London HCSTN hosts STP Winter Training Event

The London Healthcare Science Trainee Network recently held its annual STP Winter Event. As in previous years, this training day was extremely popular with 65 STP trainees from across the region taking part. The Network’s co-chairs Hannah Robinson and Louisa explained the format of the day and why it was so successful:

“In the morning, trainees worked on multidisciplinary healthcare science case studies to share how their specialism would be involved in different aspects of the patient pathway. Trainees said that they enjoyed learning about other healthcare science specialisms from each other and found this a useful opportunity to practice their communication skills.

Taking the theme of science communication further, Dr Chris Peters, Scientific Affairs Manager from the charity Sense About Science, led a fantastic session on how we can be engaged with science reporting in the media and the importance of evidence-based practice in the workplace.

Stephanie Burcher and Anna Lehmann, two genomic counsellors from St George’s University Hospital, then gave an interesting insight into the role of a genomic counsellor and touched upon how they often need to convey complex ideas such as results of genetic tests and risk to patients in easy to understand terms. This session prompted lots of questions from trainees, covering topics such as confidentiality, duty of care, data security and the expanding need for understanding of genetics in medicine and healthcare science.

In the afternoon, we had an exciting session focusing on the STP elective period led by third year trainees Laura Carlisle, Alice Henderson and Louisa Ive. Trainees found it useful to understand how they planned their electives and mapped their learning outcomes to Good Scientific Practice. It was great to hear how much they learnt during their time both at institutions here in the UK and further afield!

To finish the day, Sarah Peel and Clare Anderson, two regional training officers for medical physics, led an excellent interactive workshop on reflective writing and shared not just how this can be applied to our competencies and elective reports, but also how important the process of reflection can be in continuing to develop our professional skills as scientists in the future.”

Hannah and Louise added: “Thank you to all the speakers who gave up their time to run sessions and to the other members of the London HCSTN board for their hard work in helping to organise and facilitate the event. Finally, a big thank you to all the trainees who attended for their enthusiasm and active participation throughout the day!”

Our trainees regularly organise voluntary events like this for the benefit of their peers. Have you got a story about a trainee event that you’d like us to share? Email it to us at nshcs@hee.nhs.uk.