Why become a physiologist? 

The Liberty sat down with a student physiologist currently on placement in the north inner city to learn about this lesser-known health profession.

Éabha Byrne, doing her physiology placement in the Mater Hospital, says her chosen profession has some resemblance to the work of doctors and nurses – but it’s a day job!

In a healthcare setting like a hospital, a physiologist – whose expertise is in how things are meant to work in the body – does the testing that allows doctors to diagnose patients.

So Byrne, at present, is on her cardiac placement doing electrocardiograms.

“You’re basically taking pictures of the electrical signals in people’s hearts – so like the rate and the rhythm of their hearts.” After ECGs, she can ‘move up’ to 24-hour monitors, stress tests, exercise testing, or echo.

Byrne pointed out that, if someone was having a heart attack, cardiac physiologists would have a big role to play: “You’re trying to paint a picture of what’s happening in the patient.” 

Being a student treating real patients, there must be some sort of pressure to make sure nothing wrong happens. Byrne keeps her cool and said it does not really cross her mind anymore as she is about seven weeks into her placement now.

“I feel like, at the start, I felt like very much imposter syndrome. I was like, how have I learned all this in the last two years? And now it’s actually me that has to make the decision of whether a patient is safe to go home, or whether I can just do the test and then they have to see someone else after, I have to be able to recognise stuff.”

Some cancer patients would go see a physiologist every two or three weeks as they are going through treatment. Byrne says she appreciates the chance to help them through such a vulnerable period of their life, and hopefully see their recovery progress.  

Do patients care that they are being treated by a student rather than a professional? Byrne says they often ask if she gets paid, but they are almost always delighted and agreeable.

“I think, kind of a lot of the reaction is that, oh, well, everyone has to start somewhere, you know, everyone has to learn.” She is actively learning everything, so it is completely up to date on anything she has to know.   

But why be a physiologist rather than a doctor? Byrne says she did not want to have to study for 15 years.

Byrne grew up visiting the Mater, as her mam worked there, and saw all the “Trojan work” the doctors do. But after spending five or years getting the degree, they must then go through another 10 years to finally get to the settled, well-paid part of the job.

And once you become a fully qualified consultant, on very good money, you are also constantly relied on to be on call.

Her likely destination, by contrast, with the degree she is studying, is clinical work. This means working Monday to Fridays, normal working hours – nothing crazy like doctors.

“You know, you have four really, really tough years – a lot of studying crammed into those four years. But look at the job that you get out of it, and you get the job straight away.”

Byrne says that if she has a sudden career change in the years to come and decides she did want to be a doctor, she will not need to do the entire process of med school. “I can go back and do a two or three year course” – she already has, as it were, “the bones of medicine”.