Using the careers in the NHS presentation - teachers notes

Careers in the NHS presentation

These are introductory notes to accompany the ‘Careers in the NHS’ PowerPoint presentation.

You can download thepresentation

Slide1

Health and care, when taken together, is the second largest employment area in the UK. The ‘care’ element is largely made up of social care for elderly adults at home or in residential care settings but does include people of all ages in need of care.

This presentation is primarily about health roles and is linked to the NHS workforce which is where the majority of people working in health are employed.
Slide 2

Show the objectives of the presentation.

Slide 3

Looking after the health of people in terms of preventative treatments is often described in the media as a growth market.

It is an occupational sector that is expected to grow in terms of the overall number of people working in it as new jobs and roles are defined to meet the needs of patients.

In addition to new job roles, a much greater number of people will be required to replace the workforce who will retire over the coming years. (This is sometimes called ‘replacement demand’.)

Slide 4

Ask students to think about the broader health and care sector. This will help you understand their perceptions and identify gaps in information.

Slide 5 and Slide 6

These slides provide a list of job roles which may be useful to compare those that are mentioned by the class, and to help expand their understanding of the size, nature and complexity of the sector.

Students will probably recognise most of these key areas, though they may struggle with life sciences.

Life sciences are engaged in the development of diagnostic products, manufacturing antibodies and drug research and development for cancer, heart disease and strokes. Students should easily find examples in the media, as new breakthroughs and developments are often the focus of TV programmes, newspapers and magazine articles.

The following slides will provide more detail about the sector and its workforce.

Slide 7

The NHS is the largest single employer in the Great Britain and one of the largest in the world. The others are considered to be Walmart, the Chinese Army, McDonalds and Indian Railways.
This graph shows just how large the Health sector is. Health in this context includes health and care and shows that with over 4 million jobs in the UK, this is the second largest grouping.

Slide 8

The table below provides a breakdown of the largest groupings of staff in the NHS (November 2015).

Doctors / 114,000
Nursing staff
(includes nurses, midwives, school nurses and health visitors) / 362,000
Scientific, therapeutic and technical staff (includes radiographers, speech and language therapists, healthcare scientists) / 159,000
Support to clinical staff / 372,000
Infrastructure support
(Includes managers, admin, IT, estates etc.) / 215,000

(Source: Health and Social Care Information Centre)

Because the NHS is such a large organisation and covers so many different occupations, it is often difficult to provide a detailed breakdown.

This data provides a very high level perspective, but shows that there are a lot more people working there than just doctors and nurses.

For example, data on the qualified nursing, midwifery & health visiting staff in England (see the table below 2015)shows that this occupation is in fact made up of a great many different specialist roles

Acute, elderly & general / 176,593
Paediatric nursing / 16,280
Maternity services / 24,600
Community psychiatry / 15,588
Other psychiatry / 21,488
Community learning disabilities / 2,009
Other learning disabilities / 1,722
Community services / 48,034
Education staff / 1,416
School nursing / 3,013
Neonatal nursing / 5,358
TOTAL / 316,101

(Source: Health and Social Care Information Centre)

Midwifery (maternity services) is a very popular occupation amongst young people, although a relatively small part of the overall qualified nursing cohort. The key message is that the NHS is a large and complex organisation and that there are many people undertaking many different roles.

You may find this list useful for students who are already considering a career in nursing to help broaden their understanding of the specialisms and career routes once they are qualified. It may also help when you are exploring the patient journeys with students.

Please note however that the best generic occupational profile to use for many of the nursing roles in the Journeys will be the Adult Nurse profile. This provides information about some of the other specialisms.

Slides 9 and 10

This slide helps students to develop an understanding of what the pressures are on the health sector in terms of creating additional demand and tackling some of the major health issues.

It provides an opportunity to help students reflect on current public health issues and how this may affect them, their families and friends, and to highlight the importance of wellbeing, ‘preventative health’ and self-responsibility.

You could encourage students to think about why these areas can have an impact on demand for healthcare; e.g.:

•Greater knowledge about health, and higher expectations of healthcare – people have access to much more information about medical conditions, and perhaps higher expectations of the services provided by healthcare providers

Might this impact on the relationships between NHS staff and their patients and families and the skills and qualities of staff?

•Technology changes –continued developments in technology to assist in monitoring your own health and the technology used by healthcare providers to treat patients means a higher level of skills needed in the workforce (including STEM knowledge and skills)

Improvements in technology and science which means that we are able to treat more people and help them live longer, healthier lives

•Prevention and well-being – it is better to help people to avoid becoming unwell, so a lot of work is done to help people to adapt a healthy lifestyle including not smoking, drinking in moderation, eating well and exercising. This means that the sector needs part of its workforce who can work well with people in the community and enable improved access to information

Keeping people healthy or avoiding becoming ill helps reduce the numbers of people requiring medical treatment.

