Question: What are the advantages and disadvantages of this career change?
Answer: See below.
Advantages:
● The average salary for a clinical engineering director in 2001 was $60,200, while the average salary for a facilities director in 2001 was $69,700 (Baker, 2002). ● If the clinical engineering operating budget is a portion of an overall facilities budget under your control, your ability to provide adequate funding for the clinical engineering activities is much greater.
Disadvantages:
● The time requirements will be greater. There will be more committee memberships and project management. Clinical engineering activities will be reduced to less than half of your personal effort.
● Mistakes in the management of life safety and other systems can put your hospital on the front page, and you out the door.
It may be that the traditional position of clinical engineer or clinical engineering director will remain in some hospitals and medical centers, but in a recent survey (Cohen, 2002) responding clinical engineers who were employed in hospitals reported their median age to be 45 to 50 years. In the same survey, younger median ages were reported only for those employed in nonmedical industries or for students. Older median ages were reported for CEs in private practice or consulting. If this survey is truly representative, it would appear that there are few clinical engineering positions in hospitals occupied by a new generation.