Help me get the right skills to move into project management

[Anonymous]

I’m a 50+ yo woman with a doctorate and many years experience in healthcare. I work in a clinical job, however I have implemented,as part of a team with sole responsibility for my department, a few major projects for my hospital, including a new Electronic Health Records system, IT security and access procedures, and an integrated medical device system which significantly improved patient safety. I programmed the clinical parameters and settings and created a dictionary for this set of devices and integrated it with the EHR. I also monitored and analyzed data after the implementation of these systems. I want to move my career to healthcare project management because these projects were extremely rewarding, but I never held formal titles in this field, just completed several projects on top of my clinical duties. As a strange aside, I have a side business where I bought/sold/managed rental properties for over 25 years which includes a lot of financial planning, projections, budgeting, renovation/upgrade projects, marketing, and ROE calculations.

How could I apply for jobs like this and explain the gap in my official title and my experience? Would you recommend a PMP certificate or masters? If you work in this area, what is the job outlook? Any other certifications which you might recommend? How hard would it be for someone like me to make this career shift, for instance, do you think my age, length of time as a clinician, perceived lack of experience are major barriers? I am willing to go back to school for more official credentials and my company would pay $xxxx toward tuition every year. I tend to be an excellent student having graduated with high honors in previous degrees (University of Texas and Cornell) which has opened a lot of doors for me in the past. Would I only be considered for entry level positions? Would people toss my application because I have too much experience in my previous field and assume I would be too demanding or unwilling to conform or be a team player? I want to stay in project management in healthcare. I haven’t looked for a job outside of my clinical expertise in 25 years, so I’m a little lost as to what to expect. Thank you in advance for any guidance.