Non-clinical nursing jobs: Alternative career paths and salaries

Patient care isn’t always easy. If you’re ready for a new role outside the clinic, looking into non-bedside nursing jobs may be the right choice for you. From flight nurses to nurse health coaches and working at pharmaceutical companies to managing medical records, nurses have many options outside of careers as traditional healthcare providers. Keep reading to learn more about possible non-clinical roles, education requirements, and salaries. 

The importance of diversifying career paths

The move from the bedside to a non-traditional role can seem intimidating. However, it’s an opportunity to expand your career options while enhancing your work-life balance. 

Your clinical and professional skills are transferable to other non-traditional nursing careers in leadership, education, research, or consulting and provide experience with the challenges you might encounter. These diverse career roles help you build multiple skills, creating versatility and expertise.

Non-traditional positions may be as demanding as traditional nursing jobs, but usually involve fewer night and weekend shifts. The slower, more predictable pace creates stability and flexibility for a better work-life balance.

Non-clinical nursing job options

Non-bedside nursing jobs for those who want to work outside patient care have expanded over the years. Depending on your interests, you might work in education, consulting, administration, community health, information technology, or many other areas.

Nurse educator

A common non-bedside nursing job is as a nurse educator. These nurses are experienced nursing professionals who teach, train and mentor up-and-coming nurses in a classroom or clinical setting, perform research and community education, and design curricula. Nurse educators often hold graduate degrees in nursing theory, such as a master of science in nursing or a doctoral degree.¹

Nurse consultant

Nurse consultants work in many settings, including hospitals, urgent care clinics, nursing homes, and physicians’ offices. They provide professional insight into patient care, promoting wellness, designing customized care plans, and educating professionals and patients.²

To try out a non-bedside role before they go all-in, some nurses act as part-time legal nurse consultants. A legal nurse consultant may provide professional opinions for legal professionals on different types of cases, and could offer testimony in different capacities including as a:³

• Testifying medical expert
• Medical fact witness
• Medical reviewer
• Licensing investigator
• Risk management expert

Nurses can also work in law enforcement forensic departments as forensic nurses, working to treat victims of crimes and help advocate for anti-violence efforts.

Nurse administrator

Interested in a non-bedside nursing job but still want to make a clear impact on patients? Check out nursing administration. Nurse administrators typically plans and coordinates the activity of a hospital or other healthcare facilities as an administrator, supervisor, or executive.⁴ The specific duties of nurse administrators vary depending on the role but usually involve coordinating the logistics behind quality patient care and medical services including:

• Hiring and managing the staff of healthcare organizations
• Developing and monitoring policies and procedures
• Creating and controlling budgets
• Planning future strategies
• Mitigating risk

Public health specialist

Public health nurses work with communities and focus on improving systems and factors that affect the health of various populations. Public health specialists hold advanced degrees, focusing on community health, chronic illnesses and public health policy.⁵ 

As a public health nurse, you can work in many possible settings and roles, from health department director, school nurse, infection control nurse, or non-profit leader. Duties range from program planning and financial management to policy development and public health research or health education campaigns.⁶

Nurse informaticist

Medical informatics involves mining data to improve workflows, technology, and nursing processes for better patient safety. As a member of a healthcare team, an informatics nurse applies nursing and information or analytical sciences to data communication in the nursing practice. Nurse informaticists have helped organizations apply EMRs, digital order entry, and other technologies in this developing field.⁷

Salary ranges and compensation

Non-bedside or non-hospital nursing careers are well-paying jobs with comparable or higher wages than clinical positions. While the annual average salary of these roles varies depending on a number of factors, as of spring of 2024 they were:

• Nurse educator: $104,846⁸
• Nurse consultant: $112,174⁹
• Healthcare administrator: $88,984¹⁰
• Public health specialist: $70,858¹¹
• Nurse informaticist: $101,360¹²

Multiple factors influence average salary levels, from location, demand, and specific positions to individual education, training, and experience. Leadership and consulting positions, for example, may offer higher wages, which will differ in each location. 

Advanced education and training also drive higher salaries. For instance, the median annual wage for a nurse with a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) is $102,600, compared to $71,091 for a nurse with an Associate Degree in Nursing (ADN).¹³

In addition, gaining experience can help you advance through your new career and increase your earning potential. New healthcare administrators may have lower salaries than other roles, but you can move into a manager, supervisor, or director position where top earners make as much as $241,000 annually.¹⁴ 

Educational requirements and training

Registered nurses transitioning from patient care services to non-clinical jobs in the nursing profession will likely need to pursue additional training and education to make the switch. Whether through a graduate nursing degree, certification, continuing education, or mentorship, bedside nurses can turn a page in their careers to apply their nursing skills outside of a. healthcare facility.

Additional certifications or degrees

Non-clinical nursing jobs often have a specialty focus as part of advanced practice. Additional education, such as a Master of Science in Nursing or graduate certificates, make you a stronger candidate for these positions.¹⁵

A degree with a specialization track in education, leadership, or public health will allow you to develop nursing leadership skills while building on your existing clinical skills.

Continuing education opportunities

Continuing education (CE) offers training on emerging issues, new understandings, and best practices, but it can also help you advance your skills and increase your career potential. The American Nurses Association offers several CE certifications that may be useful, including:¹⁶

• Nurse Executive
• Nursing Informatics
• Nursing Professional Development

Work environment and responsibilities

Healthcare, whether clinical or non-clinical, is a collaborative industry in general. While non-clinical roles may serve students or a medical organization rather than patients directly, you will partner with many healthcare professionals across different teams.

In addition, non-clinical positions often involve theoretical thinking and big-picture planning, allowing you to create policies that affect day-to-day healthcare activities. You might manage teams or departments, direct programs or spending, or influence community health or patient care decisions.

The workplace environment is usually office-based or remote, depending on the job. Nurse educators, for example, work onsite with students at universities, colleges or clinical settings. However, online instruction is a common option and you may find remote or hybrid positions that allow you to teach from anywhere.

Job satisfaction and fulfillment

Non-bedside nursing careers can bring as much depth, fulfillment, and satisfaction as bedside roles. While direct patient care is minimal, you can still affect patient outcomes through policy, program planning, research and education, and organizational problem-solving.

Working in management or policy roles allows you to contribute to improvements in the healthcare system, making positive changes that affect nurses, professionals and patients. A new role also means a chance to learn skills and experience personal and professional growth.

Pursue an online MSN toward a new nursing role

Do you love being a nurse but are ready for something new? Return to nursing school for a chance to take off on a different path. Non-traditional nursing careers in education, public health and leadership are vital to successful healthcare delivery. Explore new roles with the Oklahoma City University's online Master of Science in Nursing program and prepare for a specialized role and higher earning potential. Study with industry leaders and mentors through 100% online learning. Talk to an admissions outreach advisor today to learn more.