•Greater emphasis on delivery in the community and a range of settings -to suit peoples’ lifestyles. For example, shorter hospital stays; an increased emphasis on patient choice and responsibility; funding challenges and increased efficiency and productivity

This will lead to changes of places of work, working practices and require more teamwork and cross-organisational working

•Funding the NHS to meet increasing demand and continuous improvement of its services. If you wish to explore this issue, particularly with older students, the media and internet will provide a huge range of research material.

This will always be a contentious issue – but places an emphasis on lifelong learning and continuing skill improvement, flexible working and professionalism

Slide 11

There is a need for more people to go into health occupations of all different types, from medical and scientific to support roles.

As with most sectors, there is a demand for science and technology skills. These are typically higher level skills which are started through education and developed in the workplace.

There are entry routes into health related jobs through a range of different access routes.

However, what is very important is the willingness to continue studying and learning as this opens up a wide range of progression routes within the NHS. The NHS is committed to developing its workforce.

Slide 12

There is an expected increase in the number of people working in health and care in the coming years. Much of the work force will be in the area of care of the elderly, however, other new jobs will be as a result of the impact of technological innovations, like robotics for instance and advances in patient treatment, as well as new therapies and developments in life sciences and genomics.

Although there is expected to be a growth in numbers, the main driver for recruitment is to replace people who will leave their role through retirement or promotion, or moving into a different type of work.

The chart below shows the increase in the number of qualified NHS staff over the 10 years from 2004-2014 by the main occupational groupings.

As you can see from the chart, the large increases over the ten year period have been mainly in the professional roles.

Some illustrations of the roles included in the staff groupings are provided below:

Scientific, therapeutic and technical staff
Allied health professionals:

  • podiatry
  • dietetics
  • occupational therapy
  • orthoptics
  • physiotherapy,
  • radiography (diagnostic and therapeutic)
  • art, music and drama therapy
  • speech and language therapy

Healthcare scientists:

  • life sciences/pathology
  • physiological sciences
  • clinical engineering and physical sciences

Ambulance staff includes:managers, emergency care practitioners, paramedics, ambulance technicians
Support to clinical staff includes: nursing assistants, nursing auxiliaries, nursery nurses, healthcare assistants, porters and medical secretaries, support to scientific staff and support to ambulance staff including 999 operators.
NHS infrastructure support includes central functions e.g. personnel, finance, IT, legal services and library services); hotel, property and estates (e.g. laundry, catering, caretakers and domestic services, gardeners, builders, electricians); administrative managers and senior managers.
Other GP practice staff includes:
Nurses working in general practice
Anyone who is directly involved in delivering patient care but who is not a nurse or GP. This includes health care assistants (HCAs), physiotherapists, pharmacists, phlebotomists, chiropodists, dispensers, counsellors, complementary therapists etc. administrative/clerical:

Anyone involved in the administration or organisation of a GP surgery. This includes practice managers, receptionists, secretaries, IT/computing specialists, link workers, Interpreters, general office staff etc.

Any paid/employed member of practice staff who is not included in any other staff group, for example gardeners, cleaners etc.

(Information taken fromNHS Workforce: Summary of staff in the NHS: Results from September 2014 Census)
Slide 13

Workshop Activity – Patient Journey.

Slide 14

Film Clips.

You can choose any or as many as you need, depending on your students and the time you have available for your session.

The patient journeys currently available and related film case studies are:

  • Danny -a sports injury patient: radiographer, anaesthetist, operations department practitioner(ODP), surgeon, medical engineer, healthcare assistant, nurse, physiotherapist, patient transport service driver
  • Edith -acare for the elderly and integrated health and social care patient: GP, nurse, haematologist, patient transport support driver, healthcare scientist, dietitian, Surgeon, anaesthetist, ODP, healthcare assistant, nurse, pharmacy assistant
  • Corporal James -an amputation patient: anaesthetist, surgeon, medical engineer, nurse, physiotherapist, ODP, healthcare scientist
  • Lihwa -acancer patient: GP, nurse, haematologist, radiology support worker, healthcare scientist, dietitian, surgeon, radiographer, healthcare scientist, anaesthetist, ODP, healthcare assistant, nurse, pharmacy assistant
  • Mary -a stroke patient:healthcare scientist, GP, nurse, haematologist, patient transport support driver, healthcare scientist, dietitian, surgeon, anaesthetist, ODP, healthcare assistant, nurse, pharmacy assistant, medical engineer
  • David -adiabetic patient: GP, nurse, healthcare scientist, dietitian
  • Asim -a transplant patient;GP,radiographer, anaesthetist, ODP, surgeon, medical engineer, healthcare assistant, nurse, physiotherapist, patient transport service driver
  • Jack - agenomicspatient:GP, genomics practitioner, healthcare scientist, nurse
  • Stacy -an AE patient; nurse, radiographer, healthcare assistant,dental nurse, patient transport service driver.

You can access all of the films in this exclusive playlist on the Health Careers YouTube channel -

It may take some time to set up these web links in your institution, as well as permissions with technical support staff about internet access, firewalls and accessing YouTube.

