Healthcare science assistant
Healthcare science assistants support medical staff, with duties ranging from lab testing blood samples to monitoring patients’ heart function.
Typical Salary
£24,000 – £29,000
per year
Working Hours
37–40
hours per week
Day-to-day tasks
As a healthcare science assistant, you could:
- take readings from monitoring and diagnostic equipment
- label, sort and store patient specimens
- analyse tissue and fluid samples
- prepare specimens for further testing
- sterilise equipment and dispose of hazardous waste
- enter patient data and test results onto a database
- work closely with other healthcare professionals
Skills needed
- science skills
- analytical thinking skills
- maths knowledge
- to be thorough and pay attention to detail
- to be flexible and open to change
- excellent verbal communication skills
- the ability to work well with others
- administration skills
- to be able to use a computer and the main software packages competently
How to get into this role
You can get into this job through:
- a college course
- an apprenticeship
- applying directly
Career progression
With experience and further training, you could apply for a post as a senior healthcare science assistant or healthcare science associate.
You could join the NHS Practitioner Training Programme to train as a clinical scientist or biomedical scientist.
You might also work incardiology – checking for heart abnormalities; phlebotomy – analysing blood samples; cytology – screening for diseases like cancer