• Question: What are the different types of careers possible in this field of work? What are common titles?

    Asked by Leahelliemorton to Adrian, Ali, Charnelle, Deborah, Kit, Phil, Rob on 7 Nov 2017.
    • Photo: Philip Williams

      Philip Williams answered on 7 Nov 2017:


      There’s almost an unlimited range of jobs you can do as a GP. The two main types of GPs are partners and salaried. Partners own the surgery, and employ the staff. Salaried GPs are those who don’t own the surgery, but are employed in the normal way.

      In addition, more and more GPs are having what’s called a “portfolio career”. This is where you have a mix and match job. You do a bit of general practice, but a bit of something else you also enjoy.

      Other career options in general practice include teaching & training doctors to become GPs, examining doctors in training, doing appraisals (that’s an annual meeting where you are checked to make sure you’re keeping up to date and are still ok to be a doctor!), doing a specialist clinic (GPs can work in specialties such as dermatology (skin conditions), diabetes, sports medicine and gynaecology (women’s health).

      GPs also frequently work in the media, including newspapers, TV and radio. They can work in politics or in NHS management. Some GPs work in local councils to try and improve the health of whole populations.

    • Photo: Deborah Draycott

      Deborah Draycott answered on 7 Nov 2017:


      Nursing has so many different roles – to start with you can train in adult, childrens, mental health or learning disability nursing. Once qualified the health service is full of opportunites; working in different surgical, medical or specialist wards in hospitals; moving into the community as a district nurse, practice nurse and some of the more specialist nurse roles. Nurses now do many roles that were not open to them before, such as prescribing medicines, surgical procedures, diagnosing illnesses. Some nurses move into management and leadership posts or you can go into educational roles too. Once you have your registration you can work abroad, in the armed forces or even on cruise ships – there really are unlimited possibilities.

    • Photo: Robert Cullum

      Robert Cullum answered on 8 Nov 2017:


      To add to the answers my colleagues have given, there are lots of different job roles within more broad healthcare settings including (but not limited to!):
      – Doctor (there are over 50 different types of doctor!!!)
      – Nurse
      -Physiotherapist
      -Occupational Therapist
      – Paramedic
      – Radiographer
      – Social worker
      – Psychologist
      – Pharmacist
      – Biomedical scientist
      – Cardiac physiologist
      – Vascular scientist
      – Dietician

    • Photo: Adrian Taylor

      Adrian Taylor answered on 8 Nov 2017:


      Within the admin side we have:
      Practice Managers
      Business Managers
      Deputy Managers
      Head Receptionists
      Receptionists
      Book-keepers
      Medical Secretaries
      Computer Admin
      Notes Summarisers
      Carers Champions
      Caretakers
      Cleaners

      There are more, but all of these roles paly a part in enabling a GP surgery to run successfully.

    • Photo: Ali Blatcher

      Ali Blatcher answered on 8 Nov 2017:


      I found the different types of Doctors hard to understand.

      So firstly after medical school you have Foundation Years 1 and 2 (FY1 and FY2).

      These used to be called house officer and senior house officer, which are still sometimes used.

      Then you choose your training specialty- surgery, paediatric, psychiatry, GP, medicine, obs and gynae etc- and you become either a CT1 or ST1

      You become a registrar at ST3 level and do this for a good few years.

      Finally you become a consultant if you want to get that far!

      Hope that helps!

Comments