Medical careers besides nursing and medicine?

Galbin

I am looking to go back to college, and so am exploring a wide variety of career options. If life were different, I would do medicine. However, I have a lot of chronic health problems, so the reality is that I would not be able for the training at all (a bit ironic, I know). I am not saying this to be negative, but as someone who has seen people go through the training. So I know all about the unpaid hours, the extremely long shifts and the changing hospitals every six months to a year. Nursing has never appealed to me, however.

So I am wondering what other medical jobs are out there, and are there jobs in the particular sector? I was told by a career counseller that there aren't enough jobs for qualified dietitians, physiotherapists and other allied health care professionals in Ireland, which is why I am wondering.

Thank you very much.

Dingle_berry

What is it about nursing that puts you off it? What is it about medicine that interests you? Not every NCHD programme or consultancy is as gruelling as the likes of surgery.

In terms of other careers it depends on how close to patients that you want to work. I don't know of any health care job where there is a high amount of recruitment with few applicants.
Off the top of my head there is:
Pharmacist, pharmacy technician, physiotherapist, medical scientist, occupational therapist, radiographer, dietician, social worker, nurses, mid wife, anatomical pathology technician, medical physicist, biomedical engineer, perfusion scientist, various clinical measurement scientists and probably plenty more that I'm forgetting or that I don't know exist.

WildRosie

Chiropodist/podiatrist, chiropractor (depending on your views), phlebotomist, speech and language therapist, paramedic, dentist, dental hygienist, physiologist...

Galbin

Dingle_berry wrote: »

What is it about nursing that puts you off it? What is it about medicine that interests you? Not every NCHD programme or consultancy is as gruelling as the likes of surgery.

In terms of other careers it depends on how close to patients that you want to work. I don't know of any health care job where there is a high amount of recruitment with few applicants.
Off the top of my head there is:
Pharmacist, pharmacy technician, physiotherapist, medical scientist, occupational therapist, radiographer, dietician, social worker, nurses, mid wife, anatomical pathology technician, medical physicist, biomedical engineer, perfusion scientist, various clinical measurement scientists and probably plenty more that I'm forgetting or that I don't know exist.

Re: medicine, everything about it interests me. I have a lot of chronic health conditions and have some great doctors who have worked with me to manage my conditions as well as they can be managed. I find the actual science of medicine to be fascinating. It's a moot point though, as I know people have to switch hospitals every six months during the training period, and that isn't so practical or realistic. Plus, I just found out that graduate medicine is 14K a year!

I don't like the lack of autonomy a nurse has. Unless one is a nurse practitioner they cannot prescribe and even then their prescription powers are limited. They also cannot order tests or refer to consultants. I personally would be frustrated by that. I also would not have the health needed for shift work and the physical stamina needed for nursing. Finally I was shocked to learn recently how little nurses are paid.. it is pretty crazy considering they are fully trained professionals.

Are there jobs in those listed sectors though? I was told most dieticians for example have to be self employed and that there are few hospital or company jobs in this sector.

Dingle_berry

Galbin wrote: »

Re: medicine, everything about it interests me. I have a lot of chronic health conditions and have some great doctors who have worked with me to manage my conditions as well as they can be managed. I find the actual science of medicine to be fascinating. It's a moot point though, as I know people have to switch hospitals every six months during the training period, and that isn't so practical or realistic. Plus, I just found out that graduate medicine is 14K a year!

Leaving the role model aspect aside, doctors are not the only profession to study medical science. Also moving hospitals every 6 months isn't as big a deal in Dublin or Cork as it would be in Donegal.

Galbin wrote: »

I don't like the lack of autonomy a nurse has. Unless one is a nurse practitioner they cannot prescribe and even then their prescription powers are limited. They also cannot order tests or refer to consultants. I personally would be frustrated by that. I also would not have the health needed for shift work and the physical stamina needed for nursing. Finally I was shocked to learn recently how little nurses are paid.. it is pretty crazy considering they are fully trained professionals.

There are plenty of nurses trained to run clinics like colposcopy etc ordering tests and prescribing. Same for midwives. They generally get to spend more time with each patient and a lot of time with various other health care workers. How much do you think a graduate nurse should be paid? More than an intern? SHO? SpR?
If you don't have the health for shift work as a nurse how would you have it for working as a doctor?

