Healthcare Practitioner (Other Roles) Career Assessment
A catch-all bucket, not a job title — here is what is really inside it
Welcome
Here is the honest part first. Nobody advertises a job called "Healthcare Diagnosing or Treating Practitioners, All Other." It is a government filing bucket. It is where the counters put health care practitioners who diagnose or treat patients but do not have their own code.
North Dakota files about 60 people here. This page names the real jobs inside the bucket, tells you what North Dakota actually requires for them, and sends you to the pages in this area that carry numbers you can use.
This takes about 15 minutes.
What is a Healthcare Practitioner (Other Roles)?
The government names two real occupations inside this bucket: naturopathic physicians and orthoptists. A naturopathic physician is a licensed practitioner trained at a four-year naturopathic medical school who diagnoses and treats patients using nutrition, botanical medicine, and other natural methods. An orthoptist works alongside an eye doctor, testing and treating eye movement problems and crossed or lazy eyes, mostly in children. The bucket also catches other small practitioner jobs that do not fit anywhere else. These jobs have nothing in common with each other.
The Reality: Two things you should not skip. First, the middle pay of $48.67 an hour is a blend of unrelated jobs and may not describe any single one of them. Look at how squeezed the North Dakota range is: the bottom tenth earns $38.19 and the top tenth earns $49.24. A real career does not have a range that narrow. That shape means very few people are being counted, and a handful of individuals are moving the whole number. Second, North Dakota projects about 60 people in this bucket now and about 70 by 2034, with annual openings that round to zero. Do not build a plan on this page. Build it on the specific job you choose.
Your Responsibilities:
- Pick which real job inside this bucket you actually want
- Check whether North Dakota licenses that job, because the answer differs a lot
- Find out where the training program is, because it is probably not in this state
- Look up real pay for that specific job, not this group blend
- Ask whether North Dakota employers hire that role at all
- Talk to someone doing that work before you spend money on school
- Compare it honestly with a bigger health career in this same area
- Plan for years of school, because both named jobs need a degree first
The real job has a real name. Finding out which one is the whole task.
A Day in the Life
8:00 AM — There is no single day here. This one belongs to an orthoptist in a children's eye clinic.
8:15 AM — First patient is 5 years old and will not sit still. You make the eye test a game.
9:00 AM — Measure how far the eyes turn in, and by how much, at near and far.
10:30 AM — Explain to a worried parent what a lazy eye is and why patching works.
12:00 PM — Lunch.
12:45 PM — Meet with the eye surgeon and go over your measurements before a surgery decision.
2:00 PM — Follow-up visits. One child's eye has improved. You get to say so out loud.
4:00 PM — Chart everything carefully. Your numbers guide the doctor's treatment.
A naturopathic physician's day looks nothing like this. That is the point of the page.
Training in North Dakota
There is no program for this bucket. Both named jobs require training you cannot get in North Dakota. This is the hard fact. Naturopathic medical schools accredited by the national council are all outside North Dakota, and there is no accredited orthoptic fellowship program in North Dakota, South Dakota, or Montana. Both jobs also start with a four-year degree, which you can absolutely get here. Plan on doing your undergraduate work in North Dakota and then leaving for the professional training.
Training Pathways:
- Naturopathic physician (about 8 years): Finish a four-year bachelor's degree with the science courses, then four years at a naturopathic medical school accredited by the Council on Naturopathic Medical Education, then pass both parts of the national licensing exam, then apply to the North Dakota Board of Medicine for a license. None of those schools are in this state.
- Orthoptist (about 6 years): Finish a four-year bachelor's degree, then a two-year orthoptic fellowship at an accredited program, then pass the written and practical board exam from the American Orthoptic Council. The nearest accredited programs are the University of Minnesota and Mayo Clinic, both in Minnesota.
- Do your first four years here (4 years): Whichever of the two you choose, the bachelor's degree comes first and North Dakota schools do it well and cheaply. Take biology, chemistry, anatomy, and physiology, and keep your grades high, because both of the next steps are competitive.
