When we interact with the health service, we leave a footprint. Imagine scrapyards, filled with old metal filing cabinets, retired from their jobs as keepers of our health records. Letters, tests, scans and treatments are still archived by law but today they occupy a digital space.
Author: Nana Mensah
I'm a Trainee Clinical Bioinformatician working in the National Genomic Medicine Service at Guy's Hospital. (www.nanamensah.co.uk)
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Mind your mindset
Healthcare Science is a vocation. It takes years of hard work just to become minimally competent. As time passes, the enthusiasm and gratitude we start with can give way to disillusionment as our efforts are only truly rewarded at the end of our training. Well, what if there’s something wrong with this mindset?
5 take-home messages from TEDxNHS 2018
Every year TEDxNHS is over-subscribed. You fill out a form on their website with a statement of intent and you send it off expecting never to hear back. A few weeks ago, this TED super-fan was lucky enough to attend TEDxNHS 2018 ‘Shaping our legacy’. If morale is ever low or you question why we do what we do, I would prescribe these talks. Special mention to Dr. Charlotte Kemp for being the first Healthcare Scientist to grace this TEDx stage. NHS staff will soon be able to access the videos at https://www.tedxnhs.com/ but in the meantime, here are 5 of my take-home messages from the event:
1. “Stigma kills”
The beliefs we hold as a society can unfairly disgrace and devalue those within it. We all know stigma has no place in healthcare and the following talks showed the steps we can all take towards a zero-stigma NHS.
STP Perspectives 