Doctor
A career as a doctor is a career with purpose – being a doctor means you'll receive world-class training from leading universities and teaching hospital trusts. Once qualified you’ll have a rewarding career helping people improve their health and wellbeing.
There are more than 50 different specialties to choose from, from anaesthesia to tropical medicine.
General Practitioners (GP)
You’ll be part of a wider team that promotes, prevents and offers treatment. You’ll care for people with chronic illness and long-term conditions, aiming to keep them well and in their own homes.
A typical day in general practice starts at around 8am when you’ll check paperwork before appointments begin. You’ll spend time with a mix of patients with a variety of health needs either face-to-face or through a phone consultation.
Anaesthesia
It’s your responsibility to choose the appropriate anaesthetic for your patient. Typically, you’ll offer four stages of patient care for a routine anaesthetic:
preparation – you’ll assess your patient’s fitness for anaesthesia and agree on an anaesthetic plan
induction – you’ll initiate the anaesthesia
maintenance – you’ll continue the anaesthesia while monitoring your patient’s condition, including checking the activity of the heart, blood pressure, oxygen and carbon dioxide levels, breathing, body temperature, depth of anaesthesia and the body fluid balance
recovery – you’ll reverse the anaesthesia and support the patient’s recovery.
Emergency medicine
You could work in other settings such as minor injuries units, at major events or in regional trauma networks. It’s a 24/7 service so you’ll work shifts including evenings and weekends.
There is no such thing as a typical day, which is why emergency medicine is so interesting. You’ll see people of all ages and from all walks of life, including casualties from road traffic accidents, older people without support, and substance abusers. You could go from treating someone with a broken bone to caring for a patient in cardiac arrest or dealing with a person with mental health issues.
Paediatrics
As a paediatrician you’ll deal with conditions that affect infants, children and young people.
You might look after children in intensive care or treat children with heart conditions.
You’ll work alongside a range of colleagues within the NHS in areas such as emergency medicine, oncology and primary care. You may also provide clinical advice more widely, for example, to social services, education and other agencies.