• Question: What can I go into within the medical industry that doesn't involve surgeries?

    Asked by Mel to Chris, Emma, Jonathan, Katharine, Shehla, Simon on 15 Jun 2017.
    • Photo: Emma Rowe

      Emma Rowe answered on 15 Jun 2017:

      I’m not sure if you mean surgeries as in GP surgery work, or surgical/operations?

      As a nurse, I opted to work in a GP surgery so it is avoidable.

      With surgical rotations, you can’t pick your placements so you get what you’re given in nursing so I wasn’t able to avoid surgical wards. Theatre really wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. It depends on why you want to avoid it.

    • Photo: Simon Browes

      Simon Browes answered on 15 Jun 2017:

      It is almost limitless! You can work in as many settings as you can think of and all over the world.
      There are roles you might not have thought about, such as Occupational Health – working out in all sorts of industry sectors, or working in the pharmaceutical industry in an education/clinical advice role. There are even jobs working out on Oil Rigs, on cruise ships, flying around the world to bring back sick and injured people to the UK. Usually for these kind of jobs you need to get a firm foundation in an area that gives you a good general experience (primary care is ideal for this) and some specialist skills such as Emergency or Acute Medicine or Critical Care. There are opportunities for primary care practitioners to get emergency/critical care skills such as pre-hospital training and advanced life support. It really is limitless!

    • Photo: Katharine Bradbury

      Katharine Bradbury answered on 15 Jun 2017:

      I’m assuming you mean doesn’t involve GP surgeries? You can do medical research in a university or work for a pharmaceutical company, be an army medic, teach medical students, work on a cruise ship, be an expedition doctor, be a pathologist….there are so many possibilities.

    • Photo: Jonathan Harte

      Jonathan Harte answered on 16 Jun 2017:

      Hi – I take this to mean avoiding doing surgery (ie operations).
      There are lots of specialties within medicine that don’t involve operating on patients, including being a GP. There are also medical roles that don’t involve being in a hospital or GP clinic such as ships doctors, occupational health physician etc.
      However, all these roles will involve training first and every medical student has to witness and assist in some surgery as part of their training.

    • Photo: Christopher Symonds

      Christopher Symonds answered on 19 Jun 2017:

      I agree with all of the others who have said that there are many areas of health industry work that does not involve working in GP Surgeries or carrying out surgery.

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