Healthcare Science Careers in NHS Wales

Healthcare science professionals play a vital role in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of a huge number of medical conditions, as well as in the rehabilitation of patients. 

Almost any patient investigation or treatment depends on the work done by healthcare science professions - from biomedical scientists providing diagnostic information on blood and tissue, to clinical perfusion scientists enabling surgeons to perform complex procedures on the heart and lungs. 

Research and innovation are also a key part of healthcare science, developing new methods of detecting and monitoring disease, designing new equipment, and introducing new treatments. Rapid advances in technology mean this is now one of the most exciting, challenging and rewarding areas of the NHS to work within. 

Healthcare science in NHS Wales offers exciting careers across six professional families: 

• Physiologists 

• Laboratory and Genomic scientists 

• Physical scientists and engineers 

• Clinical computational scientists 

• Operating department practitioners 

• Radiographers 

Start by exploring the career pages above to learn about the different healthcare science roles and what you might need to study to do them. If you want more detail about how the careers are set out and why, you can read the NHS Wales Healthcare Science Career Framework. Think of it like a map that shows different job roles, what people do in them, and how you can move from beginner jobs to more advanced ones as you learn and gain experience.