Does anyone know anything about the differences or similarities between biomedical engineering and clinical engineering? I would like to work in a clinical setting and have the options to work with patients if possible, I just do not want to commit so much to the time med school takes.
While I’m sure there are exceptions, clinical engineering usually seems to be a technician role that involves troubleshooting/maintaining/fixing equipment in a hospital or clinic. You won’t be involved in patient interaction.
You sound like you’re interested in clinical interaction more than engineering–why are you considering engineering? There are many clinical roles in the healthcare field that don’t require the amount of time it takes to become a doctor.
I worked as a clinical / bio-medical engineer for several years after I graduated. As mentioned above, if you work for a hospital, your role will primarily be working with the medical equipment. I worked for 2 different hospitals in 2 different states. At one, most of the staff of the department were engineers with BSEE or BS Biomed Eng degrees and were, consequently, performing duties that were more “clinical” in nature. Several went on to work for large medical device companies that assisted the sales team in the OR, cath lab, etc. At the hospital I worked at after graduation, most of my co-workers had AA degrees or military training. It felt a bit more like a technician lab and we were sort of lumped in with the hospital facilities staff (not anything wrong with that, just felt a bit more like a TV repair person sometimes). In both roles, I definitely worked around patients - I was in charge of the equipment in the ER/Trauma room, OR, ICU and several other ancillary departments. Usually I was just focused on getting the equipment working again safely. If you want patient contact, I think the path would be through the device companies, possibly through sales or possibly as a RN/LPN/PA.
As a side note, my university required me to get a BSEE or BSME with a “Specialization in Biomedical Engineering” instead of a straight Biomedical engineering degree. I wasn’t too happy about that but in 1988 there were not too many options. I was SO glad that my degree had BSEE on it though, in retrospect. When the economy was not-so-hot, having a BSEE was so much more marketable, even at a large medical device manufacturer where I spent most of my career, I would not have been hired as an engineer without the BSEE.