• Question: Was it hard to decide what role you wanted to go into in healthcare?

    Asked by Liv on 27 Mar 2023.
    • Photo: Amy Hadfield

      Amy Hadfield answered on 27 Mar 2023:

      For me it wasnt- I think I decided that I wanted to be a doctor around the age of 13 so I made sure that I worked hard at school to be able to fulfill my dream.

    • Photo: Krishan Patel

      Krishan Patel answered on 27 Mar 2023:

      For me, the only role within healthcare I wanted to go into was being a doctor. Nowadays, there are lots of roles in healthcare where you can do very similar roles to being a doctor. For example, Advanced Nurse Practitioners who are Nurses with specialist training to allow them to prescribe and manage patients in a similar way to doctors. Also, Physician Associates, Pharmacists and Paramedics are just some of the few other roles who are seeing patients in a GP surgery nowadays.

      I think it is a lot harder now to decide on a role. But, on the flipside, whichever role you choose will probably allow you to do more than you thought because everybody’s roles overlap more now.

    • Photo: Yuen Say Toh

      Yuen Say Toh answered on 27 Mar 2023:

      It was tricky at the start but doing some placements or shadowing different people helped me

    • Photo: Sarah Chalmers-Page

      Sarah Chalmers-Page answered on 27 Mar 2023:

      I knew I didn’t want to be a clinical worker, and that I did want to help people. Once I worked out that my skills were in management rather than on the front lines it wasn’t all that hard a decision – I did interview for some other schemes in the public sector but the NHS was the best out of the ones I was successful in.

    • Photo: James Waldron

      James Waldron answered on 28 Mar 2023:

      yeah really hard! i knew I wanted to be a doctor but didnt know what sort! over my career I enjoyed cardiology, psychiatry, health care of the elderly, paediatrics! I became a GP as you get to do all of those things which is cool.
      Its also fine to not know what you want to do yet! Keep your options open (though for a lot of medical roles you need to do a chemistry and biology A level)

    • Photo: Jennie Smith

      Jennie Smith answered on 28 Mar 2023:

      For me it wasn’t a choice more like a career progression in a field which I was really interested in and felt like I was good at. Pharmacy Technicians do not have to go to University – its all vocational training so this was definitely the best option for me.

    • Photo: Caroline Boshell

      Caroline Boshell answered on 30 Mar 2023:

      No, I have wanted to be a doctor for as long as I can remember – there was nothing else I wanted to do. This is not the case for everyone though so worth looking into different and developing roles in healthcare and where they may take you.

    • Photo: Laurence Quirk

      Laurence Quirk answered on 30 Mar 2023:

      For me it wasn’t. I’d always thought about working the NHS since I’d work alongside NHS colleagues for years on healthy living projects or patient involvement projects it was about finding a role I could do. I am not clinical or patient facing but there are lots of roles in the NHS that don’t need them.

    • Photo: Kate Knowles

      Kate Knowles answered on 31 Mar 2023:

      Not really. I started as a nurse and then other jobs came to my attention as I gained more experience and worked in various areas. For example as a nurse I worked closely with educators and clinical trials nurses. I liked the look of those jobs and so when a vacancy became available I applied.

    • Photo: Angela Musson

      Angela Musson answered on 3 Jul 2023:

      You may know what you want to do – or your career can develop as you go along. There are hundreds of careers and not all clinical. Something for everyone

Comments

  • Photo: James

    James commented on :

    Super difficult! I loved basically everything that I did going through my training. Thats why I ended up a GP as you get to do a bit of everything! I have about the most varied career you have seen – Patient care, Education, Hosting, Project management, podcasting, politics! loads of stuff!

  • Photo: Kate

    Kate commented on :

    Not really as nursing was an obvious choice for me. Work experience is so good for ‘trying out’ possible options. Early on in degrees people may be able to change if they suddenly find they are on a course that is absolutely not for them. It’s really important to talk to people who can help and its massively important to train and do a job that you love & are super interested in.