What does a clinical exercise specialist do?
Clinical exercise specialist responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real clinical exercise specialist resumes:
- Manage CNS supervise hospital base cardiac surgery clinic.
- Develop safe and effective exercise prescriptions for cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation patients following ACSM guidelines.
- Design and implement individualized exercise prescriptions for patients with coronary artery disease; provide patient education and support.
- Ensure patient safety and exercise efficiency through continuous tracking and analysis of EKG telemetry and exercise blood pressure data.
- Perform diagnostic stress testing and 12 lead ECG.
- Instruct vascular rehabilitation and adjusting exercise programs as necessary.
- Specialize in orthopedic surgery/injury rehabilitation and disease management.
- Specialize in orthopedic surgery/injury rehabilitation and disease management.
Clinical exercise specialist skills and personality traits
We calculated that 25% of Clinical Exercise Specialists are proficient in Patients, Rehabilitation, and EKG. They’re also known for soft skills such as Interpersonal skills, Compassion, and Detail oriented.
We break down the percentage of Clinical Exercise Specialists that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Patients, 25%
Designed and implemented individualized exercise prescriptions for patients with coronary artery disease; provided patient education and support.
- Rehabilitation, 10%
Specialized in orthopedic surgery/injury rehabilitation and disease management.
- EKG, 8%
Analyzed EKG information post-exercise to determine heart function abnormalities and report to patient s Cardiologist and Primary Care Provider.
- CPR, 7%
Certified in BLS (Basic Life Support) including CPR (Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation).
- Vital Signs, 7%
Schedule patients within Epic system-Verify patient insurance-Open/close cash drawer-Triage patients/vital signs
- Health Education, 6%
Conducted group health education classes.
Common skills that a clinical exercise specialist uses to do their job include "patients," "rehabilitation," and "ekg." You can find details on the most important clinical exercise specialist responsibilities below.
Interpersonal skills. To carry out their duties, the most important skill for a clinical exercise specialist to have is interpersonal skills. Their role and responsibilities require that "exercise physiologists must have strong interpersonal skills and manage difficult situations." Clinical exercise specialists often use interpersonal skills in their day-to-day job, as shown by this real resume: "demonstrated a high degree of professional competence as practitioner, educator, consultant and researcher and exhibited excellent interpersonal skills. "
Compassion. Another soft skill that's essential for fulfilling clinical exercise specialist duties is compassion. The role rewards competence in this skill because "because exercise physiologists work with patients who may be in considerable pain or discomfort, they must be sympathetic while working with patients." According to a clinical exercise specialist resume, here's how clinical exercise specialists can utilize compassion in their job responsibilities: "delivered compassionate care to patients with substance abuse and chronic mental illnesses. "
Detail oriented. This is an important skill for clinical exercise specialists to perform their duties. For an example of how clinical exercise specialist responsibilities depend on this skill, consider that "exercise physiologists must record detailed, accurate information about their patients’ conditions and about any progress the patients make." This excerpt from a resume also shows how vital it is to everyday roles and responsibilities of a clinical exercise specialist: "evaluated new patients' range of motion, reflexes, blood pressures, and took detailed history. ".
The three companies that hire the most clinical exercise specialists are:
- Baylor Scott & White Health4 clinical exercise specialists jobs
- Novant Health2 clinical exercise specialists jobs
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Compare different clinical exercise specialists
Clinical exercise specialist vs. Director of cardiac rehabilitation
These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of a clinical exercise specialist are more likely to require skills like "patients," "vital signs," "health education," and "initial assessment." On the other hand, a job as a director of cardiac rehabilitation requires skills like "icu," "collaborative relationships," "ep," and "blood pressure." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.
On average, directors of cardiac rehabilitation reach higher levels of education than clinical exercise specialists. Directors of cardiac rehabilitation are 7.0% more likely to earn a Master's Degree and 1.9% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Clinical exercise specialist vs. Coordinator cardiopulmonary services
While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, resumes show us that clinical exercise specialist responsibilities requires skills like "patients," "rehabilitation," "cpr," and "vital signs." But a coordinator cardiopulmonary services might use other skills in their typical duties, such as, "bls," "respiratory care," "acls," and "critical care."
In general, coordinators cardiopulmonary services achieve lower levels of education than clinical exercise specialists. They're 10.0% less likely to obtain a Master's Degree while being 1.9% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.What technology do you think will become more important and prevalent for clinical exercise specialists in the next 3-5 years?
Clinton Brawner Ph.D.
Clinical Exercise Physiology Core Laboratory Edith and Benson Ford Heart & Vascular Institute, Henry Ford Hospital
Clinical exercise specialist vs. Cardiac rehabilitation program director
There are many key differences between these two careers, including some of the skills required to perform responsibilities within each role. For example, a clinical exercise specialist is likely to be skilled in "patients," "cpr," "vital signs," and "health education," while a typical cardiac rehabilitation program director is skilled in "rehabilitation programs," "clinical assessments," "blood pressure," and "physiology."
Cardiac rehabilitation program directors typically earn higher educational levels compared to clinical exercise specialists. Specifically, they're 25.4% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 2.6% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Clinical exercise specialist vs. Kinesiotherapist
Types of clinical exercise specialist
Updated January 8, 2025
