Successful professional practice event for the West Midlands HCS Training Network
The West Midlands Healthcare Scientist Training Network held their annual Professional Practice Event on Monday 28th January 2019.
- Published on
- 11th March 2019
- Written by
- Ciara Batterton, Chair of West Midlands HCSTN
- Filed under
- STP, Trainee Network Group
This popular event brings together trainees from across the West Midlands region and provides the opportunity to complete those hard to fulfil professional practice competencies by offering a combination of technical presentations, practical tasks, and networking sessions.
The day kicked off with a presentation by final year STP James Beasley. James gave brilliant examples of how trainees can complete competencies and get the most out of their training to improve their Professional Practice skills. The trainees then went on to take part in several workshops throughout the day.
Multidisciplinary scenarios
This session was organised and run by Ciara Batterton (STP, Genomics). It involved trainees from across specialisms working together on case studies to make a patient care plan and discuss the different healthcare scientists involved in this pathway. Trainees developed their communication skills and learnt about the importance of interdisciplinary working:
“I learnt a lot about how medical physicists can work with other professions within the NHS; it opened my eyes to many different patient pathways involving a physicist that I had not previously known about.”
“I learnt a lot about other specialisms and identified some important links between different Healthcare Scientists.”
Identifying error and risk
Sarah Graham (STP, Genomics) educated trainees on common sources of error and risk in a healthcare science setting and how to tackle these issues. Trainees then completed a workshop ran by Sarah on identifying risk.
Clinical coding
Dan Egan (STP, Bioinformatics Genomics) held a Clinical Coding session, highlighting the importance of this discipline and helped trainees work through practice cases. Many trainees were thankful for the opportunity to work on this as they don’t often get the chance to work outside their specialism.
Taking a patient history
An overview and discussion on the relevant models used for taking a patient history were presented by Ceri Millen (STP, Neurophysiology). Trainees worked in pairs, taking it in turns to take a patient history and develop the appropriate communication and listening skills for interacting with patients. There was lots of positive feedback for this session as many trainees:
“It was outside my normal practice and a really useful way of gaining evidence towards a number of competencies and learning a bit more about other trainees’ areas of expertise.”
Good Scientific Practice
Co-chair of the Network, Rob Duguid (STP, Cardiac Science) led the discussion on Good Scientific Practice. Trainees were given workplace scenarios and reflected on how they would approach the session whilst adhering to the good scientific domains. The overall structure of the day was very hands on, with trainees organising and leading the workshops which received very positive feedback:
“Far more interactive than other conferences I’ve been to, which was helpful.”
“Thank you so much for putting the event on, it was really helpful with some awkward competencies.”
“Really useful day, well organised and delivered – thank you!”
Thanks from the organiser Ciara Batterton Chair of West Midlands HCSTN
Overall, the day was a great success with some really great input from all trainees. I would like to thank all the fantastic speakers at the event and all the help from the board members. Looking forward to next year’s event!
Email: WestmidlandsHCSTN@gmail.com
Twitter: @WestMidsHCSTN
