Health and social work

Employment related to health and social work is a relatively common destination for researchers, but is more closely correlated to research discipline than employment in other sectors, reflecting a vocational bias. For example, on average 46% of biomedical science doctoral graduates, but less than 4% arts and humanities and less than 3% of physical science doctoral graduates are working in this sector. However, there are some niche roles for researchers in other disciplines, such as medical physicists or clinical engineers.

The occupations of researchers in this sector include those working as healthcare scientists working in hospital laboratories, in the community, or for national agencies concerned with blood, health protection or organ transplant. Medical, veterinary, dentistry and nursing professionals that have undertaken a research degree may return to clinical practice, but may include a research element to their job. Roles in the physiological sciences such as audiology are occasionally of interest to researchers.

For further ideas and to get some personal perspectives see the career profiles below.

Shaheen - clinical medical researcher and consultant gastroenterology

Iain - clinician scientist and senior lecturer in medical oncology

Further roles that may be relevant to researchers include:

Health service management

Community development worker

Advice worker