Nontraditional healthcare job I wish I knew sooner

Program Manager

Author

Lauren Curtis
August 13, 2024

Hey Health Techies!

We’re wrapping up the nontraditional job series this week with a versatile title that makes a frequent appearance on the Hey Health Tech job board.

That’s right. We’re going to close it out with Program Manager.

I realize that there are a TON of other nontraditional roles that we haven’t covered here during this series from analyst roles to marketing to account management. The point of the series was never to cover everything. In fact, the whole point is that the possibilities are endless. I hope that I’ve expanded your horizons as a clinician to think outside the box when it comes to titles, responsibilities, and impact that you can have.

🤷🏻‍♀️ So what is a program manager?

  • Program managers are responsible for the strategic direction and success of certain initiatives within an orgranization.

  • They may oversee several projects and/or project managers in an effort to achieve business objectives.

👨🏽‍⚕️ Why do clinicians make great program managers?

  • Often programs at an organization are clinical in nature — clinical strategy, clinical outcomes, provider experience, patient experience — you get the idea. Any strategic intiative at an organization could potentially need the expertise of a program manager, and ones with clinical background are particularly impactful at healthcare companies.

📝 What does the day to day look like?

  • Reviewing metrics and report outs from team on program progress and performance.

  • Allocating resources, such as team members, budget, and tools, across projects to ensure efficiency and effectiveness.

  • Identifying potential risks to the program and working on mitigation strategies.

  • Working closely with different teams (e.g., engineering, marketing, finance) to ensure all parts of the program are moving forward.

  • Attending continuing education courses or webinars to stay up to date on the latest industry standards.

I understand that many of these skills sound corporate in nature and may be hard to connect with your day to day clinical work. But I venture to guess that your clinical tasks involve analyzing data, allocating sparse resources, cross-team collaboration, and risk mitigation as well. Maybe it’s time to look at your skills through a new lens 🧐.

📰 Weekly Wrap-up

👀 Don’t miss these open roles

Until next time,

Lauren