Graduate career options in healthcare operations and management

NHS ambulances make over 50,000 emergency journeys per month, NHS surgeons perform around 3,000 heart operations and NHS chiropodists inspect over 150,000 pairs of feet. Yet none of this would be possible without the people working behind the scenes. There is an enormous variety of jobs in healthcare that do not require a degree in medicine or expert training in nursing.

Here are a few of the main areas of work in which graduates can forge influential management careers:

Estates and facilities: involves anything from building design and engineering to project management and maintaining the general appearance of a hospital. It's crucial to make healthcare buildings safe and comfortable for those who use them.

Finance: involves managing budgets and deciding on resource allocation. You could be gathering and analysing financial data, carrying out financial audits or ensuring staff are being paid correctly.

General management: managers organise the delivery of healthcare to everyone who needs it, but an individual might be responsible for one of a great variety of things. Roles can be found in general practice management, clinical management,communications and corporate affairs, strategy, and purchasing and contract management.

Human resources: involves the recruitment and retention of staff, disciplinary and complaints procedures, and staff training and development across a department or up to an entire hospital or NHS Trust.

Information and communication technology: healthcare requires a number of different ICT roles to keep the things running efficiently including help-desk support, applications and systems development, systems analysis and staff training.

Information management: involved collecting, retrieving, analysing and presenting healthcare information to ensure that medical staff can make informed decisions about a patient’s health.