Founder of Medical Writing Solutions

My first job was a now rare, truly mixed animal practice in Devon, which I loved. From there, I traveled to New Zealand to focus on Dairy practice in the Waikato, North Island. Met my husband, a fellow vet, locumed around the UK together, and eventually ended up in New Zealand back in the Waikato for the last 12 years, specialising in Dairy work, especially Nutrition and Youngstock Health. I loved being a clinical veterinarian.

After almost 20 years of clinical work, I was looking for another challenge while maintaining flexibility to look after my son. Some forced time off through a rotator cuff injury (I won the fight with an ungrateful bovine customer but lost the war...) and general disillusionment with practice politics caused me to reflect and re-consider my options. Around the same time, medical writing came to my attention through VSGD on Facebook. Nessie Riley and Louisa Marcombes patiently answered my questions and piqued my interest as I realised this was the perfect combination (for me) of creativity and science.

1. Get onto LinkedIn - have a proper profile, with a picture and some information. Make connections -DO send a personalised invite if it's someone you don't know. This is business social networking, and you should be professional. I recommend building your well now before you need to drink from it.

2. I started with doing Stanford University's online course "Writing in the Sciences" (free or small charge if you want the certificate) - a low-stakes taster.

3. I joined Emma Witt Nicholls' "6-week" course - NB. This is more like 6 modules, but if you choose the feedback package and you pass all 6 modules, they may take you on for subcontracting work, which appealed to me.

4. Listened to relevant podcasts - Write Medicine, Medical Writers Speak

While working on the 6-week course, I continued to research and discovered medical writing is an umbrella term for many different niches of writing - regulatory writing, scientific publications, health communications, education for professionals, and promotional and grantsmanship writing, to name a few. I also discovered the Write Medicine platform and Alex Howson, who coaches writers curious about the continuing medical education (CME) niche. I took her Next Level Needs Assessment course, which springboarded my career as a CME writer.

1. Flexibility

2. Intellectually stimulating - this is a job where you are paid to be a lifelong learner. I cover both veterinary and medical topics

3. Total autonomy over the direction of my business

The downside of flexibility and autonomy is that you must have focus, drive, and self-discipline to succeed. Compared with my large animal veterinary role, this is a sedentary role - which may be considered a downside - however, if you manage your time well, you can take that walk, go to the gym/swim, etc. Again, it takes self-discipline - no one is coming to tell you what to do. You must be able to figure problems out yourself - a headache on the IT front sometimes!

A typical day might involve a kick off call with a new or existing client, undoubtedly it will involve research and synthesizing large amount of information on a variety of topics. In the medical space I work a lot in oncology where the field is rapidly advancing. You need to understand the audience you are writing for and adapt accordingly.

Currently I write a lot of needs assessments to support grant applications to fund educational programs for healthcare professionals. This involves scientific direction more than "just" writing. You must understand what the current practice is and how that differs from what the clinicians *should* be doing. Using the scientific literature a case is then made for why funding should be approved - see an example on my LinkedIn page if you are interested!

Writers also often supply "content" in various forms such as slide decks (aka Powerpoint presentations), blogs, interactive patient cases, video or podcast scripts and outcomes reports.

You may have several projects on the go at one time - juggling researching, writing drafts, re-writing and editing in the same day. Don't forget if you are freelance you will have to devote time to marketing and general business tasks such as invoicing, emailing etc.

Someone with a growth mindset, willing to learn, make mistakes, and receive feedback.

Although good grammar and writing style are necessary, these may be learned, and tools exist to help too. However, writing is only part of the role. Critical thinking, understanding clinical trials, project management, people management, and communication are equally crucial.

You will need to learn the new rules of whichever medical writing game you choose to play. For example, accredited CME writing comes with a robust layer of oversight from the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) in the form of Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Education Resources to ensure activities are independent and free of commercial bias.

Finally, attention to detail, organization, and collaboration are all desirable traits, as is a proactive approach.

Unlike others who have joined a Medcomms agency of some description, I have founded my own medical writer LLC company and freelance independently. This requires honing your craft and becoming a business person. Marketing and acquiring clients is a key component of this approach. Creating a portfolio to showcase your work is essential - writers are often stuck in the catch-22 with no experience to get a job and need a job to get experience, but there are ways around this.

Although vets have many transferable skills, medical writing is a new game where you must hone your craft and learn new rules of the game. Early investment in both yourself and the business is critical, and coaching is a great way to fast-track your success.

Overall, I would say the biggest potential barrier is your mindset. I've always had the "how hard can it be?" kind of mentality, which has served me pretty well! Look for solutions, not problems, and invest in yourself. Embrace feedback - you may be transitioning from being highly experienced in your role (as I was) to entry-level, but the only way is to make mistakes and learn.

Try to explore the possibilities of medical writing while still working. Spend some time on LinkedIn, there's loads of advice on there. You may wish to join either the European or American Medical Writers Association (EMWA or AMWA)

there is loads of advice on these platforms, although you need to pay a joining fee.

Unless you go an agency route, you won't make any money initially while learning your craft and the new playing field. Be prepared for there to be more outgoings in the beginning!

An agency route may well be an easier route initially - this was not an option for me, living in rural New Zealand at the time with no family support and my husband vetting full time as a practice owner. Keep in mind you will be on an entry-level salary to start, but this will increase with experience.

You need to try to understand what niche of medical writing appeals to you - one size does not fit all, and you may have to try on a few styles to see what fits best.

Take a course that offers feedback - beware, there are many courses out there

some are better than others. I am happy to offer my advice, and you will see my recommendations on LinkedIn posts. Check to see how much experience the teacher has - you want granular feedback regularly to improve.

There is no quick path to success, and it can be easy to get disheartened if you are making the change on your own. Avoid imposter syndrome by investing in quality coaching early on. You need to work on your craft but also your business acumen specifically in the medical writing field.

1. Do your research on the job - research is a necessary tool. If you're unwilling to do this to learn about medical writing, it's probably not for you.

2. If you want to go my route, check out Alex Howson and Write Medicine courses and coaching.

3. Otherwise, medcommsnetworking will give you a lot of advice, and conferences are free to new or curious writers