Do you have the sort of job you have to explain to people? Explain it here!

[FretfulPorpentine]

I have never had the sort of job where you can tell someone what you do in one word and they have at least an inking of what it is. I've always been vaguely envious of the teachers/nurses/doctors/solicitors I know who can do this.

So: I am an NHS clinical coder.

This means that when someone is discharged from a hospital admission, their notes come to the team I work with. We go through the notes, decipher the doctors' handwriting and determine the diagnoses of the patient (not just what they came in for, but co-morbidities as well) and any procedures carried out.

This information is then (with the help of some massive books) translated into codes which are entered onto a digital system.

This information is then used for budgeting and planning, and (this is the bit I find fascinating) for epidemiology and health trends analysis.

For example: we know things like how often women whose labour is induced go on to have forceps deliveries, or how often people with certain co-morbidities have worse outcomes from particular illnesses or procedures, in part from analysis of the coded data my colleagues and I produce.

What do you do?

I do data oriented programming at a public policy think tank. For years and years my job had no recognizable title, but finally data scientist has emerged. I prepare data for analysis and then perform any manner of statistical tests and processes that might be needed. I am particularly skilled at taking data that was never meant to be used for analysis purposes and turning it into something useful.

I have used information like the data op mentions creating to do research in the past.

I have a particular research specialty at this point in my career, but I can work on any type of project. I’m just expected to get up to speed on whatever background information is needed. That can mean learning a bit of engineering or a bit of a particular language. Whatever is sufficient understanding of the greater subject matter to understand the context of the data I am working with.

it is a job where you are constantly learning and pushing yourself.

Thank you for starting this thread. I had no idea your job existed. That’s got to be interesting and so useful (for want of a better word). Do you see outcomes from your input fairly quickly? Do you enjoy your job day to day?

Thanks @Lurkingandlearning, I thought it might be interesting. When you think about it there must be so many jobs which lots of people don't really know exist, but which are vital cogs in a bigger machine.

I had no idea your job existed.

Nor did I until I applied! I'd been out of the workplace for years after time out caring for children with disabilities and I was looking for jobs at my local hospital. Applied for a few medical secretary posts but wasn't getting anywhere then this turned up on trac! Started a couple of years ago so I'm the newbie on the team.

That’s got to be interesting and so useful (for want of a better word).

It can be interesting but equally when you're slogging through the notes of someone who's been in for months and the docs seem to be changing their minds about the diagnosis every couple of days you can just want to put your head on the desk and opt out for a bit. But every job has those moments!

Do you see outcomes from your input fairly quickly?

My job is purely to extract the data from notes, translate it into codes and input it on the system. Working with the coded data and identifying trends etc is other people! But there are times you hear things - say a news article about increasing cases of something or other - and think 'well that's come from coding' which is quite satisfying. And also reminds you how important accuracy is in what we do.

I do enjoy it but I have a lovely team and a fantastic manager which will always make a difference, whatever the job!

Anyone else like to chip in with their obscure occupations?

I also work for the NHS. I'm in project management. I'm undergoing quite a lot of treatment at my own workplace at the moment and I usually tell the staff that I actually work there. NOBODY has any idea what my team does - and we are involved in nearly everything!

Any new building or reconfiguration of space, we are involved
Anything that involves changes in procedure, we are involved
Any introduction of new IT configuration (patient systems etc) we are involved

We provide the governance and procedures to ensure that projects are sound to begin with, they have sufficient funding allocated, the right people are involved, consultations are taking place when they need to be, the right decisions are being made by the right people, the timescale is adhered to, the correct people/national organisations receive the correct data at the correct times, comms go out when needed, regular meetings take place, notes are taken and decisions noted..... And it goes on.
We are the people that provide the help and support to the people that actually do the jobs. Without our support many many pieces of work would fail before they ever get off the ground.

In the past few years I have helped to set up and staff regional covid centres, I have helped set up a Nightingale hospital, I have helped convert the Nightingale hospital into a regional diagnostic centre, I have helped set up our Virtual Ward, I have helped with the reconfiguration of our Cardiac unit, I have helped with the reconfiguration of our mobility centre, and many more things. I am a small cog in a big mechanism and I am proud of my work and of working for the NHS.

I am a clinical coder too!
I had a sneaky feeling that is what your job would be! 😂

I'm a Parish Council Clerk, it's a paid position, I organise the meetings, implement the decisions the councillors made (including responding to planning applications...) and run the finances. I work in the big village where I live where there's me and an assistant working part time, and also the next smaller village where I just do 12 hours a month.

I do a sort of similar job, basically when a letter gets sent from the hospital to your GP, I code the important bits onto your GP records. I also summarise patient records when they transfer into the Practice.

I work part time for a special weapons testing army camp. My normal job is a bass fisherman, but sometimes they will employ me to go out on my boat to retrieve missiles they’ve fired out to sea. The missiles are attached to parachutes I also have to retrieve. Not worth the money tbh the amount of engines I’ve busted with the parachute cords getting caught in the propeller. I’m not sure what my job title would be 🤷🏼‍♀️

I started off as a clinical coder. Now an assistant director in digital transformation. I also took a course in medical summarising and I do this through an agency within the prison healthcare system - it brings in good money so perhaps a course to consider in the future.

I would know what you meant if you said "medical coder" but that's because the last one I met explained it to me. 😁

I'm just a district nurse (no tea or cake like in call the midwife!!)

I hope that was an 'oh I've never heard of that, tell me about it' scenario, not an 'I will tell you about my job whether you want to hear it or not' one!

@FretfulPorpentine your job sounds interesting. Do you need any previous experience with coding? I'm an nhs 111 health advisor and I've had enough of that 😂

i noticed when I have been admitted more being on computer than just written. Is it still all handwritten notes at your hospital?

@Computercalendar I loved being at the 111! But this was back in NHS Direct days so I'm showing my age. I did it on the bank, so would often pick the bank holidays, Christmas Day etc. Do you still get those people who are lonely and just calling for a chat? I had many of those during my time there.

@itsallabitofamystery I don't really get people calling in for a chat. But elderly people do like to talk a lot!

I'm an actuary. Nobody used to know what that was, but nowadays every middle aged woman on MN knows because they've all googled "my child is good at maths but generally a bit clueless and not good with people, how can he/she get a job that pays well?"

I love you OP, because you provide the sweet sweet standardised data which makes my heart sing. Please keep up the good work.

Before I left nursing I was an ICNARC research nurse. Every patient who enters Critical Care (either High Dependency or Intensive Care) gets tracked throughout their journey through hospital. We would take demographic data, then add highest and lowest values of various clinical observations and blood tests from the patient's first 24 hours in ICU/HDU (or their entire stay if less than 24 hours). We then coded their reason for admission using the working/final diagnosis. We followed the patient up to discharge, documenting their discharge destination. Sometimes this was straightforward, but often we would have to keep records on hold for weeks or even months, waiting for a conclusive end to the episode of care. We would liaise with other hospitals to find out onward discharge status.

We also prepared statistics and case summaries for the monthly Mortality and Morbidity (M&M) meetings that were held to discuss patients who had died or who had a sub-optimal outcome.

Finally, we provided statistics for any consultants who were researching particular conditions or patient cohorts.

Ha! It was the former and I found it genuinely interesting. She actually does it in the US so there was an added layer of choosing the right codes to maximise insurance etc.