Bring your curiosity, empathy and analytical skills to a field where every day – and every person – is different
If you’re interested in pursuing a health career, you’ve got to be interested in people. It’s about being curious, empathetic and analytical.
As a health professional, you’re continually testing hypotheses. What’s gone wrong? What’s the situation? What are you seeing in that human in front of you?
But no patient is just a presentation. They’re a human being, and they bring everything about them to that encounter with you.
When working as a physiotherapist, I could treat 10 acute neck problems and not one of them would present in the same way. Our health students at the University of Notre Dame Australia get hands-on experience like this too, in a range of health settings. Every day is different, and every patient is different.
While it’s helpful, you don’t necessarily need to have a strong science background to study health. Some of the physiotherapy graduates that I’ve seen have a completely different background, and they’ve absolutely thrived.
There is also a huge spread of areas you can go into – from nursing and medicine, to medical imaging, physiotherapy, occupational therapy and speech pathology.
That’s because no one profession alone can optimise outcomes for people, at an individual level or at a societal level. Healthcare delivery needs a multidisciplinary team approach.
A career in health will last because the need for healthcare in Australia is only going to increase. With advances such as wearables like smart watches, telehealth and data analytics, it’s also likely to change. We’re regularly updating the curriculum at Notre Dame to make sure students are prepared for the future of health.
I encourage you to flip through this magazine and take a closer look at the opportunities shaping the future of healthcare, and imagine where your journey might start.
Professor William Gibson
National Head of Health Sciences
University of Notre Dame Australia
Career journey
- Bachelor of Science (Physiotherapy), Glasgow Caledonian University, Scotland
- Hospital-based physiotherapist
- Master of Manipulative Therapy, The University of Melbourne
- Physiotherapist, private practices
- PhD in muscle and tendon pain, Aalborg University, Denmark
- Professor, University of Notre Dame Australia
- National Head of Health Sciences, University of Notre Dame Australia
This originally appeared in Careers with STEM: Health 2026, and was produced in partnership with the University of Notre Dame Australia.
