For nurses, Operating Department Practitioners, physiotherapists and allied health professionals
Your clinical career, carried into industry.
I am Louise Hoult: a registered nurse, a trainer and an interviewer for medical devices and pharma. I train you, prepare you and support you through the move from the NHS into an industry role.
- NurseRegistered adult nurse, Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC)
- TrainerBuilt induction and sales training in medical devices
- InterviewerHundreds of clinical nurses, nursing managers and sales managers interviewed
- 41 advertsLive UK adverts read for this page, October 2026
Why industry wants clinicians
Your registration is the credential they are hiring
In 41 live UK adverts I read in October 2026, 20 named a nursing route. Others asked for Operating Department Practitioners (ODPs), physiotherapists, pharmacists, physician associates, midwives, occupational therapists, radiographers and cardiac physiologists. Companies hire clinicians because their customers trust people who have done the job.
What most clinicians are never told is how to translate that experience for an industry panel. That is the gap I close.
The roles
Where clinicians are hired in industry
The role families that come up again and again in UK medical device and pharmaceutical adverts asking for a clinical qualification.
Clinical specialist or educator: wound care, continence and ostomy
Supports nurses and patients to use dressings, continence and stoma products well, runs product evaluations and teaches on wards and in the community.
- Who it suits
- Tissue viability nurseStoma nurseContinence nurseCommunity nurse
- Adverts ask for
- Nursing registration, sometimes a post-registration wound, stoma or tissue viability qualification
- Seen at
- Convatec, Smith+Nephew, Urgo
Theatre clinical specialist: surgical and orthopaedic
Supports surgeons and theatre teams in cases: joint replacement, spinal, robotics and surgical products. Often on call to theatre lists across a region.
- Who it suits
- ODPTheatre nurseScrub nursePhysician associate
- Adverts ask for
- Theatre experience, usually more than a specific registration
- Seen at
- Zimmer Biomet, CMR Surgical, Hologic
Field clinical specialist: cardiology and neuromodulation
Supports procedures in the catheter laboratory, electrophysiology (EP) and pain services, and trains the clinical teams who use the devices.
- Who it suits
- Cath lab nurseCardiac physiologistRadiographerPhysiotherapist
- Adverts ask for
- A degree, procedural experience and readiness for heavy travel
- Seen at
- Abbott, Medtronic, Haemonetics
Clinical applications specialist: critical care, monitoring and infusion
Brings monitoring and infusion systems into use: training staff, supporting go-live and staying the clinical point of contact.
- Who it suits
- Intensive care nurseNeonatal nurseWard nurse
- Adverts ask for
- Two to five years of acute clinical experience
- Seen at
- BD, Masimo, Philips
Clinical or customer trainer
Teaches clinical teams to use a device safely and confidently, from first training to ongoing competency.
- Who it suits
- Theatre nurseRenal nurseODP
- Adverts ask for
- Operating theatre or specialty experience, and sometimes a teaching qualification
- Seen at
- Intuitive, Johnson & Johnson MedTech, Vantive
Clinical sales: territory or key account manager
Owns a territory or set of accounts and grows sales, where a clinical background makes the conversation with clinicians credible.
- Who it suits
- Registered nurseAllied health professional
- Adverts ask for
- A nursing or allied health background, essential in some adverts and ideal in others, plus a full driving licence
- Seen at
- Smith+Nephew and specialist suppliers
Medical affairs: medical science liaison (MSL)
A scientific, non-promotional role building expert relationships and sharing clinical evidence with senior clinicians.
- Who it suits
- PharmacistNurseDoctor
- Adverts ask for
- A healthcare degree, sometimes a postgraduate qualification, with nursing and pharmacy named as examples
- Seen at
- AstraZeneca, Merz Aesthetics
Senior clinical lead or clinical strategy
Shapes clinical strategy, evidence and education for a product area. Senior roles that value years of specialist practice.
- Who it suits
- Specialist nurseSenior clinician
- Adverts ask for
- Five or more years of specialist experience; one advert set it at NHS Band 8 or above
- Seen at
- Wound care and renal companies, TPP
Who this is for
Registered clinicians, from newly qualified to nurse leader
Industry hires clinicians because customers trust people who have done the job. Your registration and your specialty are the starting point.
- Registered nursesAdult, children’s, mental health and learning disability, including specialist and advanced practice nurses
- Operating Department PractitionersAnaesthetics, surgery and recovery, registered with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC)
- Physiotherapists and occupational therapistsOrthopaedics, rehabilitation, pressure care and postural management
- Other allied health professionals and healthcare scientistsParamedics, radiographers, cardiac physiologists and clinical scientists moving into industry
What the adverts ask for
The requirements, counted
I read 41 live UK adverts for these roles and counted what each one asks for. Your clinical background gets you shortlisted. The commercial column is what the interview tests.
