The NHS employs a lot of medically and surgically trained people, from doctors to nurses, many of whom specialise in a particular area, such as anaesthesia or intensive care, and from dentists to midwives.  As well as this, the NHS also relies on a wide range of other professionals to provide the care they do.  These professionals will all have had appropriate training, but have not necessarily had to qualify as a doctor or nurse to carry out their role.

Allied health professionals

Allied health professionals are the third largest workforce in the NHS.  Most of them are degree-level professions and operate independently.  They will often have patients referred to them by doctors or other health professionals for the specialist treatment they can offer. Most allied health professionals focus on forms of rehabilitation and wellbeing to ensure individuals can live full active lives.  Some examples of allied health professionals include:

·         Art therapists

·         Diagnostic radiographers

·         Dietitians

·         Drama or Music therapists

·         Occupational therapist

·         Osteopaths

·         Physiotherapists

·         Podiatrists

·         Speech and language therapist

Health informatics

Health informatics sits at the crossroads between healthcare and ever developing information technology.  It focuses on using digital information (like patient records) and tools (like databases) to help ensure the best possible patient care. As a technology-based area, it is one of the fastest growing in the NHS and supports medical colleagues to access, manage and analyse data.  Examples of health informatics roles include:

·         Clinical informatics

·         Education and training

·         Health records and patient admin’

·         ICT staff

·         Library services

Healthcare sciences

Healthcare science staff play a vital role in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of a huge number of medical conditions. They will be scientists by training and will often spend time in hospital labs, conducting and interpreting tests on samples.  Specialist healthcare scientists can include:

·         Toxicologists

·         Virologists

·         Microbiologists

·         Clinical bioinformatics specialists

·         Physical scientists and biomedical engineers

Psychological professions

This describes a diverse group of professions whose work is based on the disciplines of psychology and psychological therapy.  Professionally qualified, often to degree level, they work to prevent and alleviate psychological and emotional distress, manage mental health and wellbeing, and empower individuals and communities to improve their lives.  These roles can include:

·         Childrens’ wellbeing practitioners

·         Counsellors

·         Education mental health practitioners

·         Forensic psychologists

·         Health psychologists

Public health

Public health is about helping people to stay healthy and protecting them from threats to their health. Often, public health focuses on trends and factors that will impact the health of a wide group of people (such as age-onset conditions or those affecting a community).  Some examples of public health roles are:

·         Environmental health professional

·         Health visitor

·         Occupational health nurse

·         School nurse

Estates and facilities

The NHS owns and runs one of the largest collections of properties in the UK, perhaps not surprising when you think about the number and size of all their hospitals.  To keep all those buildings functioning well takes a small army of staff, with perhaps the widest range of skills of any of our groups here.  Estates and facilities teams will often include:

·         Catering managers

·         Chefs/Cooks

·         Housekeepers

·         Bricklayers

·         Electricians

·         Grounds staff/gardeners

·         Painters/decorators

·         Plumbers

·         Window cleaners

·         Porters

·         Security staff

Wider support team

Even beyond the medical, surgical and nursing staff and all the roles we have already named, the NHS still needs to function just like any other large organisation.  To do this, it needs the experience and skills of a wide range of roles which you might find in other businesses too, including:

·         Managers, at different levels

·         Receptionists

·         Social workers

·         Chaplains

·         Finance staff

·         HR staff