Public health - the route to a healthier society

Do you want to improve and protect the health and environment for yourself, your families and your communities? A career in public health might be just the job for you.

Thanks to initial efforts from public health workers, modern Britain has been transformed from the slum housing of the nineteenth century, to smoke free workplaces and enclosed public places in the twenty first century.

Public health workers help tackle the major population health issues of the time - currently including obesity, alcohol misuse, climate change and infectious disease.

They do this by looking at what causes ill-health and understanding which people are most at risk - finding out what interventions work, running programmes to deliver change and working to prevent ill-health in the first place.

They work in all parts of the health service but also in local authorities, the voluntary sector, civil service and the independent sector. Public health workers are also influential in developing health policies at national and regional levels.

Public health roles in the NHS

Director of Public Health – leading health strategy for specific populations, advocating on behalf of communities, advising local organisations that commission and provide health care on the most effective services to improve and protect health.

Health promotion specialist – commissioning and implementing health programmes that help people and communities make healthy lifestyle choices.

Nutritionist – employed in a range of roles in the NHS including in hospitals giving advice and educating health professionals, or in the community working for projects such as Sure Start.

Consultant in public health – a public health professional who focuses on the population’s health needs with the aim of improving and protecting health and reducing inequalities.

Health visitor – supporting children and their families through the early years, from pregnancy and birth to primary school, and promoting health and well being and the prevention of illness to local communities.

Case studies

Sarah Copeland-Lowe works as a Health Trainer in the former mining town of Kirkby in Ashfield. Kirkby in Ashfield is one of the many target areas within the district that was highlighted as an area of greater need for the health trainer service. Sarah works on the 'Small Change BIG Difference' programme, which looks at increasing physical activity, healthy eating, reducing alcohol and stopping smoking. Sarah says: "The biggest rewards come when I see people succeed in achieving the goals that they have set, and maintain their lifestyle changes with the support of the health trainer service. They change themselves for the better and it is great to think that I helped them to achieve that."

Leigh Pusey is a nurse by background and is now strategic lead for immunisation services for people of all ages. She initially trained as a general nurse, then midwife and health visitor, before getting interested in protecting health through the power of vaccination and immunisation programmes for children and families. Leigh says: “When I was in training I looked after a baby with meningitis C who sadly died. Nowadays, with immunisation, this baby would survive”. She trains other professionals and ensures prevention is at the forefront of local strategies. Leigh adds: “I know that without my co-ordination and support for the teams who give jabs, there would be no increase in the uptake of flu or MMR immunisation”.

Getting started on a public health career

Your route will depend on your interests and whether you are a school leaver, new graduate or already working in another part of the health service. Searching under ’public health‘ on the NHS Careers website will give you information on some of the roles available in the NHS and entry routes.

For more information on the full range of public health roles within the health service, visit the PHORCaST website. (www.phorcast.org.uk). There you will find entry and training requirements, development opportunities as well as real-life career stories that demonstrate the very different backgrounds and entry routes of people working to change the public’s health.