Hospital - the staff

Ingrid Müller is a chemist and medical journalist. She was editor-in-chief of for twelve years. Since March 2014 she has been working as a freelance journalist and author for, among others, Focus Gesundheit, the health portal ellviva.de, the publishing house living crossmedia and the health channel of rtv.de.

More about the experts All content is checked by medical journalists.

In Germany there are private, public and non-profit (e.g. church) clinics that employ a large number of employees. In 2017, an annual average of 894,400 full-time employees worked in German clinics. 161,208 of these were doctors from various disciplines (e.g. surgeons, ophthalmologists, cardiologists) and 733,193 work in the non-medical service (e.g. nurses, midwives, physiotherapists, speech therapists). The number of full-time employees rose by 1.6 percent in the medical service and by 1.5 percent in the non-medical service compared to the previous year.

A hospital consists of various specialist departments such as surgery, internal medicine, ophthalmology, gynecology and radiology. Each specialist department is headed by a chief physician. Like most companies, every hospital has a management who is responsible for the company. It consists of the head of administration (commercial manager), the medical management (medical director) and the nursing management.

Exactly how a clinic is structured, which employees there are and what tasks they have, is often opaque for patients. In large clinics, individual departments can be larger than a small hospital.

Doctors - medicine is teamwork

Head physician, senior physician, ward physician and mostly assistant physicians work in the various specialist departments. In most departments there are several interns who are either already specialists (e.g. specialist in gynecology and obstetrics, specialist in internal medicine) or are currently training to become specialists.

The senior physician or an experienced ward physician guides the assistant physicians. They work close to the patient, look after him and examine him. Resident physicians and ward physicians are therefore the most important contacts for a patient. You are in regular contact with the senior and chief physician.

Nursing staff - health and nursing staff

The nursing management is the lead nurse. In addition, there is usually a ward manager who leads a team of health and nursing staff as well as trainee health and nursing staff, nursing assistants and geriatric nurses. Nurses and carers are important contacts for patients. The nursing staff organizes the entire process on the ward and looks after the patients. Usually at least one of the nurses or one of the nurses accompanies the daily rounds of the medical team.

Physiotherapists (physiotherapists)

Physiotherapists work on many wards. After a stroke, for example, they are indispensable in order to minimize the impairment of a patient (e.g. improve motor skills). They are also an important pillar after operations, so that patients can get back on their feet more quickly. Physiotherapists practice with patients individually and thus support the healing process. They also show patients how to do the exercises themselves.

Medical-technical service

There are a number of people who work in the laboratory. They analyze blood, urine or stool samples and carry out microbiological examinations (e.g. detection of certain bacteria, viruses and other pathogens).

Employees of the medical-technical service are responsible for the preparation and implementation of technical examination procedures. They take care of X-ray machines, EKGs, ultrasound, computer tomographs or magnetic resonance tomographs.

All about food

Nutritionists are called in for certain illnesses. For example, diabetics, people after biliary surgery, cancer patients or patients with osteoporosis benefit from this. In consultation with the attending physician, nutritionists create individual diet and nutrition plans for patients. In some clinics there are also oecotrophologists (nutrition and household scientists) who advise patients on the subject of nutrition.

The nutritionists also work closely with the kitchen management, who draws up the daily menu. It is important that the food is healthy and easy to digest. Meat-free alternatives for vegetarians are also on the menu in all hospitals today.

Social services and pastoral care

Social workers help patients if, for example, they are in need of care after they are discharged. They organize care at home or advise on a place in the home and help fill out the necessary forms (application for a severely handicapped ID card, place in a rehab clinic, etc.). The social workers are also willing to listen to your personal problems. Incidentally, like doctors and pastors, they are subject to confidentiality.

Protestant or Catholic pastors are responsible for pastoral care. Patients can specifically ask the clinic chaplain to speak to them if they need support before or after an operation. Patients of other faiths can ask the social workers for suitable contacts.

More staff

There are a number of other employees in the hospital who contribute to the smooth running of the clinic, for example cleaning staff and the kitchen staff.

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