Where to Train in North Dakota:
- University of North Dakota (Grand Forks) — bachelor's degrees in biology, biomedical sciences, and the pre-health sciences. The usual undergraduate foundation for either path — und.edu
- North Dakota State University (Fargo) — bachelor's degrees in biological sciences and health-related fields — ndsu.edu
- Minot State University (Minot) — B.S. Biology and pre-professional health tracks — minotstateu.edu
- University of Mary (Bismarck) — health sciences bachelor's degrees — umary.edu
- Bismarck State College and ND State College of Science — two-year transfer work in biology and chemistry that moves to a four-year school and costs far less to start — bismarckstate.edu, ndscs.edu
- Orthoptic fellowship: no accredited program in North Dakota, South Dakota, or Montana. The nearest are the University of Minnesota and Mayo Clinic in Minnesota — americanorthopticcouncil.org
- Naturopathic medical school: no school in North Dakota. The accredited list is kept by the Council on Naturopathic Medical Education, and the ND Board of Medicine will only accept a license applicant from one of them — ndbom.org/practitioners/naturopaths
Before You Start: A high school diploma or GED and strong science and math. Both routes start with a competitive four-year degree, so grades matter from the first semester. Get real patient contact early, through a clinic job or volunteering, because every program asks about it.
Tip: Start with financial aid and scholarships. Fill out the FAFSA, ask the school’s financial aid office what you qualify for, and ask an employer whether they help pay for school. That is where the money starts. After that, a career counselor or Job Service North Dakota may be able to help with what is left over, like tuition, books, a laptop, or exam fees. What can be paid for depends on the program and on your own situation, so ask before you enroll rather than after. Worth asking about specifically: two-year degrees that train you for a job, like civil engineering technology, land surveying, mechatronics, electronics, or instrumentation. North Dakota two-year colleges also cost far less than a university. Ask about paid summer internships too — engineering firms, plants, and survey crews hire students while they are still in school.
Certification & Licensing
North Dakota licenses naturopathic doctors. It does not license orthoptists. This is where the two jobs split completely, and it is the most useful thing on this page. One is a licensed profession in this state with a board, a fee, and a renewal cycle. The other is a nationally certified profession with no state license at all. Check the requirement for the job you actually picked.
What North Dakota Requires, Job by Job:
- Naturopathic doctor — licensed by the North Dakota Board of Medicine. Not by the state integrative health care board, which licenses music therapists, behavior analysts, and acupuncturists instead. Check ndbom.org, not the other board
- Naturopathic doctor education: graduation from a naturopathic school accredited by the Council on Naturopathic Medical Education, requiring at a minimum a four-year, full-time resident program
- Naturopathic doctor exam: both parts of the national licensing exam — Part I Biomedical Science and Part II Core Clinical Science — verified directly to the board by the examining body
- Naturopathic doctor fee and background: a $405 first-time licensing fee as published by the board as of April 1, 2024, prorated for the cycle, plus ten years of employment history, a national practitioner database self-query, and a fingerprint background check
- Orthoptist — no North Dakota license required. What you earn is national board certification from the American Orthoptic Council, after a bachelor's degree and a two-year fellowship
- Orthoptist exam: the American Orthoptic Council board exam has a written part and a practical part
- Both jobs: confirm current rules on the board's or council's own site before you spend a dollar. Boards change their rules and this page will age
The Exams: Naturopathic doctors take the two-part national licensing exam, and the board requires results sent directly from the examining body. Orthoptists take a written and practical board exam from the American Orthoptic Council.
Cost: The North Dakota naturopathic doctor first-time license fee was published at $405 as of April 1, 2024. The board publishes current amounts at ndbom.org. The American Orthoptic Council does not publish a simple fee on its public pages, so ask them directly rather than guessing. Both professional programs cost far more than the license fee does.
Keeping It Current: North Dakota runs a two-year licensing cycle for naturopathic doctors, expiring December 31 in odd-numbered years. Orthoptic certification is maintained with continuing education under the American Orthoptic Council's own guidelines.