Slides 15 – 24

These slides provide further information to support the patient journeys material.

The Patient Journeys word docs currently available are:

  • Danny -asports injury patient
  • Edith - a care for the elderly and integrated health and social care patient
  • Corporal James - an amputation patient
  • Lihwa - acancer patient
  • Mary -astroke patient
  • David -a diabetic patient
  • Asim -atransplant patient
  • Jack -agenomicspatient
  • Stacy -an A&E patient.

You can access these at

NHS Choices is a good place to start for information on health conditions and the services offered.

Accident and Emergency

For information on visiting an A&E Department -

Key statistics

  • 18.3 million people accessed A&E departments in 2012/2013
  • 64.1% of patients refer themselves to A&E
  • Out of all A&E attendees 7.9 million were under the age of 29
  • 4.4 million patients arrive at A&E via ambulance or helicopter
  • 10.8 million of all attendances were discharged
  • 3.8 million of all attendances were admitted to hospital

Cancer

  • Cancer is a condition in which cells in a specific part of thebody grow and reproduce uncontrollably. The cancerous cells can invade and destroy surrounding healthy tissue, including organs.
  • Cancer sometimes begins in one part of the body before spreading to other areas. This process is known as metastasis.
  • There are over200 different types of cancer, each with its own methods of diagnosis and treatment.
    (NHS Choices)

For further information, look at the NHS Choices entry on cancer -

Caring for the Elderly

  • It is a fact that as people get older they require more medical care.
  • Much of this care is related to long term conditions. 70% of the national health budget is spent on tackling long term conditions, rather than illnesses susceptible to a one off cure (NHS Five Year Forward Review, 2014)
  • The majority of this spending is onpeople aged over 65.

Alongside care in hospital, there are services to provide care for people at home -

Diabetes

  • Diabetes is a lifelong condition that causes a person's blood sugar level to become too high.
  • There are two main types of diabetes – type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes.
  • Type 2 diabetes is far more common than type 1 In the UK, around 90% of all adults with diabetes have type 2.
  • Many more people have blood sugar levels above the normal range, but not high enough to be diagnosed as having diabetes.

For more information on Diabetes -

Genomics

A really useful place to find out about Genomics is the Genomics England website -

This provides information on Genomics and videos and graphics about the 100,000 Genomes Project

Amputations
Amputations occur as a result of a range of conditions, including:

  • Traffic Accidents and Sports Injuries
  • The long term impact of Diabetes
  • Cancer or a serious infection
  • The NHS provides healthcare services for serving armed services personnel; those who are in and returning to duty or leaving after wound injury or sickness and to veterans, their families and reservists.

As a result, approximately 5-6,000 major limb amputations are carried out in England every year.

For more information -

Sports Injuries

For more information on sports injuries-

Stroke

The main symptoms of stroke can be remembered with the word FAST: Face-Arms-Speech-Time.

  • Face–the face may have dropped on one side, the person may not be able to smile or their mouth or eye may have dropped.
  • Arms–the person with suspected stroke may not be able to lift both arms and keep them there because of arm weakness or numbness in one arm.
  • Speech–their speech may be slurred or garbled, or the person may not be able to talk at all despite appearing to be awake.
  • Time–it is time to dial 999 immediately if you see any of these signs or symptoms.

For more information on strokes -

Transplants

Currently there are over 7,000 people on the UK national transplant waiting list.

Many people die before they can receive a transplant. This is because, despite more than 500,000 people dying each year in the UK, fewer than 5,000 people die in circumstances where they can become a donor.

The majority of patients on the waiting list are awaiting kidney transplants. Others on the list are needing transplants for other organs including liver (around 600), lung (around 300) and heart (around 250) (data from NHS Blood and Transplant quarterly statistics at Dec 2015)
For further information -

NHS Blood and Transplant -

Slide 25

The Health Careers website-

Provides profiles on over 300 hundred roles in health.

The ‘role profiles’ provide details of what roles involve, entry routes onto the career pathways, pay and further information.

In addition, the ‘course finder’ function provides information on the courses leading to specific occupations.

The entry routes into the NHS include:

  • traineeships and apprenticeships offered across the UK by NHS organisations

Check out the Health Education England website for your region, as well as the National Apprenticeship Service:

  • post 16 health related education in schools and Further Education Colleges

See school and college prospectuses for what they have to offer

  • higher education entry is required for many roles.

The UCAS website provides the details of all higher education provision across the UK -

Slide 26

There are a range of generic skills and qualities which are required across the range of health occupations. It is important to recognise these skills as soon as is possible throughout the school career, as they can be developed by all students in preparation for working in health and care roles. They often form part of the interview and selection process for every career and progression route in the NHS.

Slide 27

Whilst young people often think it is their qualifications that will be the most important aspect to get into a job, helping them think through the information provided on this and the following slide is crucial so that they understand the ethos of the NHS and wider health sector.