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Health and safety officers have a qualification in health and safety. To join the NHS as a health and safety officer you often need a relevant degree or postgraduate level qualification. Degree courses are three years full time and you'll usually need appropriate level 3 qualifications for entry. To get onto a postgraduate course you usually need an honours degree, a NEBOSH qualification or professional experience. When you join the NHS as a health and safety officer you will have training to introduce you to the department and its systems and procedures. Your employer will expect you to keep your skills and knowledge up to date by attending short courses on particular topics such as accident investigation or risk management. You may be encouraged to take further qualifications.

Health and safety officers working in the NHS are paid on the Agenda for Change (AfC) pay system. You would typically start on AfC band 5. With further training and experience, you could apply for more senior positions at bands 6 and above. Health and safety officers in the NHS work standard hours of around 37.5 a week. The job may involve some evening and weekend working. Health and safety officers may be on call if there is an incident. Terms and conditions will usually be different for fire safety officers working outside of the NHS.

Health and safety officers need to be interested in health and safety, willing to follow procedures, able to train staff at all levels, able to prioritise, willing to work under pressure and remain calm in stressful situations. They also need report writing, time management, good planning and organisational skills.

With experience, a health and safety officer can become a manager, with a team of staff and responsible for the health and safety in a hospital, area or trust. There are opportunities outside the NHS.

Training usually starts with a five year first degree in medicine, MBBS. 2 years foundation doctor training, 7 years specialist training (ST1-7). This period of training will include your royal college exams. Length of training can vary according to your circumstances.

Doctors may work up to 48 hours a week. The working hours may sometimes extend beyond the normal working day to include early mornings, evenings, weekends and on call. The basic salary ranges from £29,384 to £34,012. Once you start your specialty training as an ophthalmologist employed by the NHS, you can expect to earn a salary of at least £40,257, which can increase to between £84,559 and £114,003 as a consultant.

You'll need excellent communication skills to manage a wide range of relationships with colleagues, and patients and their families. You'll be emotionally resilient, have excellent problem-solving and diagnostic skills and work well in teams and under pressure. You'll also be very organised for the benefit of patients. When performing surgery, you'll have: a high degree of manual dexterity; superb hand-eye co-ordination; excellent vision; visuospatial awareness and the physical stamina to cope with the demands of surgery.

In 2020 there were 430 applications for 75 specialty training places (a competition ratio of 5.73). You could specialise or conduct research in areas such as eye development and diseases in children, retinal disease and its onset in patients with conditions like diabetes, or oculoplastic surgery (plastic surgery around the eye). You could teach medical or postgraduate students.