Salary & Job Outlook
North Dakota Healthcare Diagnosing or Treating Practitioner (All Other group) Pay (May 2025):
- Starting out (bottom 10–25%): $38.19–$46.86/hour ($79,440–$97,470/year)
- Middle (median — half earn more, half earn less): $48.67/hour ($101,240/year)
- Experienced (top 25–10%): $49.09–$49.24/hour ($102,110–$102,420/year)
What that means: Treat this as a warning label, not a salary. These five North Dakota numbers sit between $38.19 and $49.24 an hour — a range so narrow it tells you the sample is tiny. A blend of two unrelated professions cannot honestly produce a number that describes either one. The national middle for this same bucket is about $55.39 an hour, or $115,210 a year, which is higher than the North Dakota blend. What is fair to say is that both real jobs inside this bucket are trained, licensed or certified work that pays like a professional job. What is not fair to say is that either one pays exactly $48.67. Ask real employers, or the board, or someone doing the work.
Jobs in North Dakota: About 60 people do this work in ND today. By 2034, that should be about 70 (about 2% growth). Expect fewer than 5 job openings every year in ND from growth and people retiring or changing jobs. Across the U.S., the change is about 2% growth — slower than average.
Outlook: Very thin, and you should hear that plainly. About 60 people are filed in this bucket in North Dakota, growing to about 70, with projected annual openings that round to zero — fewer than five, not none ever. Nationally it is the same story: about 2% growth, slower than average. This is not a bucket to build a career plan on. For real numbers in this same area, look at the midwife page, which covers a different catch-all group with about 10 openings a year; clinical laboratory technologist, with about 1,180 people in the state and 80 openings a year; dietitian and nutritionist, with about 20 openings a year; and athletic trainer. Those pages describe jobs North Dakota actually posts.
Who Hires in ND: For orthoptists: eye clinics and children's eye practices, almost always working directly with an eye surgeon, and mostly in the larger cities. For naturopathic doctors: private practice and integrative health clinics, usually self-employed or in a small group. Both are small-employer worlds in this state, and neither is a job you find by scrolling a big job board.
Work Setting: Clinics and private offices. Regular weekday hours, mostly. Both jobs are one-on-one with patients in a quiet room, not hospital shift work.
Physical Demands: Low to moderate. Standing, sitting, leaning in close to patients, and using your hands and eyes carefully for long stretches. Orthoptic work with small children takes patience more than strength.
Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, North Dakota, May 2025 (SOC 29-1299); North Dakota and U.S. long-term employment projections 2024–2034, via O*NET OnLine. Numbers are rounded.
Where This Leads
Path 1: Orthoptist — Test and treat eye movement problems alongside an eye surgeon.
Path 2: Naturopathic Doctor — Licensed practice in North Dakota through the state Board of Medicine.
Path 3: Clinic Owner — Run your own practice, which is common for naturopathic doctors.
Path 4: Teaching or Fellowship Faculty — Train the next group, usually at the program you attended.
Path 5: Research or Clinical Trials — Work on the studies behind the treatments.
Path 6: A different health career entirely — Honestly, for many readers this is the right path. Read the other pages in this area.
The Real Talk
What's Great:
- Both real jobs inside are skilled, respected professional work
- North Dakota does license naturopathic doctors, so the path here is clearly defined
- Orthoptic work with children is deeply rewarding
- Small field means you are known and needed where you land
- Professional-level pay once you are trained
- You can do the first four years of school in North Dakota
What's Hard:
- The job title does not exist — you have to pick a real one
- The pay number is a blend of unrelated jobs
- Fewer than 5 North Dakota openings a year in the whole bucket
- No training program for either job exists in North Dakota
- Six to eight years of school before you start
- You will likely have to leave the state to train, and maybe to work
Be Honest: Are you willing to pick one real job and research it properly instead of using this blended number? Can you plan for six to eight years of school and training outside North Dakota?