Healthcare, Psychology, and What We Need to Develop

Marianna Jaross

I remember telling my psychologist at seventeen that this was the profession I wanted to pursue, and this led me to a range of interesting and varied experiences. I studied a Bachelor of Arts (majoring in psychology), and padded my degree with other interesting subjects; including those from the cinema and cultural studies department.

I was probably never going to fit into a conventional path. I took a break. I worked in call centres. I travelled. I wrote for publications for minimal pay or for free to build my portfolio. There was already a strong sense that I wanted to contribute in different ways as opposed to the singular path of being a clinician and seeing clients. That is what a 'real' psychologist does was the subtext.

The idea of having a portfolio career didn’t really exist within my training. We were focused on getting through the next hurdle of requirements to become a registered psychologist (undergraduate degree, fourth year, getting into master’s, internships, logbooks, supervision, case studies, and studying for the national exam). We focused on building a career on paper, rather than building a life that would sustain us.

I don’t just think this applies to psychologists; but across many helping professions within healthcare. From my perspective we aren’t exposed to what else we can do with our degree outside of clinical practice, and we often operate within systems that don’t provide the foundation for us to do the work sustainably long-term. The latter, from my perspective, often precipitates the former. As such, we look for alternative ways to continue to contribute to healthcare.

Here is some of what I have noticed, and what I’d propose we do about it:

1.)   We need to encourage students to think about options and impact outside of traditional settings while they are at university. Personally, I have experienced and seen a huge shift within healthcare in the last several years. The term ‘portfolio’ career has entered the lexicon, and I think it is about time. We need to normalise that though we may be training clinicians, they may want to expand outside of traditional clinical settings: Leadership. Advocacy. Policy. Entrepreneurship. Academia. We need to talk about these potential pathways, what they look like, and how to build a career within them.

2.)   Having conversations about how different seasons of life may demand you to show up differently within your career. Perhaps the job you had as a new graduate with the long commute and other elements are not in sync with your life now. This is not to say that you have to sacrifice your career; but acknowledging what you have energy, life circumstances, and capacity for is a part of the career journey. We assume there is one way to contribute to healthcare or that we may want to do so in the same way forever, and that is just not the case. Perhaps we can normalise our desire to create something different, or to grow.

3.)   The need for flexibility, and the conversations we aren’t having enough. I am grateful that a lot of roles I have had have been part-time, and if I am honest; I genuinely think that a lot of roles in healthcare need to operate on a four-day week. Not just because a four-day week may be conducive to better work-life balance; but because those in helping professions and healthcare are holding significant weight. The weight of trauma. The weight of systems. Ethical dilemmas. Duty of care. Professional development and supervision requirements. Having more time to rest, recharge, or stay on top of our admin, other areas of our life, and professional requirements is going to be a huge part of what may sustain us in the workforce.

4.)   Recognising when supervision, self-care, boundaries, and caseload/work management is important; and when there are broader systemic issues that need to be addressed. I have observed organisations and systems that have absolutely not been set up to support clinicians and the work that they do. My sense is that if you don’t have systems, support, and a good foundation; clinicians are not going to be able to show up and support clients the way they need to. I think these can be done in supportive and practical ways: Time to get used to a new organisation and practice rather than booking clients on someone's first day (or week). Supervision in place when the clinician commences. Administrative and operations services that are well set up. Caseload review with consideration of complexity. Understanding that people’s bandwidth to ‘hold’ a certain caseload number may change. Humanity within supervision and acknowledging that someone’s ability to hold trauma and complexity may fluctuate throughout their career. Having grace and practical plans for this.

Overall, I think that the future of healthcare is going to involve training students to understand alternative careers to client-focused roles; understanding how our career is also shaped by our life circumstances; increased need for flexibility within organisations; and organisational systems, processes, and practices set up for clinician longevity.

© Marianna Jaross 2026