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NHS medical secretaries make sure that our frontline staff are able to dedicate their time to patient care while our personal assistants support our senior leaders.
Medical secretaries and personal assistants have usually worked elsewhere in the NHS so they have experience of medical terminology and NHS ways of working. There are no set entry requirements although employers expect excellent keyboard skills. They may ask for qualifications in typing or word processing. Employers also expect a good standard of literacy, numeracy and IT skills. They may ask for GCSEs or equivalent qualifications. You'll get the training you need to do the job and be offered the chance to take qualifications from organisations including AMSPAR and the BSMSA.Medical secretaries and personal assistants in the NHS are paid on the Agenda for Change (AfC) pay system. You'd typically be on a salary at AfC band 3 or 4 and could progress, with further training and qualifications to posts at band 5. Terms and conditions will be different for administrative staff working outside of the NHS. Medical secretaries/personal assistants work standard hours of around 37.5 a week. In some jobs, this could involve early starts, evenings and weekends.As a medical secretary or personal assistant, you'll need to work accurately and methodically, meet deadlines, use medical terminology, pay attention to detail, work in a team but use your own initiative, work with all types of people, be helpful and reassuring if dealing with patients and their families. You'll need excellent keyboard, IT and organisational skills as well as good spelling and grammar.With experience, you could become a manager, responsible for an admin or secretarial department. Some medical secretaries/personal assistants move into other areas such as finance, HR or health records. You may also have the opportunity to move into informatics, specialising in electronic data or into IT. -
You'll deal with emergency calls from the public and make sure that the right help reaches people as soon as possible.
There are no set entry requirements to become an emergency medical dispatcher or call handlers but employers expect good standards of literacy, numeracy and IT skills. Some may ask for qualifications such as GCSEs, NVQs or equivalent.Most jobs in the NHS are covered by the Agenda for Change (AfC) pay scales and emergency medical dispatchers and call handlers are usually at bands 2 or 3. Although emergency medical dispatchers and call handlers work standard hours of around 37.5 a week, these are on a shift pattern. Shifts cover 24 hours a day, 7 days a week throughout the year. So an emergency medical dispatcher or call handler’s work pattern includes evenings, nights, early starts, weekends and bank holidays. Terms and conditions can vary for employers outside of the NHS.Emergency medical dispatchers and call handlers need to stay calm under pressure, have a reassuring manner, deal with people who might be highly distressed or aggressive, use their initiative while following procedures, good communication skills and excellent keyboard skillsYou could progress to become a team leader or supervisor. You would be in charge of a team of call handlers or dispatchers, responsible for allocating work and drawing up schedules. With further experience you could become a duty manager, responsible for the call centre during a shift. You could take further training to become an emergency care assistant. With more experience, you could apply to train as a paramedic. You would have to pass entrance exams and meet other requirements before being accepted onto a paramedic course. -
You’ll help improve the quality of people’s lives by treating eye disorders and spotting serious neurological conditions.
You need to study for an approved degree (BSc) in orthoptics which take three or four years. To get onto an orthoptics degree course you'll need two or three A levels (or equivalent), including a science, along with five GCSEs (grades A-C), including English language, maths and science. However, each institution sets its own entry requirements so it’s important to check carefully.Orthoptists in the NHS work standard hours, which are likely to be around 37.5 a week. You will usually start on band 5 of the Agenda for Change pay rates. In a private clinic, your hours of work depend on client needs and may include evenings and weekends. Some orthoptists have to travel to clinics, health centres or schools.You'll need to be caring and understanding, able to work with adults or children, interested in science and caring and dedicated. They also need good communication skills, an ability to explain treatment to patients, good observation skills and an attention to detail.In the NHS, with experience, you could become specialist orthoptist. You could also progress to senior or head orthoptist. As head of an orthoptics service, you would be responsible both for a team of staff and for managing a budget. You might also choose to move into teaching orthoptics or into research. There may be opportunities to work in a private clinic. Some orthoptists set up their own clinics, often with other eye professionals.