NEWTs to be a Healer

Hi everyone! *waves cheerfully*

I'm currently writing a story where the main character is having a conversation about their NEWT choices and qualifications. The main character wants to be a Healer. Searching through this forum, I found information for me to use regarding the number of subjects a student can do, but none whatsoever about what NEWT subjects an aspiring Healer would need to take at Hogwarts. Is this mentioned in canon? If not, what subjects would you assume that they'd need?

Thanks muchly,
Jordana. :)

This is in OOTP, Chapter 29 "Career Advice":

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"Well, I don't fancy Healing," said Ron on the last evening of the holidays. He was immersed in a leaflet that
carried the crossed bone-and-wand emblem of St. Mungo's on its front. "It says here you need at least an E at
N.E.W.T. level in Potions, Herbology, Transfiguration, Charms, and Defense Against the Dark Arts. I mean ...
blimey. ... Don't want much, do they?"

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You could probably get additional credit if you did something like Care of Magical Creatures too (for the Bites and Stings Ward), but five NEWTs are plenty, I think. In general, if you want to give your character any additional subjects, I'd go more in the practical direction, because I don't think you'll need something like History, Astronomy or Arithmancy as a Healer... Actually, Runes and Divination would probably be useless most of the time, too, and then I think you're down to the five subjects on their list, and CoM.

Karaley pretty much said it all!
I think students may only be able to take five NEWT subjects though - I know definitely here we can only take five subjects at most at Higher level as we get longer periods and more work to complete. If it's the same system then I would think the ones mentioned above would be the only ones taken/needed.
If not though, I also feel it would be suitable to take Arithmancy. Is that not supposed to be the magical equivalent of maths? This might be applicable to a job as a Healer, as maths is needed to get into medical school in the Muggle world.

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Originally Posted by ohviolet

Karaley pretty much said it all!
I think students may only be able to take five NEWT subjects though - I know definitely here we can only take five subjects at most at Higher level as we get longer periods and more work to complete. If it's the same system then I would think the ones mentioned above would be the only ones taken/needed.

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The maximum number of A-Levels is also 5, though most people will take 3 or 4. Five tends to be the upper limit because of the way the school day is organised - there are 5 hour long lessons in a day, so 25 in a week, and each subject at A-Level has 5 lessons a week to cover all the material.

Very driven students might be able to take a sixth if they take it early or study in their own time. At a boarding school like Hogwarts that actually wouldn't be too difficult to do, as long as there was a teacher willing to take the time out and help you. For my GCSEs (OWL equivalants) I took two extra by studying during lunchtimes and after school, and I wasn't at boarding school, where pupils would be around in the evenings and weekends.

If not though, I also feel it would be suitable to take Arithmancy. Is that not supposed to be the magical equivalent of maths? This might be applicable to a job as a Healer, as maths is needed to get into medical school in the Muggle world.[/QUOTE]

I would agree. From the list they give it seems clear that Healer's are very much like Doctors in our world - there is a high demand for places and applicants are expected to be hard working with excellent grades. Going on what they tell people who want to go into medicine in our world, outside of the five they ask for I would definitely suggest something like Arithmacy or perhaps History - something very academic to show that you are intelligent, hard working and have have good critical or problem solving skills. I would think even CoMC would be frowned upon as being to vocational/practical, and you would learn about poisons/stings etc in Potions, and in DADA, which covered Dark Creatures.

Welllll I disagree about the ComC thing (obviously, haha). Do they really learn a lot about stings and bites in Potions? I never really got that impression... And then Herbology is much more practical than theoretical too, and that's a required subject. And not only dark creatures can hurt you. I can imagine lots of accidents with seemingly harmless magical creatures that would require a witch/wizard to consult a Healer...

And I'm not sure about History. I mean, yeah, it probably would at least show them that you have the endurance to bite your way through Professor Binns' lessons (I think we ca n assume that everyone who's hiring Healers has learned History from Binns), but it wouldn't be of any real use to you in your job as a Healer. You can show your ability to solve problems etc. through other subjects too (probably better than in History).