Counted from 41 live UK adverts on LinkedIn and Reed, read on 29 October 2026. Fifteen of the 41 named no clinical qualification, so these counts show what employers write, not a survey of every role. Adverts change daily.
Your specialty, their products
Where your experience carries straight across
Companies look for clinicians who already know their products from the user’s side. This is how specialties line up with the roles in the adverts.
- Operating Department Practitioner, theatre or scrub nurseOrthopaedic, spinal and surgical theatre specialist roles
- Cath lab nurse, cardiac physiologist, radiographerCardiology: transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) and electrophysiology (EP)
- Intensive care or neonatal nursePatient monitoring, infusion and critical care
- Tissue viability, community or wound care nurseAdvanced wound care
- Stoma nurseOstomy
- Continence or urology nurseContinence
- Renal nurseDialysis and renal therapy
- PhysiotherapistNeuromodulation, pain and musculoskeletal (MSK) rehabilitation
- Occupational therapistPressure care, seating and postural management
- Pharmacist, nurse or doctorMedical affairs and medical science liaison
Where clinicians lose the room
Great clinicians, wrong language
I have interviewed hundreds of candidates. Capable clinicians rarely fall down on clinical knowledge. They fall down on the questions they did not see coming: targets, territory, how the NHS buys, and why a customer should pay more for a product.
Every one of those can be learned before the interview, not on the job.
What I deliver
I train you, I prepare you, I support you
Shaped around the role you are going for, so not every item applies to every candidate.
Train
The commercial mindset
- The Clinical Interview Playbook, my 9-module video course on moving from clinical practice into industry
- How the NHS buys, from selected Medical Sales Accelerator training, for a first sales role
- What the job is really like: the working week, territory, targets, travel and the car
Prepare
For the specific role
- Your CV rewritten for industry, clinical experience in commercial language
- A mock interview with me, run the way a hiring panel runs it
- Your interview presentation, built on real facts about the company and its market
- A first six months plan to show the panel how you will start
Support
Through the transition
- Your offer explained: salary, bonus, car allowance and tax, against your NHS take-home pay
- The Medical Sales Intelligence Hub, the NHS commercial intelligence platform
- Support into your first six months, for the weeks when it feels like a lot
Your route in
Six steps, one person beside you
Register
Email me your CV and tell me what you are looking for.
Talk
An honest conversation about you, the roles and the timing.
Train
The commercial side of the job, before you are in the room.
Prepare
CV, mock interview and presentation for the specific role.
Apply
Into the interview with a CV, presentation and plan built for the role.
Supported
I stay with you through your first six months.
Leaving the NHS
It can feel scary making the move
You are leaving a team, the security you know and a role you are good at, for a job you have only read about.
I have made that move myself. My job is to smooth the way, and to tell you honestly what the role is really like before you decide.
Beyond the Bedside: An Encyclopedia of Nursing CareersMy guide to the careers a nursing registration opens, from advanced practice and education to industry.
Who you work with
Louise Hoult
“I have been the nurse, the trainer and the person on the panel. I know the move from all three sides.”
I am a registered nurse who moved into medical devices. In my last two roles I built the induction and sales training, and I have interviewed hundreds of clinical nurses, nursing managers and sales managers for medical device and pharmaceutical roles.
Now I put that to work for clinicians making the same move.
Recommendations
What people say about working with me
“Her knowledge of clinical selling is second to none. She is an integral part of the induction process for new starters, and her level of detail and organisation skills are key to the delivery of training.”
Alison CostallNational Sales Manager, GBUK“She is without doubt one of the best people I have had the pleasure of working with. She holds herself to very high standards and expects the same of those around her, but always in a way that lifts people rather than pressures them.”
Lee QuickmireQueen’s Award winner for Enterprise and Innovation“The techniques I have learned for answering interview questions from her modules were really useful, not only for applying in the medtech industry but also for any interview.”
Earl Marlowe CayabyabIntensive Care Nurse, Cambridge University HospitalsFrom Louise Hoult’s recommendations on LinkedIn.
Register your interest
Thinking about industry? Let us talk.
Email me and I will call you for an honest first conversation about you, the roles and the timing.
- Your profession and registration
- Your specialty and years since registration
- Where you are based
- Your CV, if you have one ready
Or email louisehoult@elevateandthrive.uk