More Career Paths into Civilian Medicine & Healthcare

More Career Paths into Civilian Medicine & Healthcare

Off By Sharon Black

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Whether you’re already medically qualified or had your appetite whetted by training or experience while in uniform, civilian healthcare and medicine offer excellent career prospects.

Adapted from Civvy Street Magazine, September & October 2013

No return to civilian life and career is that simple, but it’s fair to say that, if you’re looking to enter the civilian medical profession after discharge, your chances of success are good; you come with the kind of managerial training and cross-specialism experience that marks you out from your civilian peers.

Even if your time in uniform hasn’t been within any of the Army, Royal Navy or RAF medical services, the path ahead is reasonably clear; your core Military skills align very well with the values and standards of the medical professions.

Plus, you know more than you think; regardless of your previous specialism, you’ll have more basic medical training than most civilians; you’ll have been taught about health protection, infection control and environmental health — plus, of course, some level of battlefield First Aid, even if it’s just self-care.

So, whether we’re talking about just “need to know basis” medical training that has whetted your appetite for more, or you’ve already enjoyed a structured healthcare career within the Services, then you’re stepping out into a civilian healthcare world with some very real advantages over your civilian peers — and that’s not even mentioning the kind of adaptability and experience of working under pressure that Service-leavers bring with them and which civilian employers can find attractive.

164918426ALREADY QUALIFIED?
Frankly, your CTP career consultant will love you; if you’ve already got a firmly established medical career behind you within the Armed Forces, you have an excellent chance of finding satisfying work on civvy street, not least because both the NHS and the UK’s private healthcare sector (see below) are finding it increasingly difficult to recruit and retain suitably trained staff.

Admittedly, there’s bound to be the odd hiccup on the way; opportunities do vary across the UK, so the range of your career prospects are likely to depend at least partly on where you wish to work and live. Calculating an exact match for your position within the NHS’s own hierarchies and pay bands is also a challenge; after all, by definition, your Military rank isn’t based solely on your medical experience or training.

Also, despite the Armed Forces’ increased emphasis on humanitarian work in recent years, you may well feel a need for appropriate career development training, given the increasingly important areas of healthcare that are not so prevalent within the Services community — such as paediatrics and long term care for elderly and disabled people. The latter is likely to be a particular area of growth, given how the UK’s population is growing proportionately older.

STARTING FRESH?
If you’re reading this magazine, chances are you’re at some stage (hopefully early!) of your resettlement programme. Through the CTP you can access a range of health care and nursing-related training courses and workshops, ranging from one or two-day courses in areas such as moving & handling, dementia awareness or First Aid at Work to months-long programmes (awarding diplomas/NVQs Level 2 or 3) in the likes of counselling or health & social care. Such qualifications are recognised and accepted by civilian employers, and can be an invaluable first-step in a healthcare career, whether you’re looking to become a healthcare assistant, paramedic, nurse or even doctor.

You can, of course, undertake more in-depth medical training via distance learning while still in the Armed Forces, or begin part – or full-time study after leaving. However, although you can become a healthcare assistant through an apprenticeship or salaried course (as they say: “Earning while Learning”), most healthcare careers have become degree-based, whether you want to become a nurse, paramedic or doctor.

That said, many universities around the country now offer Foundation courses that act as a route into medical training if you have what’s judged to be appropriate professional experience. Especially as you rise through the ranks, the Armed Forces instil the ability to both make decisions on the available information, to accept responsibility for doing so and to be sufficiently flexible when it comes to reviewing a situation. That’s a skill set that closely matches that needed for the front line of healthcare, whether you’re planning to work within a hospital Accident and Emergency or, for example, as a paramedic, who is often the first healthcare professional on the scene of an accident or emergency.

TRAUMA/A&E
In the BBC’s updating of Sherlock Holmes, the “consulting detective” at one point asks his new flat-share if, as an Army doctor, he has seen a “bit of trouble”. John Watson replies: “Enough for a lifetime. Far too much,” before leaping at the chance to “see some more”. Now, while the popular media image of Military healthcare is certainly of doctors and nurses working in dark tents with very severely injured people, you’ll know that, in the real world, such trauma work (while very important operationally) actually forms quite a small part of what Military medical personnel do on a day-to-day basis.

Nevertheless, such experience can be invaluable if you’re interested in what’s now termed emergency medicine. Accident and Emergency (A&E) is effectively the frontline of modern healthcare, the only hospital-based specialty where medical staff can expect a complete spectrum of illness and injury coming through their doors. As a result, emergency doctors are generalists in the broadest meaning of the word, working to diagnose, manage and counter acute illness and/or injury. (A recognised sub-speciality of emergency medicine focuses on the specific needs of children.)

Doctors working in emergency medicine will have earned both membership and fellowship of the College of Emergency Medicine (MCEM), and be listed on the General Medical Council’s Specialist Register. That said; the initial assessment, diagnosis and treatment of incoming patients at A&E are often made by emergency nurse practitioners—nurses who will have successfully completed additional training after registration.

It’s fair to say that you’re likely to thrive in emergency medicine if you’re attracted to the idea of a constantly varying workload, the stimulation of making important decisions with often limited information, and the even greater emphasis on teamwork that you’ll find in A&E.