Galbin wrote: »

Are there jobs in those listed sectors though? I was told most dieticians for example have to be self employed and that there are few hospital or company jobs in this sector.

I've no idea about dieticians but in general there are more graduates than jobs. In all healthcare fields. The recruitment embargo is easing though.

Galbin

Dingle_berry wrote: »

Leaving the role model aspect aside, doctors are not the only profession to study medical science. Also moving hospitals every 6 months isn't as big a deal in Dublin or Cork as it would be in Donegal.


There are plenty of nurses trained to run clinics like colposcopy etc ordering tests and prescribing. Same for midwives. They generally get to spend more time with each patient and a lot of time with various other health care workers. How much do you think a graduate nurse should be paid? More than an intern? SHO? SpR?
If you don't have the health for shift work as a nurse how would you have it for working as a doctor?


I've no idea about dieticians but in general there are more graduates than jobs. In all healthcare fields. The recruitment embargo is easing though.

Yes, but doctors don't have much of a choice in which hospital they move to. I know someone who has worked everywhere from Cork to Dublin to Waterford. It's not ideal for someone with a family in their 30s. And I don't have the health to be either a doctor or a nurse. That is my point. If I did have good health, I would study to be a doctor. I think I was more surprised at the top end of the nursing scale than the bottom end of it. I feel that staff nurse positions should earn more than 42K at the top of the scale. I know nurses can prescribe, but only in very limited circumstances. They can't former a doctor-patient relationship.

Pity about the HSE embargo...

Extrasupervery

Until recently I would have recommended Occupational Therapy. Having spoken to an OT student the other day I can assure you that their workload while training is anything but light. If medicine seems too intense for you I wouldn't consider nursing - the undergrad alone is physically exhausting. It allows no room to be in any way sick.

sillymoo

Radiation therapy is an option. Nice work/life balance. Rewarding and you form a strong relationship with patients. TCD takes mature students. Think jobs are very thin on the ground at the moment though.

Bepolite

Public Health through a PhD / Masters. Research might be just the ticket given health problems etc.

lonestargirl

sillymoo wrote: »

Radiation therapy is an option. Nice work/life balance. Rewarding and you form a strong relationship with patients. TCD takes mature students. Think jobs are very thin on the ground at the moment though.

Permanent jobs yes like all disciplines are scarce right now, there's a good bit of agency work though.

Galbin

Extrasupervery wrote: »

Until recently I would have recommended Occupational Therapy. Having spoken to an OT student the other day I can assure you that their workload while training is anything but light. If medicine seems too intense for you I wouldn't consider nursing - the undergrad alone is physically exhausting. It allows no room to be in any way sick.

Hello Extrasupervery

Thanks for your post. I've actually looked into OT since you posted this, and it does sound like a really good match for my interests, skills and past employment. Can you explain more about the workload they have? I am also going to be contacting local OTs in my area to see if I can learn more.

Galbin

Bepolite wrote: »

Public Health through a PhD / Masters. Research might be just the ticket given health problems etc.

Does one not have to have a degree in medicine or nursing to do a Public Health degree? The courses I have found seem to suggest that one does. Am I looking at the wrong thing?

Galbin

I would be very interested in working in the area of eating disorders also. Specifically researching the neurochemical, societal and psychological causes, and working with people with eating disorders. I myself had an eating disorder, so I know I needed both dietary help and psychological help to get better. Researching the wider societal problems of disordered eating and body image also helped me to recover. Would this area of research only be possible if one were to get a medical degree first, or would such research area be available in say Occupational Therapy?

I am so grateful for everyone's help here.

theginsandwich

Hello, I've just qualified as an OT. I applied for it after initially wishing to do medicine for quite a while. It's a great career (bit biased though!), very varied, you can go into physical or mental health. One key difference between the two fields is that in OT the focus is not on the medical condition per se but rather on how it impacts on a person's ability to engage in things they need and want to do i.e. personal hygiene, work, leisure. So while you do learn medical science it is in reference to this.

As for the lack of autonomy, etc., well anywhere you work you'll be in a multidisciplinary team unless you become an independent OT or some such. You contribute your own professional expertise and intervention but it must fit with the work of the team - at least this is the way it should work.

OT workload really depends on setting. I have had placements where there is immense pressure for fast patient throughput, and others where it was quite relaxed.

