Clerk
Clerks work in a number of areas and offices in the NHS, such as:
- hospital wards - including children's wards or maternity/labour wards
- occupational health departments
- health centres
- specialist departments or clinics - including cancer centres or accident and emergency units
- a trust headquarters
- a trust's central stores.
Clerks perform perform a range of duties, including:
- booking patients in for appointments
- keeping patients records
- filing
- chasing up reports
- photocopying
- data entry
- ordering stationary
- handling telephone calls
- helping to cover a reception desk/area.
Some administration roles are for typists and in these posts, typing and word processing skills may be a significant part of the job role. Other clerical staff may work as admissions clerk/clerical officer, ward clerk/clerical officer or as a clerk/clerical officer in a specific area, such as a health records department.
Skills and training
The skills you will need depends upon the job that you are doing, but generally, you will need to be accurate, familiar with computer inputting, confident using the telephone, and happy to deal with people - which could be patients or other staff or both.
Office/clerical based vocational qualifications exist and clerks are often encouraged to take further study to help them to develop their careers further.
Entry requirements
This can vary between employing authorities. Many will require a good all round education and administrative experience. Clerk/typist posts will usually require a typing or word processing qualification.
Applying for jobs
Vacancies are advertised on the NHS Jobs website, in job centres and the local press.