What do Healthcare Scientists do?
Healthcare Scientists play a vital role in investigation, diagnosis, treatment and aftercare.
Some Healthcare Scientists have direct contact with patients; whilst other Healthcare Scientists are based in laboratories and may not directly interact with patients. Regardless of where they are based, Healthcare Scientists contribute to and affect the care that patients receive. Healthcare Scientists are involved in 80% of all clinical decisions in the NHS.
A Healthcare Scientist’s work may involve generating and obtaining scientific information, interpreting results, suggesting methods of treatment to doctors or researching, developing and testing new methods for diagnosis and treatment.
Training and job roles
There are a number of different routes into Healthcare Science job roles. The training routes below all involve time working within the NHS, as well as academic study.
Within England, the Modernising Scientific Careers programme was established in 2008 by the Department of Health. Modernising Scientific Careers ensures that education and training for the Healthcare Science workforce is consistent and coherent across a wide range of specialisms.
You can find out more about the different careers and training routes for Healthcare Sciences via the healthcare sciences section of the NHS Careers website and the National School of Healthcare Science website.
What do NHS Scientists do?
Some of our Scientist Training Programme (STP) trainees have explained what they do in short video clips below:
Radiotherapy Physics
Rehabilitation Engineering