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Allied health professionals (AHPs) make up a third of the professional clinical workforce within the healthcare industry. They provide holistic care and help people improve their general health and wellbeing.
As an AHP, you can enjoy great pay, regular working hours, varied and interesting work, and lots of ways to specialise and advance. The best thing is that qualified AHPs are in high demand and employment rates are high.
Allied health professional career choices
These are are 14 AHP roles within the NHS:
- Podiatrists
- Dietitians
- Occupational therapists
- Operating department practitioners
- Orthoptists
- Osteopaths
- Paramedics
- Physiotherapists
- Prosthetists and orthotists
- Radiographers (therapeutic or diagnostic)
- Speech and language therapists
- Art therapists
- Drama therapists
- Music therapists
If you choose one of these professions, you'll work directly with patients. You’ll see the difference you’re making to people’s lives every day – relieving their pain and helping them stay independent.
Below we take a closer look at a few of those AHP roles and what you need to study if you want to become one:
Orthoptist
Orthoptists specialise in investigating, diagnosing and managing eye conditions that affect eye movements, visual development or the way the eyes work together.
For example, they may deal with:
- Misalignment of the eyes (strabismus or squint)
- Double vision (diplopia)
- Reduced vision (amblyopia)
Orthoptics is an exciting and varied career. It offers you the chance to make a difference, a high degree of flexibility and excellent employment prospects. You’ll work with patients of all ages every day to help improve their care and their lives.
Examples of things you might work on include:
- Assessing the vision of babies and small children including children with special needs
- Ensuring speedy rehabilitation of patients who've suffered stroke or brain injuries
- Diagnosing and monitoring long-term eye conditions such as glaucoma
Podiatrist/chiropodist
As a podiatrist (also known as a chiropodist), you'll diagnose and treat abnormalities and offer professional advice on the care of feet and legs to prevent problems.
You’ll see a variety of patients and help them with different issues, including:
- Helping children with lower limb pain or problems walking
- Helping diabetes sufferers with circulation problems who may be at risk of amputation
- Helping people with sports injuries and dancers whose long hours of rehearsing and performing has put stress on their feet
Therapeutic radiographer
Therapeutic radiographers use doses of X-rays and other ionising radiation to treat medical conditions, mainly cancer and tumours.
You'll work to high levels of accuracy to help make sure that the patient's tumour or cancer receives exactly the right dose of radiation, at the same time ensuring the surrounding normal tissues get the lowest possible dose.
You'll work with a variety of patients, young and old, and provide care at a difficult time in their life. In many cases you'll be helping to save a person's life.
How to become an allied health professional
The first step to a career as an AHP is to study a relevant undergraduate degree – or for art therapy, drama therapy or music therapy, a postgraduate degree.
Your degree should be approved by the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC). Osteopathy courses should be approved by the General Osteopathic Council (GOsC) too.
Entry to these courses can be competitive and entry grades will be high. You're often looking at entry requirements around BBB-AAB at A-level. Equivalent qualifications are often usually accepted, though you may need to have studied relevant subjects such as biology or chemistry at A-level or equivalent.
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