Hi, I’m Aaron. I’m a first-year STP in histology. I’m also an experienced biomedical scientist in the same discipline. I was working as a biomedical scientist in Northern Ireland when I applied. Northern Ireland is a very cheap country to live in, much more so than England. So you might wonder, why would I move country and uproot my entire life for what amounts to a net pay cut? Opportunity, that’s what. Yet despite all the problems that came with moving I would do it again in a heartbeat.
The STP is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, it’s the main route to becoming a clinical scientist. Being a clinical scientist is a role that combines the joy of science with the clinical aspects of healthcare. To be a clinical scientist is to work in a developing role with constantly expanding scope and opportunity. This is especially relevant to histology where the role of clinical scientists is debated.
New Home
I moved labs for the STP. This in itself was pretty challenging. But if you also include the fact that I moved from Northern Ireland to England then what could be considered a simple job change becomes a major life-altering decision. Moving home can be one of the most stressful periods of anyone’s life and I think I grossly underestimated this. Probably because I thought nothing could be as stressful as my daughter being born in my last year of university. With this in mind, I made sure to research everything about my new town: bus routes, shops, services, everything I needed for my partner and I to survive. You have to be proactive when moving, my aim was to keep any surprises to a minimum (despite this was still hit by the shock that tenants have to pay council tax in England). I took a little bit of time to acclimatise to the new environment before I started in my new lab. This was probably one of the smartest decisions I made because despite only being across the Irish Sea there are quite a few cultural differences here in England. I spent my first two weeks here having to repeat every sentence. My thick Belfast accent, while I’ve been told it has a melodious twang, also appears to be quite indecipherable at times.
New Lab
I’ve always considered myself a man of confidence (I try not to cross the line into arrogance). But on my first day as a trainee clinical scientist, I felt a drum-like pounding in my chest, an invisible fist caressing my stomach, and a deceptively comforting whisper in my head that told me “This isn’t worth it. You should just go home”. This is an experience many of us are familiar with. Did you feel it on your first day on the STP? It’s called self-doubt. A defining feature of any scientist is whether we climb that mountain of doubt or not. Don’t slip back into the comfort of a familiar routine. Challenge yourself. Adversity and hardship are the fires that mould us into the person we always wanted to be.
Getting over the initial self-doubt and leaving my comfort zone helped me to embrace my new workplace. Many of us will understand that despite the transferable skills you gain working in one lab, you’re trained to work to the specific lab’s operating procedures and methods.
When you move labs you have to learn a whole new way of working. I would liken it to the difference between American and British English, similar but different, there are many small changes that can trip us up. With this in mind, when I’m being trained in a procedure, I tell my trainer to treat me as if I’m a completely inexperienced member of staff. I’ve found that the fact that I’m an experienced scientist means people think it’s fine to briefly show me a procedure but the thing people forget is that every lab is different. The way that I would perform a procedure in my old lab may not be the standard method in my new lab, so trainers should be aware of this when working with an experienced STP.
One thing that I find interesting is how despite my lab accepting an STP, a lot of the staff seems to have no idea why I’m there. I either get asked what the STP is or told “You’re so lucky I applied and was rejected”. I get referred to as a student commonly which gives me no end of mirth as it shows that we need to work on raising awareness about the STP.
Old Problems
Histology has a tumultuous past about the scientific workforce’s role. Due to a shortage of consultants, the scope of practice of biomedical scientists had to be expanded. This resulted in new qualifications being created which allow biomedical scientists to perform advanced dissection and independently review and report patient samples. Every part of histology is possible for a biomedical scientist to perform but this was a hugely controversial process and many people fought against it despite the benefits it brought.
Now, if a biomedical scientist can do everything in histology then you might ask; what’s the point of a clinical scientist in histology? Well considering that a clinical scientist is able to take a role in between that of a biomedical scientist, there’s a significant role that we could play in the lab. Senior-level biomedical scientists tend to fully specialise in one sector of the lab, to me a clinical scientist could adopt the role of a jack of all trades or with a future introduction of a histology HSST possibly reports on a wide array of specimens similarly to a consultant. Honestly, this is still a contentious topic and I’ve found that the clinical scientist’s role seems to have criticism from both scientific and medical colleagues. Despite this I’ll pass on the advice an experienced clinical scientist recently gave to me:
“Find a gap in the workforce and carve it out as your niche, if you’re the only person competent in a certain role then you become indispensable”
There’s definitely a need for clinical scientists concerning molecular testing, molecular is an expanding and developing science with a huge impact on patient outcomes. It allows us to target specific genetic abnormalities/markers in patients. With how new molecular science is we definitely need to have specialised scientific professionals working on it as it’s only going to get more complicated. Molecular capable histology departments would greatly benefit from a clinical scientist who can review results and give direct clinical advice.
Despite the fact that there are roles for histology clinical scientists in my opinion I would still suggest that any STP or prospective STP gets HCPC registered as a biomedical scientist as it opens up opportunities.
Overall I’m glad I decided to join the STP; no other programme allows you to train fully as a supernumerary staff member and get a funded masters degree. It’s a challenging experience but we need those to develop. Put yourself out there, spread the word about our profession and most importantly don’t listen to that deceptively convincing voice that tells you this isn’t worth it. This is worth it and the only thing that can stop you is you.
STP Perspectives 