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Clinical engineers apply engineering principles to the research, design and development of healthcare products and equipment.
You could work: evenings / weekends; on a rota
In your day-to-day duties you may:
You could work in an NHS or private hospital, in a laboratory, at a research facility or in a workshop.
You can get into this job through:
You can do a degree to start training as a clinical engineer. Relevant subjects include:
Your degree should be accredited by the Engineering Council.
After your degree, you can apply for the postgraduate NHS Scientist Training Programme (STP). During the 3-year programme, you'll be employed and study a postgraduate master's degree at university.
Areas of clinical engineering covered by the programme include:rehabilitation engineering; clinical measurement; medical device development
Competition for places on the STP is high, so it helps to have relevant experience. Try and do some voluntary work in a hospital and get experience of patient contact.
There are also jobs in the private sector for clinical engineers, where you could work your way up to chartered engineer status.
You could take postgraduate qualifications in biomedical engineering to increase your job prospects, particularly for research and development roles.
You'll usually need:
You could get into this job through a healthcare science practitioner degree apprenticeship.
You'll usually need:
If you do not have a degree, you could apply for the NHS Practitioner Training Programme.
During the 3-year programme, you'll be employed and study an accredited degree in healthcare science (clinical engineering) at university.
You'll need:
You can search for universities offering accredited degrees by using the NHS course finder.
When applying for NHS training and apprenticeships, you'll be expected to have an understanding of how NHS values apply in your work.
You can find out more about becoming a clinical engineer from Health Careers and Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine.
With experience and further training, you could become a consultant, specialising in particular clinical areas, or move into people or project management, teaching or medical research.
There are opportunities in both the public and private sector.