Medical but not doctor. Degree routes. Looking for ideas.

[OrchidRosetta]

Hi,

my daughter has always wanted to be a dentist, always said this from year 7. Shes mentioned trying for medicine or a doctor more recently, but as she’s 15 it changes understandably. Someone mentioned Pharmacolgy and another friend said try for aesthetics. These are just ideas. As we are now looking at A-levels we are thinking of Bio, Chem, and something else. The last two weeks have made her doubt herself about the competitiveness of these courses. What careers could she look at that aren’t Doctor or Dentist but science. Just want to add not research type. She lives biology in every sense. Chem is really to get into that route of medicine. She’s really great with people and talking so something along those lines, and she says she wants to help people.

Radiography, nutrition, physio, paramedic

Nursing
Paramedic
There are lots of options ifshe doesn't want to be too hands on with patients.

Get her to have a look at healthcare science (echo the recommendation above to have a look at the NHS Scientist Training Programme) to see the specialisms). This program is postgraduate so she’d need a degree in a relevant science - e.g. I did a physics degree and then the STP in medical physics.

Or just become a doctor or dentist 🤷‍♀️. It's competitive but v possible to get in

The NHS has loads of information about careers.

I worked in cardiology (retired on ill health) and loved it. They keep changing the name the latest is 'Cardiac sciences'.

https://www.healthcareers.nhs.uk/explore-roles/healthcare-science/roles-healthcare-science/physiological-sciences/cardiac-sciences

Lots of fun ti be had, you start with learning to record and read a standard ECG and go on to stress testing, cath lab, pacemaker implant and reprogramming, echo cardiograms, 24 hour tapes.

Sorry to hijack OP

As a potential career shift later in life, what do you think of echocardiographer training programme specifically?

A Biomedical Science degree is a great start for lots of things. Best to do one of the HCPC-accredited degree programmes as then she can work as a Biomedical Scientist. But can also be the stepping stone to other careers like Clinical Scientist.

I have been out for too long to give advice on a particular programme, when I trained I worked full time and did day release for my qualifications, then further training was wither in the workplace, short courses run by medical companies and an MA in cardiac ultrasound had just started.

I will say that with one exception everyone did every thing, only one person I know managed to negotiate an echo only post, and he did one half day in the cath lab.

I mentioned the different titles, mine were

Cardiac tech
Medical Technical officer
Clinical physiologist (Cardiology)

Why isn't maths on her expected A-Level list? It's very sensible not to take maths A-Level if she's not thriving on GCSE maths, but it does suggest that she may not be the best candidate for some of these highly numerate careers.

If she is good at maths then prosthetics and orthotics is a career where you can have a huge impact on helping people, giving amazing career satisfaction.

So most of the allied health professions will have their own university degrees now - e.g. paramedic science, physiotherapy, optometry, radiography, dietetics etc. Once she narrows down what sort of profession she’s interested in - just google what are the entry level requirements / what exact degree is needed.

Don’t recommend physician associate, it has uncertain prospects currently. Radiology is just a specialty within medicine and requires medical school so that’s also not what you are after.

Sonography is another one to explore.

Cardiac perfusionist. They’re the one that keep the bypass machine going in heart surgery a bit niche but they always seemed to be enjoying their job!

Maths isn’t her strongest area. LOVES Biology and Chemistry is going well. We tried the healthcare quiz. So funny, was really random.

I wish she would just go for dentistry or doctor- the AAA is hard but a good chance as she studies hard, but I think it’s the ucat and competitiveness of places available that makes her doubt she’ll get in. It’s been really interesting hearing about careers that we never thought about though. Anything to do with the heart has been added to the top of the list.

Biochemistry is a really useful degree. I work in the biotech industry, creating partnerships between companies, institutes and hospital labs to further cancer research. Biochem was my degree but I always knew I didn’t want to be at the bench and leaned more towards roles in business development, marketing etc in my early career.

Yay, someone who's heard of us (although it's actually called a clinical perfusionist in the UK). It's an absolutely fantastic job, although you can only get into it as a postgraduate option these days.

Depending on the hospital, they are also involved in ECMO, ventricular assist devices and organ retrievals. Lots of potential for career progression and it's fairly well paid - starting salary when qualified is around £50k and it can be higher in some centres.

How about a hospital pharmacist? Really interesting job. Not community!

Radiographer ( rather than radiologist which needs a medical degree)
Speech and Language therapist
pharmacy
clinical scientist
geneticist
physiotherapist
occ therapist
sonographer

I used to work in hospital pharmacy and always thought of it in terms of medical knowledge but without the hands on element!

On a serious note, it’s a demanding degree and carries a lot of responsibility for patient wellbeing once qualified.

Pharmacist, Radiographer, Midwife. Vet?

In many parts of the UK a NHS pharmacist could reasonably expect to be in a band 8a post ~ 5 years after qualifying and top of a 8a (after a further 5 years in that band) is around £60k a year.

If she can decide which career she thonksnshe might like, I would recommend a degree that is career specific and leads to becoming a registered profession (eg need to do Pharmacy to be a Pharmacist) rather than a general science subject (eg pharmacology)

I’m in Scotland and the majority of hospital pharmacists are band 8A. The entry point for 8A for 2026/7 is £65k and the top of the scale is £70k. It’s a rewarding and interesting career but stressful with a lot of responsibility (prescribing for example).

They don’t have good reputations

Something has just popped in to the front of my mind. I think there is a uni that does a joint foundation year for medicine and other health careers. I know foundation years are often seen as for students who didn't get the grades they were predicted but they have other uses.

I’m a theatre nurse, I love it. I feel extremely privileged to be part of a team that performs so many life saving procedures.

My friend trained as an Operating Department Practitioner. She’s very ambitious and is now performing minor surgery.

I’d really recommend researching the job opportunities in any of the mentioned fields (AHPs, specifically), as the universities are churning out thousands of students a year who now cannot find job due to the recruitment freezes.

Osteopath?