Neurologist
What the work is
Investigates, diagnoses and treats diseases and injuries of the human brain, spinal cord, nerves and muscles.
Would you enjoy the work?
These are the main tasks in the official description. Mark how each one sounds to you.
- Assesses, diagnoses and manages patients presenting with neurological issues
- Performs various examination techniques to assess patients presenting with neurological issues
- Requests appropriate laboratory tests, neuroimaging techniques and other diagnostic procedures, and interprets results of tests
- Interprets the results of neuropathology investigations
- Selects and prescribes appropriate medications in the management of neurological diseases
- Liaises and consults with a multidisciplinary team for optimised neurological treatment
- Provides prognoses in untreatable neurological conditions, and provides support to family and patients to manage end-of-life care
Try it
A simulation and a case study from this kind of work, set in a hospital ward and outpatient clinic where specialist physicians see older adults. They are fictional.
The kind of days you could have
Good days
- A puzzling set of symptoms suddenly makes sense and the right treatment starts
- An older patient goes home to the place they love, with the right support
- A junior doctor you teach asks a question you had not thought of
Hard days
- Families who disagree with each other, and with the patient, about what should happen next
- Pressure to free up a bed when the person in it is not yet ready to leave
- Conversations about what matters most that nobody is eager to have
Written by Career Calling as a general guide. Real roles vary by employer and place.
Work a mission
Step into a simulated workplace in this field, with a brief from your manager.
Description and tasks: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Occupation Standard Classification for Australia, 2024, Version 1.0 (opens another site), occupation 264342, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. The skill guide above is our plain English summary.