DIFFERENT JOBS WITHIN HOSPITALS
What springs to mind when you think about working in a hospital?
For me, I think of highly skilled doctors, surgeons, nurses, and paramedics.
However after exploring the NHS careers website, among roles we’re all probably already familiar with, I have discovered some other jobs I didn’t even know were there hiding behind the scenes - so thought I’d share them with you!
Take a look for yourself to see what I mean…
Art therapist / psychotherapist - Uses art mediums to help patients address emotional issues which may be confusing and distressing for them to communicate. Patients might have a variety of difficulties such as emotional, behavioural or mental health problems, learning disabilities, life-limiting conditions, neurological conditions or physical illnesses.
Music therapist - Involves using music to help patients achieve therapeutic goals through the development of a musical relationship. In fact, you don’t need to be musical at all to take part in this therapy, as it’s not about learning how to play an instrument. This is definitely something I didn’t know existed in hospitals until now.
Medical Engineer - Responsible for checking medical equipment and ensuring it’s working properly and is safe to use. Involves using knowledge of electronic or mechanical engineering to carry out these activities and maybe even become involved in modifying or constructing the equipment as well.
Physiotherapy assistant / support worker - Guiding patients through exercises and relaxation techniques to help manage chronic pain. As well as teaching them how to use new walking aids, specify the fittings that the patient may need to get around safely, along with running injection clinics for pain relief. This role is also used as a route into becoming a Physiotherapist.
Occupational therapy support worker - Helping those who struggle with day-to-day activities such as washing, eating, dressing themselves and other activities to live as full and independent of a life as possible. Commonly working with those adapting to life after surgery, children with disabilities, dementia sufferers etc. Employees in this role may also be referred to as OT Assistants / Technicians, Rehabilitation Assistants, or Technical Instructors.
Maternity support worker - Working under the supervision of a registered midwife, helping to care for mothers and babies through the stages of pregnancy, birth, and aftercare. Duties include making routine observations, admin, educating parents, preparing equipment and taking blood samples. This field requires excellent communication and organisational skills.
Call handler / Emergency medical dispatcher - Working as a team in ambulance control rooms, dealing with emergency calls from the public and making sure that the right help gets to them as quickly as possible. Those in this role often work under great deals of pressure as they often deal with life-or-death situations. If however you’re not suited to the major emergencies, you could work as a call handler in the 111 service, taking calls from members of the public about non-emergency health problems.
Ambulance Care Assistant and Patient Transport Service - Driving disabled, elderly, sick or vulnerable people to and from outpatient appointments, day care centres and routine hospital admissions. Those in this role do need to be trained with life saving medical skills in case an emergency with a passenger occurs.
After reading this post, do you think you would like to go into one of these roles or similar within a hospital?
Explore the hundreds of roles for yourself, over on the NHS website. (Linked below)
They also offer apprenticeships across all departments from Healthcare Science, Maternity, Nursing, Pharmacy to Dentistry. Go take a look!
We hope this was helpful - wishing you the best of luck in your career search!
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Get in touch with the HICAMO team if you need help researching any particular roles, or have any questions for us at all.
Useful Links:
NHS careers website -
https://www.healthcareers.nhs.uk/explore-roles
NHS Apprenticeships - https://www.healthcareers.nhs.uk/career-planning/study-and-training/apprenticeships
AUTHOR: GRACE MCGRATH - DIGITAL RESEARCHER