UK healthcare workplace glossary

Short answer

This glossary defines 32 terms used across Pharma Mate in plain English, and each term links to the full guide. The definitions follow UK law and official guidance for England, Scotland and Wales. Northern Ireland has separate employment law on some points, so check the Northern Ireland page.

Contracts and leaving a job

Contract of employment: The agreement between you and your employer, made up of written terms, terms agreed out loud and terms implied by law. You have a right to a written statement of the main terms from your first day.
Employment status: Your legal category at work: employee, worker or self-employed. Employees get the most rights. The label on your contract does not decide your status. A tribunal looks at how the work happens in practice.
Locum: A healthcare professional who covers shifts or sessions for an employer or agency, often on a self-employed basis. Your employment status as a locum depends on the real working arrangement.
Zero-hours contract: A contract with no guaranteed minimum hours. In Great Britain, a clause stopping a zero-hours worker from working elsewhere is unenforceable.
Exclusivity clause: A clause which limits other paid work while you are still employed, such as a second pharmacy or clinic job.
Restrictive covenant: A clause limiting what you do after you leave. A court enforces a restrictive covenant only if the clause protects a legitimate business interest and goes no further than reasonably necessary.
Non-compete clause: A restrictive covenant stopping you working for a competitor, or setting up a competing business, for a set time and within a set area.
Non-solicitation clause: A restriction on approaching your former employer's clients or customers to win their business after you leave.
Non-dealing clause: A wider restriction than non-solicitation. A non-dealing clause stops you working with named clients even when the client approaches you first.
Non-poaching clause: A restriction on recruiting former colleagues to join you at a new employer.
Notice period: The time between giving or receiving notice and the last day of employment. By law, an employer must give at least one week after one month's service, then one week for each full year, up to 12 weeks. Your contract may give more.
Garden leave: Part or all of a notice period when your employer tells you to stay away from work. You remain employed and paid, and your contract terms still apply.
Training repayment clause: A clause asking you to repay training costs if you leave within a set time. A deduction from your pay needs a written term in your contract or your written agreement in advance.
Variation of contract: A change to your contract terms. Most changes need your agreement. An employer who imposes a change without agreement risks a breach of contract claim.

Speaking up and disputes

Non-disclosure agreement (NDA): An agreement to keep set information confidential. Under the Employment Rights Act 1996, any clause trying to stop you making a protected disclosure is void.
Whistleblowing: Reporting wrongdoing at work which affects others, such as a risk to patient safety. Whistleblowing differs from a personal complaint about your own treatment.
Protected disclosure: A disclosure of information which you reasonably believe shows wrongdoing, such as a danger to health and safety, and which you reasonably believe is in the public interest. The law protects you from dismissal or unfair treatment for making one.
Prescribed person: A body named in law to which you can make a protected disclosure outside your employer. The GPhC, GMC, NMC and Care Quality Commission are examples.
Freedom to Speak Up Guardian: A person in an NHS organisation in England who helps staff raise concerns and makes sure the organisation responds. NHS England has supported guardians nationally since 1 July 2026, after the National Guardian's Office closed.
Detriment: Unfair treatment because you made a protected disclosure, such as missed shifts, exclusion or a sudden disciplinary process.
Grievance: A formal complaint you raise with your employer about your own treatment at work. In Great Britain, the Acas Code of Practice sets out how employers should handle grievances.
Early conciliation: A free Acas service you must contact before making most employment tribunal claims in Great Britain. The Labour Relations Agency runs the equivalent service in Northern Ireland. Time limits are short, so check the current limit early.
Settlement agreement: A legally binding agreement in which you give up the right to bring certain claims, usually in return for a payment. You must get advice from an independent adviser, such as a solicitor, for the agreement to be valid.
Fitness to practise: A regulator's process for checking whether a registered professional is safe to practise. The GPhC, GMC, NMC, GDC and HCPC each run their own process.

Wellbeing and support

Burnout: The World Health Organization describes burnout as an occupational phenomenon caused by chronic workplace stress which has not been managed well. Signs include exhaustion, distance from the job and a drop in effectiveness.
Moral distress: The distress of knowing the right action for a patient while pressures at work stop you taking the action.
Management Standards: The HSE's framework for work-related stress. The six areas are demands, control, support, relationships, role and change.
Occupational health: A service which advises you and your employer on health at work, such as a phased return or adjustments after sickness absence.
Peer support: Support from people who share your experience, such as other doctors or pharmacists. Peer support sits alongside treatment and does not replace treatment.
Balint group: A small group of clinicians who meet regularly with a trained leader to discuss the relationship with patients in their own cases.

Medicines

GLP-1 medicine: A medicine which acts on the GLP-1 hormone pathway, used for type 2 diabetes and weight management. Semaglutide (Wegovy, Ozempic) is one. Tirzepatide (Mounjaro) acts on GIP as well as GLP-1.
Yellow Card scheme: The MHRA scheme for reporting suspected side effects and problems with medicines and medical devices. Patients and healthcare professionals can both report.

General information, not legal advice. For your own contract or dispute, read how to prepare for employment or whistleblowing advice.