PAEDIATRICS
Given that each of the Armed Forces’ medical divisions are primarily concerned with maintaining the health and fitness of adult serving Personnel, it’s unlikely that you’ll have significant professional experience of treating the illnesses and ailments affecting infants, children and adolescents. If you are thinking of focusing on this area of medicine in your civilian career (whether as a doctor, nurse or healthcare assistant), a certain amount of retraining will be inevitable.

If you are essentially starting out, it’s possible (at least in England and Wales) to begin work as a healthcare assistant/nursing auxiliary through an apprenticeship, obtaining Level 2 or Level 3 qualifications in Healthcare Support Services or Clinical Healthcare Support. A Level 3 qualification will usually meet the minimum entry requirements for entry into pre-registration nursing training (although these do vary from one university to the next), which would allow you to then specialise in paediatric nursing.

If you’re already a registered nurse you will need to undergo some professional retraining, completing a number of practice hours; any experience of working with children that you can show will help support this (such as volunteering at a youth centre, after-school programmes, etc). You might also be able to get a foot in the door by working in another part of a hospital or medical centre; either way, you start from a good position.

The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) in London is responsible for the training of postgraduate doctors in paediatrics, and conducts both its membership exam (MRCPCH, consisting of four sections, and the normal entry requirement for Core Specialist Training in paediatrics) and the Diploma in Child Health, which is taken by many of those planning a career as a GP or in a specialism allied to paediatrics. You should contact RCPCH for details of these exams and the training appropriate to your own experience.

CONSULTANTS
A consultant is a hospital-based physician who has completed all their specialist training and been placed on the appropriate specialist register, usually signified by earning a Certificate of Completion of Training (CCT) awarded by the General Medical Council. Being a consultant carries significant personal responsibility, as (like general practitioners who must also earn a CCT before entry onto the GP Register) they are ultimately responsible for all the patients referred to them. This is despite the fact that their patients’ individual care will be chiefly in the hands of the consultant’s own medical team, which will include a “firm” (team) of doctors at various stages in their careers and training.

Consultants are also expected to play a role in the functioning of hospitals and the wider NHS, including training and medical education, research and clinical management. Following the significant changes to the NHS in England that have led to an increased use of the private sector in delivering NHS services, the British Medical Association (BMA) have stated their belief that consultants continuing to work in the public sector will necessarily have a role in ensuring that their Trusts remain competitive and attractive to patients.

While NHS-employed consultants can carry out agreed levels of private work, the BMA confirms that the “vast majority” of consultants working in the UK are still employed (at least part-time) by the NHS. The path to becoming a consultant can be a long one, although – since the introduction of the troubled postgraduate medical training programme Modernising Medical Careers from 2005 – a majority of doctors can now gain CCT in about nine years. Depending on available resources, some experienced doctors without CCT, those who have only just gained that qualification, or doctors who have partially retired, may be employed on short-term contracts as “locum consultants”.

PRIVATE HOSPITAL
The UK’s privately funded healthcare sector – in which services are provided by non-governmental organisations and commercial businesses, primarily through private facilities/clinics – continues to increase, thanks in part to the UK’s growing and aging population.

According to a recent report by the UK Competition Commission, some 16% of the British population now have private medical insurance (PMI), with the sector as a whole worth approximately £5 billion in 2010. (Private hospitals and clinics account for an estimated £2.89 billion of this total.) Private healthcare involves a variety of suppliers (including hospital operators, consultants, GPs, other medical and clinical professionals, and even NHS facilities); some 80% of all acute healthcare “purchases” are funded through PMI.

Career opportunities are available with employers ranging from large providers (such as Bupa, Spire Healthcare and BMI Healthcare) to small independent care homes and facilities run by not-for-profit/registered charities. Sometimes, it can pay to ’think outside the box’; if you have nursing qualifications, for example, it’s possible to find employment in the likes of independent schools, commercial businesses (as occupational health nurses), and recruitment consultancies/nursing agencies.

Jobs and career opportunities are advertised through individual companies’ websites, agencies and online jobsites; many of the latter enable you to upload your CV to attract offers of work, whether you’re looking for part-time, fulltime, short-term, or long-term employment. You will, of course, be expected to have the appropriate qualifications and to be registered with the relevant professional bodies matching any position for which you apply.

Whether you choose to work in the public or private sector will depend on a range of factors, not least the kind of work you’re most interested in doing. (Some doctors do both, working contracted hours for the NHS but seeing private patients outside that time.) For example, most care homes are run independently.

MORE:

BMA
0300 123 1233; www.bma.org.uk

College of Emergency Medicine
020 7404 1999; www.collemergencymed.ac.uk

College of Paramedics
01278 420014; www.collegeofparamedics.co.uk

Health Professionals Council
0845 300 6184; www.hpc-uk.org

Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health
020 7092 6000; www.rcpch.ac.uk

Royal College of Nursing
www.rcn.org.uk

Career sites:
www.jobs.nhs.uk
www.privatehealthcareers.co.uk
https://bmihealthcarejobs.co.uk/vacancies