Where to start
So, where to begin? Who you are at your core, is where I’ll recommend you start. Take the Prolificview Tech Career Survey to get a sense of your inclinations and where you’ll likely succeed. Once you figure out where your strengths lie, the next step is to review a range of roles within that field. If you inclined to the technical, checkout programming, database/system/network/cloud administration. If you’re inclined towards the non-technical, there’s also an abundance of roles for you. Checkout business analysis, project management, agile roles like scrum master, product owner.
You want to transition, but still work within healthcare
Some of you may want to transition from a healthcare role to a tech role but remain in the healthcare industry. Perhaps you don’t want to lose the experience of understanding how it all works, or you still want to contribute to caring and healing people. Whatever the case, it is very possible to continue in the healthcare industry as a tech professional.
Health Informatics
Epic is a healthcare informatics software you’ve probably heard of, tools like it and its competitor can make your transition into tech smooth. As a tool you use in your day to day and with your knowledge of the different data points in a healthcare organization, you can work as an administrator, or support person for health information tools.
Healthcare Tech Support
You can also work in support. This allows you learn a great deal about technology.
Operations Administration
Network, systems, and database administration roles are needed in every healthcare organization.
There’s a lot of tech roles available for you that ensures good pay, desirable schedule, type of work or whatever your motivations are. That being said, your contribution as a healthcare professional is thankless and really important to the society. Hopefully you know that already.