There were people on my course with long term health conditions who are qualifying with me - the university lecturers were very supportive, all the more so given the values of the profession. The biggest challenge for them was probably the placements. You need to gain experience in a variety of mental and physical health settings, and the hours (as well as the stress of new setting/people/place/being assessed) can be exhausting. But there is, as I said, plenty of support available.

If there is anything else you'd like to know, ask away. One thing though is that I studied in the UK so my knowledge of how things work OT-wise in Ireland and the HSE is non-existent. Hope this helps!

theginsandwich

Galbin wrote: »

I would be very interested in working in the area of eating disorders also. Specifically researching the neurochemical, societal and psychological causes, and working with people with eating disorders. I myself had an eating disorder, so I know I needed both dietary help and psychological help to get better. Researching the wider societal problems of disordered eating and body image also helped me to recover. Would this area of research only be possible if one were to get a medical degree first, or would such research area be available in say Occupational Therapy?

I am so grateful for everyone's help here.

Oops forgot to address this. Yes you could work in eating disorders (at least in the UK as I said) as well as conduct OT research on it. However, it would be a highly specialist area. I have an OT friend also interested in it who has taken a post in a generic mental health inpatient unit to gain relevant experience while waiting for something to come up in eating disorders.

mad al

Give medical laboratory science (Biomed in DIT,UCC,GMIT) a look. We are an essential element of the health service as we provide about 70% of the diagnostic tests and supply all of the blood components to patients. It's a grand career, some of it is very routine work but in more specialist roles it certainly would be more challenging and fulfilling. Take molecular diagnostics for example, it is a fast growing area which requires a lot of expertise and often these specialist scientists would be working closely with the clinicians in relation to result interpretation. Although some of the labs require a lot of running around, I personally feel that it could be well suited to someone with a chronic illness.

Extrasupervery

I'd be careful with medical laboratory science at the moment - I know of individuals qualified 6+ years who cannot secure any work in the area, and who are VOLUNTEERING in hospital labs to try and get a shoe in. Sounds brutal.

mad al

Extrasupervery wrote: »

I'd be careful with medical laboratory science at the moment - I know of individuals qualified 6+ years who cannot secure any work in the area, and who are VOLUNTEERING in hospital labs to try and get a shoe in. Sounds brutal.

I am extremely surprised to hear that. I am out of college a year, I got a job soon after qualifying and have recieved 3 other job offers since. There were many other jobs that I did not apply for either. Things are back moving again. Pretty much all of my year is employed. It's about putting in the ground work and introducing yourself to the chiefs and lab managers. Anyone that I have met out of college 6+ years is in a permanent position. What I would say is that you have to be willing to travel, places like Cork can be hard to get a job in.

Extrasupervery

I'm talking about the Mercy University Hospital actually, and a class that graduated out of UCC. I'm glad to hear things are better elsewhere!

mad al

Extrasupervery wrote: »

I'm talking about the Mercy University Hospital actually, and a class that graduated out of UCC. I'm glad to hear things are better elsewhere!

Yea Cork is notoriously hard to get job in. I'm told it's more about who you know rather than what you know.

FairytaleGirl

Op have you considered mental health/psych nursing? It's not as physically demanding as general nursing and you can be community based with different clients (likes of a CPN for eg) it would also allow you to work within the realms of eating disorders?

Extrasupervery

FairytaleGirl wrote: »

Op have you considered mental health/psych nursing? It's not as physically demanding as general nursing and you can be community based with different clients (likes of a CPN for eg) it would also allow you to work within the realms of eating disorders?

Good call. You'd still have to work very long days but they'd be a lot easier physically!

FairytaleGirl

Extrasupervery wrote: »

Good call. You'd still have to work very long days but they'd be a lot easier physically!

Sorry, I know in the North almost all hospital/health workers (nurses,radiographers,paramedics,midwives) work 12 hour shifts so I assumed it was the same in the republic!

Alexander Martin

I am sure that you can get a job in this area no matter what. Today the main thing is to have knowledge of a person and he knew his work well so that you will succeed.

Alexander Martin

Alexander Martin wrote: »

I am sure that you can get a job in this area no matter what. Today the main thing is to have knowledge of a person and he knew his work well so that you will succeed.

I forgot to say that it would not hurt to create a cool resume. The summary also plays an important role. Here for example a site https://craftresumes.com/medical-resume/ that can help in the preparation of resumes for a quick period. SO worth making this site.