Wondering what a health writer does every day?

Maybe you’ve been thinking about a career change lately. Or you’re a writer keen to specialise in a niche.

You think you know what’s involved in writing about health – but you’ve never really thought about the day-to-day tasks. There must be more involved than simply writing about health topics, surely!

Here’s a quick overview of what a health writer does every day to help you decide if it’s the right career choice for you.

What is a health writer?

A health writer is a professional writer who writes content about health and medical topics.

Health writer, health & medical writer, medical writer, health communicator – all those terms and more can be used to describe our role.

What does a health writer do?

Well, we write health content – but that’s not all, folks. Here’s a look at the tasks we do every day:

• Work on a variety of different health and medical content projects
• Research content
• Medical editing
• Liaise with clients and editors
• Pitch for new work
• Run our freelance health & medical writing businesses
• Keep up to date with industry trends
• Connect with other writers.

What does a day in the life of a health writer look like?

All writers are different, and my schedule is just one of many variations. Here’s a typical day of mine:

• 5am: Wake up
• 6am: Go for a run or my beloved boot camp/sleep for an extra hour
• 7am: Get the kids off to school
• 8-9am: Check emails, write a plan of action for the day, accounting catch up
• 10am: Continue working on a client project – articles for a mental health helpline
• 12pm: Respond to more emails
• 1pm: Eat lunch
• 2pm: Work on a different client project
• 4pm: Check emails one more time
• 5pm: Family time
• 8pm: Check emails one more time before heading to bed

What do we write about?

Our work typically focuses on writing content about:

• Health topics
• Medications
• Procedures
• Treatments.

Topics we write about include everything from conditions and diseases to wellbeing, parenting, health and fitness, and mental health. We may be writing medical scientific content, or friendly patient education materials. We are educating, persuading or inspiring our readers to better health. The purpose of each project depends on the client’s goals.

Who do we write for?

Typical clients and employers include:

• Health professionals and services
• Health brands and businesses
• Health websites, like the Mayo Clinic
• B2B services
• Academic publications
• Anyone looking for health content.

Our readers could be the general public or health professionals.

What’s the difference between health writing and medical writing?

Check out our article on that very topic, Medical writing and health writing: A look at the scope.

What writing services can a health writer offer?

We can offer:

• Health articles
• Medical news articles
• Blogs
• Technical writing
• Patient education materials
• Medical SEO copywriting
• General web content
• Regulatory writing
• Sales and marketing content
• White papers
• Academic content
• Video and podcast scripts
• Email marketing newsletters
• Editing
• Proofreading
• Content strategy
• Branding and tone of voice.

Basically, if the project contains words about health and medical topics, it’s within the scope of our work as a health writer!

What don’t we do?

People often assume we work in medical practices or hospitals. In fact, we don’t! We typically don’t do these services:

• Medical coding
• Writing up health professional notes
• Liaising directly with patients.

Do you need a degree to be a health writer?

That depends. You can check out our guides on whether you need a medical degree or writing degree to work in this industry.

How can I decide if becoming a health writer is right for me?

We have the perfect course to help you learn more about health writing and plan your transition, Breaking Into Health Writing.

You can also get in touch if you have any questions.