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I think students may only be able to take five NEWT subjects though

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Hermione takes seven subjects to NEWT level. Ron and Harry take five (DADA, Herbology,Potions, Charms, Transfiguration), and she adds Arithmancy and Ancient Runes. (From HBP ch The Half-Blood Prince)

Arithmancy is supposed to be the mathematics surrounding the making of spells (if that makes sense) - so it could be very useful if you were a Healer eager to innovate.
Ancient Runes ... I've always seen that as the wizard equivelnet of Latin which is a dead language but one that's used in medical jourmals all the time. I could see it being useful in the HP Healer world - especially in the field of research.

~Carole~

OH and then perhaps if this is Next Gen or something, Muggle Studies would be good because they might be broadening their horizon - think of Arthur's healer and the stitches. That didn't work out too well that time, but it was a good idea, and there definitely is room for some Muggle medicine even in the wizarding world.

Looks like you can find a possible use for every subject... except Divination. Or maybe in particularly bad cases, they would want you to diagnose your patient through their tea leaves... but probably not.

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Originally Posted by Karaley Dargen

Welllll I disagree about the ComC thing (obviously, haha). Do they really learn a lot about stings and bites in Potions? I never really got that impression... And then Herbology is much more practical than theoretical too, and that's a required subject. And not only dark creatures can hurt you. I can imagine lots of accidents with seemingly harmless magical creatures that would require a witch/wizard to consult a Healer...

And I'm not sure about History. I mean, yeah, it probably would at least show them that you have the endurance to bite your way through Professor Binns' lessons (I think we ca n assume that everyone who's hiring Healers has learned History from Binns), but it wouldn't be of any real use to you in your job as a Healer. You can show your ability to solve problems etc. through other subjects too (probably better than in History).

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That's true, Herbology is quite practical. The thing about stings and bites would mostly be learning about poisons and antidotes, which is very potions-y. Learning how to deal with non-poisonous bites and the practical side of dealing with bites is something that would be taught in CoMC, but only for first aid, and actually learning how to deal with them properly would be taught to you once you are training to be a Healer. That said, I can definitely see the argument that it would be useful! I suppose it is up to the individual pupils to convince the Healers that whatever subject they took is applicable to the training.

The reason I said History, is because I have seen people say it is a good fourth or fifth A-Level for people who want to go into medicine. It shows that you can look for evidence, evaluate the worth of the evidence, analyise it and then draw upon a variety of sources and evidence to reach a conclusion, which are valuable skills for someone in a scientific career. Obviously though, that version of History has nothing to do with how Binns teaches it! :D

For a Healer who specialized in the treatment of werewolve, Astronomy would probably also be of good use. A Healer who could predict when a werewolf would transform down to the minute would probably be a very highly sought-out person.

But I agree that a knowledge of Herbology could be of great use, especially for Healers who experiment in the creating their own medicine. Knowledge of the medicinal properties of plants and their chemical composition could be very useful to a Healer. Doctors in Muggle society often experiment with combining different drugs to gain different effect, so it makes sense that Healers would do this as well.

For this reason, I also feel like Care of Magical Creatures would be useful for much the same reason. I'm certain that different parts of magical creatures have medicinal properties as well, and some may even want to help raise their own creatures so they could harvest these parts themselves.

Hey guys!

I'm amazed at the numbernf responses that this little thread's gotten! I've chosen the subjects and all I need now is your opinion kn them!

My character will do 6 NEWTs - Potions, Herbology, Transfiguration, DADA, Arithmancy and Charms. Potions, Herbology and Transfiguration are obvious, DADA for being able to reverse curses and stuff, Arithmancy
because of the mathmatical skills and Charms because of the usefulness of some of the charms, eg - wrap bandages.

It's a toss up between the last one and CoMC -
give me your opinions on all of my selections, please!

~ Jordana