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Job Role
Medical Assistant
Job Role

Medical Assistant

Working ashore, on ships and submarines, our Medical Assistants are responsible for routine healthcare provisions and trained to respond to medical emergencies in any environment all over the world.

AdventureHealthcareHumanitarian aidMedicalApprenticeships
  • £18,500 - £52,500
  • No qualifications
  • Surface Fleet
  • Medical
  • Rating level

At a glance

Being a Medical Assistant puts you in the heart of the action. You could be training with Special Forces in West Africa, or working in primary care on board ship in the Persian Gulf. Wherever the mission takes you, you’ll gain on-the-job medical skills.

£24,000

The minimum amount you'll earn after training

£51,000

Earn over this amount as your progress

Zero

Qualifications needed

Free

Medical and dental care

6 weeks

Of paid holiday every year

Travel

All around the world
medical assistant taking blood from patient
Our work takes us all over the world, from NHS hospitals, to working on board ship or on front line deployments.
debbie, Junior Rating, Medical Branch

Debbie

Junior Rating, Medical Branch

Role details

What you’ll do

Being a Medical Assistant in the Royal Navy means embarking on a career that offers more variety and adventure than you’d ever experience in civilian medicine.

From the day you join you’ll gain new skills. Pushing yourself to the limit in some unique and challenging environments, you could be training with Special Forces in West Africa, or working in primary care on board a ship in the Persian Gulf.

Your role

  • Make a real difference to some essential operations. That might mean being the only medic on board ship, and taking responsibility for the general healthcare of an entire crew.
  • Use your medical expertise where it’s needed most, providing primary healthcare to trauma victims in conflict zones all over the world
  • When you’re not on deployment you will be working in a Royal Navy shore base or even with the Royal Marines. There’s no equivalent civilian role, so you’ll gain all the skills you need.
  • Work across all medical departments, learning directly from specialists in a number of different fields

Pay & benefits

  • A salary that rises to over £24,000 as soon as you finish training
  • Earn in excess of £51,000 as your career progresses
  • An excellent pension scheme
  • Six weeks of paid holiday every year
  • Free medical and dental care

 

Skills for life

Qualifications you'll gain

  • Attain a Level 3 Senior Healthcare Support Worker Apprenticeship
  • Study for GCSEs, A-Levels, NVQs or even a degree, paid for by us
  • Gain specialist vocational qualifications as your career progresses

Skills you'll develop

  • Learn about first aid, environmental and preventative medicine, anatomy and physiology
  • Develop your skills in specialist areas, like pharmacy or nursing

Eligibility

  • You'll need to be aged between 17 to 39
  • No qualifications are required for this role
  • You must be a British or Irish national, a Commonwealth citizen, or a Dual National. Bual Nationality restrictions may apply
  • A Body Mass Index (BMI) between 18 and 28
  • Pass the Naval Swimming Test
     

Skills & Interests

  • A quick thinker with a passion for helping people
  • Great team players who thrive on working with others
  • Enthusiasm for working in high pressure environments
  • Hands on people who can react fast in an emergency

 

Joining Process

From picking your role to starting on your first day, these are the steps you'll take to join as a rating.

Step 1

Submit an application

Once you’ve registered your interest and have satisfied the basic eligibility criteria, you will be sent an online application form
Apply
Step 2

Defence Aptitude Assessment (DAA)

You’ll be tested on: Verbal Reasoning, Numerical Reasoning, Work Rate, Spatial Reasoning, Electrical Comprehension and Mechanical Comprehension.
To prepare, you can practise the DAA

practise the DAA
Step 3

Interview

A formal interview to talk through your suitability for the role. This is normally conducted using your own device over the Shine video platform
Step 4

Candidate Preparation Course (CPC)

This four-day induction to life in the Royal Navy, including a Swimming Test and a fitness assessment, is a pass or fail course
CPC
Step 5

Start training

Once you’ve passed a Security Check, you’ll be offered a place at HMS Raleigh

Career Progression

From responsibilities to pay, find out where this role can take you.
tbc
tbc
First promotion
Become Leading Hand, mentor students, go on deployment
Second promotion
Become Petty Officer, take on more management responsibility

Got a question?

Our virtual recruiter is available to answer your questions 24 hours a day

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