The NHS celebrates its 70th birthday in 2018. NHS achievements over the years have made an epic difference to the way we live, from curing measles misery to DNA structure discoveries and spotting the link between smoking and cancer. Where would we be today without the super staff of our National Health Service?
With over 300 NHS careers on offer, think you have to be driven to study science/medicine at university or look after sick people to make your career dreams a reality at the NHS? Think again! The NHS needs all kinds of people with different skills, backgrounds and interests. If you love art and theatre, or working with words, or creating apps and websites or even cooking and gardening, the NHS is a place where you can care for yourself while helping others.
To give you a taste of all that variety, here are 70 NHS careers you might not have known about before. Do good for others – and do wonders for your own career too!
Allied health professionals
As an allied health professional you’ll work with patients face to face. These careers will make you highly employable with the flexibility to live and work anywhere. Some ideas…
- Dietitian
- Occupational therapist
- Prosthetist/orthotist
- Podiatrist
- Speech and language therapist
- Art therapist
Prosthetist careers: What is a prosthetic? It’s an artificial limb or part for a person, and not many people know there’s a job to design and create them.
Ambulance service team
When an ambulance reaches a patient in a time of emergency, it’s not just the ambulance driver who gets the care to the patient as quickly as possible. Staff in the control room take calls and get the paramedics and care staff where they’re needed. Check out these careers…
- Call handler/emergency medical dispatcher
- Emergency care assistant
- Paramedic
Dental team
One way to make the whole nation smile is to make sure dental care is up to scratch. More people are caring for their teeth and a visit to the dentist is often seen as a positive thing these days, nothing to be afraid of. As a tasty proposition, you could be a…
- Dental hygienist
- Dental nurse
- Dentist
Doctors
Thinking about becoming a doctor? There are so many varieties that there’s bound to be a healthy career option for you. You could work in a hospital as a specialist doctor or surgeon, or care for your community as a GP. Here are just some of the types of doctor you could be…
- Community sexual and reproductive health
- Dermatology (skin)
- Forensic psychiatry
- General practice (GP)
- Immunology
- Infectious diseases
- Neurosurgery (brain surgery)
- Nuclear medicine
- Sport and exercise medicine
- Tropical medicine
GP careers: There are around 65 different types of doctor, but the UK especially needs more GPs. That’s because GPs are the all-round doctors who provide help where you live, in your community.
Health informatics
Don’t let the odd name confuse you – health informatics is about using information and technology in smart ways to provide better care. It’s also one of the fastest-growing areas of healthcare.
Think you’d enjoy working in an office environment more than a hospital ward? Then you could be perfect for a health informatics role. You could help in all kinds of ways to store, use and share information that helps patients get the right treatment as soon as possible. Let’s take a look at what health informatics jobs actually are…
- Education and training roles
- Health records and patient administration
- Digital careers
- Project and programme management
Social media careers: Co-ordinating social media for an organisation or business is about sharing information that might be useful and inspiring to its audience. That’s why @NHSEngland has a Twitter account!
Healthcare science
Get ready for some of the most exciting, challenging and rewarding NHS careers you could ever imagine! The discovery of DNA structure, creating modern vaccines for diseases, making medical discoveries… it all happens in the world of healthcare science. Today’s discoveries could shape humanity’s health in the future. You can be an important part of it all, even if you’re a school leaver and not sure what to do next. Here are just some ideas for healthcare science careers…
- Audiology
- Biomedical science
- Blood sciences
- Clinical photography
- Healthcare scientist (genomics)
- Medical laboratory assistant
- Medical engineering
Genomics careers: What is genomics? It’s the study of genes and how they tell the body to make all the proteins it needs to survive and grow.
Management
The NHS offers treatment and care to around 54 million people in England. That takes serious organisation skills! If you’re thinking about a career in management, the NHS offers so many different ways to get into a leadership role. Take charge of your future…
- Communications and PR (see PR account manager)
- Design and engineering
- Business and Finance (see finance assistant)
- Hotel services (see catering & hospitality careers)
- Human resources (see HR officer)
- Practice and project management
HR careers: One of the most important resources an organisation can ever have is its people! That’s why the NHS has HR officers and managers to help with the recruitment, development and welfare of staff. Because a great organisation needs great people.
Nursing
Nursing is what most people think of when they first think of NHS careers. NHS nurses make all the difference in the high level of care provided to patients. It’s not just about being nice to people, though. As a nurse you really know your stuff, thanks to powerful study and training. You can specialise to work with children, adults, people with mental health needs and more. Your expertise will help people from all walks of life. Here are just a few nursing career ideas for you…
- Children’s nurse
- General practice nurse
- Learning disability nurse
- Mental health nurse
Learning disability nurse careers: What you do is so important. As a learning disability nurse you can help people with learning disabilities achieve their best life by providing specialist healthcare and support. You can provide support to their families and other staff teams, too.
Pharmacy
Medicine is one of the most common ways to treat a sick person. From painkillers and flu remedies to life-saving treatment, medicine helps the nation look after its health. Pharmacies are where medicines are stored and dispensed, or given out to patients. You can find them in hospitals, GP surgeries and even on the high street. You don’t need a degree to get started, either…
- Pharmacist
- Pharmacy assistant
Psychological therapies
The world is waking up to the fact that mental health is as important as physical health. If you are interested in how people think and act, and want to help them have the best mental health possible, then you might look to get a head start in a psychological therapies career. Some ideas…
- Clinical psychologist
- Counsellor
- Psychological wellbeing practitioner
- Psychotherapist
Psychological wellbeing practioner careers: You are trained to support people with some of the most common mental health problems, like depression and anxiety disorder. Working sensitively with the patient, you help them to manage their recovery – because mental health matters.
Public health
Public health is about helping people to stay healthy and look after their health before it takes a turn for the worse. In the NHS you can work in public health as a first job or as a really senior job. Examples of public health can include tackling harmful smoking, drinking and diet. It could also involve tackling mental health and dementia or protecting public health by tackling climate change issues in the UK. There’s a lot of variety! It’s just the tip of the iceberg, but public health roles include…
- Environmental health professionals
- Health trainer
Health trainer careers: Good health is for everyone, and some people need a little extra help to start thinking in a healthy way. Health trainers help people create their own action plans for better health. Health means different things to different people – it’s not all diet fads and personal gyms. Sometimes it means stopping smoking or practising safe sex.
Wider healthcare team
Okay, so maybe you thought NHS careers were all about science, medicine and looking after patients before you saw this list. Below are just some roles you can do in the NHS as part of its wider healthcare team. The arts, technology, business and finance, hospitality, trade skills, design and engineering… all these skills and interests can lead you to an NHS career. The possibilities are as big as your imagination…
- Administrative assistant
- Accountant
- Architect
- Audiovisual technician
- Carpenter/joiner
- Catering manager
- Chef/cook
- Social media coordinator
- Electrician
- Engineer
- Healthcare assistant
- IT support technician
- Medical laboratory technician
- Nutritionist
- Optical assistant
- Phlebotomist
- Receptionist
- Surveyor
- Theatre support worker
Some NHS links you might like:
- Discover the NHS Youth Forum
- Check out science, healthcare and medicine careers
- Visit the NHS health careers site
- Step into the NHS (this NHS careers site is great for young people)
