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The HSE is committed to building a positive culture where there is a common sense of purpose and pride in the team and where all our people are treated with dignity and respect. Every day thousands of health service staff around Ireland live our values of care, compassion, trust and learning.

The HSE is the largest employer in the State, with more than 150,000 employees. Each employee plays a vital role in contributing to the health service.

The HSE aims to be an Employer of Choice, and offers a wide range of challenging and rewarding career opportunities that enable our staff to make an important contribution to the health services, to public service and to the lives of everyone living in Ireland.

A job in the HSE can be a job for life, with established pathways for career progression. Staff in the HSE are encouraged and supported in further training and development so you won’t have to leave to grow and develop your skills. Whether you have entered the workforce directly from school, from tertiary education or from a third level institute, you will be helped to reach your full potential in your chosen career with us.

Working for the HSE also means that you are eligible for all the benefits of a career in the public sector. These include an attractive public service pension, competitive salary scales and increments, permanent contracts of employment, generous holiday entitlements, flexible working arrangements and health and wellbeing supports.

There is growing demand for staff right across our health service so a career in the HSE affords you the job security that you may not find in the private sector. And all this while making a real impact on the life and health of our population.

The HSE provides thousands of different services in hospitals and communities across the country. At some stage every year, everybody in Ireland will use one or more of the services provided. They are of vital importance to the entire population.

The HSE is divided into various functions listed below:

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Audit

Videos (25)

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Careers in Ireland Nursing and Midwifery

Ambulance / Paramedic Keith Hayes

Dietitian and Podiatry HSE Webinar

Public Health Nurse Early Careers Event

Community Clinical Midwife Manager Hazel O Leary

Midwife Harriet Dzakpo

Social Worker Mary Ita Heffernan

Children�s Disability Network Teams HSE Webinar

Clinical Midwife Manager Karen Harmon

Midwife Sean Dowling

Care Assistant Lydia Peppard

Speech and Language Lisa Kelly

What to Expect on a HSE Panel HSE Webinar

Occupational Therapy HSE Webinar

Speech and Language Therapists HSE Webinar

Physiotherapy HSE Webinar

Social Worker Apprenticeship HSE

Candidate Advanced Midwife Practitioner Joann Malik

Relocating to Ireland: Information for Medical Consultants HSE Webinar

Nursing Careers Making a Real Difference

News

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Wednesday, December 03, 2025

Interviews

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Dr Jan Steiner, Anaesthetist

Jan works as an Anaesthetist in Letterkenny General Hospital. Originally from Germany, Jan completed his medical training as a general Doctor (MD) and went on to specialise as an Anaesthetist.

Hi, Ask me a question...

What were the main 'career decision' milestones in your life so far?

There unfortunately wasn't one "Big Decision"! Anyway, although I started and enjoyed carpentry I feared that it would ultimately bore me.

I thought that medicine will always remain interesting and challenging. And, yes, I did think that morally and idealistically I would always be able to look into the mirror and say "You're at least trying to do a good thing and help"!

My main struggle actually was between music and medicine. However, I decided that I was too conservative and not good/crazy/committed enough to become a full-time musician.

So one big decision was that I could be a doctor and still do music but without worrying where the money would come from vs being a musician with no money who cannot do medicine as a hobby!

Certainly it was convincing that being a doctor would provide a safe and reasonably (in Germany) good income and would probably always provide me with a job. A job that's still socially well accepted. I guess that has also played a role.

Generally what also convinced me was that I enjoyed working on patients and got feedback that I was good in doing that!

But to make it even more confusing and non-stringent, I still regularly wonder whether I made the right choice and certainly on regular intervals I reflect on this. And the answer is not always a straight forward "Yes, I did the right thing". Being a doctor working in hospital unfortunately can be pretty asocial and that is something I didn't fully appreciate at the start.

What aspects of your education have proven most important for your job?

Aside from my medical training, I learned professional typing in a voluntary course at school. My computer skills were both self-taught and taught in courses, workshops, from friends.

Very relevant for my medical training were all the side-jobs I did working in different hospitals. Fifteen months spent with the Civil Service in a Paediatric hospital ward working as nursing-aid were particularly helpful in terms of "knowing" how a sick child looks and behaves like. Any practical "front-work" was helpful: I worked as medical student in a Paediatric A&E taking history of all patients coming in and then presented these cases to "real" Paediatric doctors.

I also worked on a Neurological ward as medical student. I believe that it would be very helpful for every doctor when at some stage in their career they would work as a nurse or nursing aid. You get a different feeling for "team-work", communication, patient, etc.

I gave training courses to student nurses which was also very helpful both for improving your presentation skills and realising that you haven't really understood and grasped a topic unless you can explain it clearly!

Ultimately the most important thing in work (and generally) life are and were the people that stood out either from personal and/or professional point of view. I admired my senior Anaesthetic Registrar in Germany for example as he could always explain everything very clearly, was always up to date and always was friendly and helpful. That was and is the basis and backbone of my Anaesthetic training!

Luckily I have always met one or two people who influenced me in that way. I think it is important to seek these influencing people, listen to them and learn from them.