Clinician vs physician

The differences between clinicians and physicians can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 2-4 years to become both a clinician and a physician. Additionally, a physician has an average salary of $238,887, which is higher than the $60,150 average annual salary of a clinician.

The top three skills for a clinician include social work, patients and patient care. The most important skills for a physician are patients, surgery, and patient care.

Clinician vs physician overview

	Clinician	Physician
Yearly salary	$60,150	$238,887
Hourly rate	$28.92	$114.85
Growth rate	9%	7%
Number of jobs	105,023	46,489
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 49%	Bachelor's Degree, 35%
Average age	45	48
Years of experience	4	4

What does a clinician do?

A clinician specializes in providing diagnosis, treatment, and direct care to patients with different illnesses. A clinician's duties mainly revolve around conducting extensive research and analysis, providing medical care through various therapies, and improving one's overall health condition. Furthermore, a clinician must obtain and analyze a patient's complete medical history, provide diagnostic tests, always monitor the effects of treatment on a patient, provide prognosis and consider the overall impact on a patient's health and well-being.

What does a physician do?

Physicians' general responsibility is to check, diagnose, and treat a patient's condition to improve their overall wellness. A physician could be General Practitioners or Specialist Physicians, wherein General Practitioners are physicians who provide regular checkups for patients depending on their needs and refer them to a Specialist Physicians who are more skilled in a particular field of expertise for a thorough diagnosis. Physicians monitor a patient's medical history and ensure follow-up checkups to observe if the condition of a patient is changing over time. A physician may refer a patient to other health professionals for further examination as needed.

Clinician vs physician salary

Clinicians and physicians have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Clinician	Physician
Average salary	$60,150	$238,887
Salary range	Between $34,000 And $103,000	Between $128,000 And $442,000
Highest paying City	San Francisco, CA	Cleveland, TN
Highest paying state	Nevada	Wisconsin
Best paying company	Pace University	Yuma Regional Medical Center
Best paying industry	-	Health Care

Differences between clinician and physician education

There are a few differences between a clinician and a physician in terms of educational background:

	Clinician	Physician
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 49%	Bachelor's Degree, 35%
Most common major	Psychology	Medicine
Most common college	California State University - Long Beach	Duke University

Clinician vs physician demographics

Here are the differences between clinicians' and physicians' demographics:

	Clinician	Physician
Average age	45	48
Gender ratio	Male, 24.3% Female, 75.7%	Male, 39.0% Female, 61.0%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 7.9% Unknown, 6.2% Hispanic or Latino, 7.9% Asian, 3.1% White, 74.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.6%	Black or African American, 5.2% Unknown, 4.5% Hispanic or Latino, 9.7% Asian, 19.1% White, 61.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%
LGBT Percentage	15%	13%

Differences between clinician and physician duties and responsibilities

Clinician example responsibilities.

Perform thorough substance abuse assessments incorporating instruments such as ASAM, SASSI and urine drug screens; provide individual therapy.
Spearhead the development of rehabilitation programs serving adults with chemical dependency and mental health diagnoses with the manager.
Follow all ethical CARF standards when treating the residential client.
Facilitate stabilization, assessment, care and compassion for those in critical need.
Provide CBT and motivational interviewing for individual and group therapy to clients' who are on methadone.
Used motivational interviewing to lead recovery and therapy groups for IOP and PHP programs in the evenings and on weekends.

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Physician example responsibilities.

Manage catheters and dress wounds.
Maintain ACLS and BLS certifications.
Treat complicated oncology cases in ICU and emergency.
Schedule new, follow-up and diagnostic testing for cardiology patients.
Attend radiation oncology clinic for new patients beginning treatment as well as follow-ups for returning patients.
Schedule tests and procedures (including radiology, cardiology, and respiratory) utilizing the hospital and clinic computer systems.

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Clinician vs physician skills

Common clinician skills

Social Work, 26%
Patients, 14%
Patient Care, 4%
Individual Therapy, 4%
Mental Health, 4%
Mental Illness, 3%

Common physician skills

Patients, 22%
Surgery, 8%
Patient Care, 7%
Internal Medicine, 6%
Primary Care, 6%
EMR, 6%

Clinician vs. similar jobs

Clinician related careers

Clinician related jobs

Clinician jobs by location

Updated January 8, 2025

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