Healthcare Jobs You Can Start Without Certification

Yes, for many entry-level jobs. The jobs here are the ones whose own posting says so: the certification is preferred but not required, or you can get it within a set time after you are hired (often 90 days to a year for pharmacy techs, six months to a year for medical assistants and sterile processing). Each job quotes the sentence that says it. A state license is never optional: nurses, and in some states pharmacy techs and nurse aides, must hold or register for the state's credential.

For a while. Federal rules let a nursing home use a nurse aide for up to four months, full time, while they finish a state-approved training and competency evaluation program; after that the aide must be competent and on the state's nurse aide registry (42 CFR 483.35(d)). Hospitals set their own rules for aides and patient care techs, and the postings here say which ones hire before certification. Caregiver and home health aide jobs are listed too, where the posting calls the certificate preferred.

In the postings read here: phlebotomy, medical assistant and patient care tech jobs most often call the certification preferred, and pharmacy tech, sterile processing, EKG and monitor tech jobs most often let you earn it within months of hire. Jobs that train you from the start, with the class paid, are on the paid training list.

Often a little, and some raise the rate once you pass. The no certification needed to start jobs open today that state an hourly rate post a median of $23.50 an hour for medical assistants, $22.77 an hour for CNAs & PCTs, $18.50 an hour for caregivers, $31.11 an hour for surgical and $23.90 an hour for lab (the middle of each posted range). Each posting states its own range.

Of the jobs open today, the most are at Trinity Health (117), CHS (Community Health Systems) (85), Mass General Brigham (73), Endeavor Health (72) and Beth Israel Lahey Health (70).