When we were told that the entire clinical patient facing service will come to a halt, I was initially relieved as we were taking the right steps to be safe. I also thought that this would be a great opportunity to complete a lot of written one file submissions as the practical aspect had come to a stop.
Continue reading “Adapting to Covid-19 – Experiences & Advice”
Hello! I’m a second year STP trainee on the Medical Physics (undefined) stream – undefined just means that I’ll choose what I specialise in after having completed my rotations in Radiotherapy, Radiation Safety, Imaging with Non Ionising Radiation and Imaging with Ionising Radiation.
Continue reading “A Day in the Life of a Medical Physics STP Trainee (Imaging with Ionising Radiation)”
Do you like breathing and sleeping? If so, this could be the specialism for you…Hopefully this post will provide some useful insight into what the Respiratory & Sleep specialism involves.
Continue reading “STP Specialisms | Respiratory & Sleep Science”
The National School of Healthcare Scientist (NSHCS) have announced that applications for this year’s STP will be opening on January 25th 2021! Jes wrote a fabulous blog of top tips, so we’ve edited these for 2021. The application process is also different to previous years and you can find a section below about what’s changed.
Continue reading “STP Applications | Top tips & what’s changed for 2021”Do you ever have a sudden realisation that scares you and stresses you out? For example, the other day I realised that the OSFAs are eight months away, EIGHT months (sorry third years, they are approaching fast). The STP is an intense programme and although a lot of things are stressful and tiring we need to understand where to draw the line to not overdo it. It was Stress Awareness Week when I started writing and as a fellow overthinker, I thought I could share my tips of trying to overcome stress and when/how to ask for help. Workload and time constraints have reduced my free time and motivation to sit down and write though so I do apologise for the recent lack of posts.
When people ask me what I do, I always need to take a little time to think. Partly because STP is a mix of so many varied experiences that every week is different to the previous one, and partly because my own understanding of my specialism keeps evolving as I move through these experiences. When I first applied for this course, I thought I had a reasonable understanding of what cancer genomics was. But now I see how naive I was and that three years is not anywhere near enough time to fully comprehend this very diverse and quickly developing area of science. So summarising it all in a few paragraphs will be a challenge but… let’s give it a go!
Health Informatics falls within the remit of clinical bioinformatics. This specialism, however, can sometimes seem difficult to differentiate from physical science and bioinformatics. The reality is there is a lot of overlap between these programs. Where Physical Science focuses on the effective acquisition of healthcare data, and Bioinformatics focuses on the use of genomic data to inform on the best treatment options, Health Informatics considers how to capture, communicate and use data to support health care professionals.
Hello there lovely STP friends. I imagine you’re all feeling very stressed about your OSFAs right now, as they loom menacingly on the horizon. If you’re fairly chilled out about them, congratulations! I don’t really have anything else I can offer you in this post, so probably best for you to stop reading and go and spend your time a bit more wisely.
Continue reading “3 (and a bit) lessons on prepping for your OSFAs”
So the wait is over. You finally got an offer for the Scientist Training Programme!
All the hard work has paid off and you are a few months away from joining our very exclusive club of Healthcare Scientists. I bet you are excited, and so are we. Excited to welcome you to our Trusts and help you start your healthcare journey.
Editors note: This post was written for the 2019 application process and might not be accurate for future years.
Critical Care Science in the Wider Context
Critical Care Science (CCS) is one of the smaller STP specialisms but deals with one of the most complex patient populations. Critical care patients range from elective cardiac surgery patients to major trauma and acute/chronic medical conditions. Critical care refers to specialised care for patients with life-threatening conditions; typically compromising of one or more organs that are failing. This level of care may be delivered in A+E, Intensive Care, High Dependency or specialist wards, e.g. long term ventilation. While a lot of the STP specialisms focus on a particular organ system or on a particular grouping of investigative techniques, the skills of CCS cover a holistic approach to clinical care, incorporating all areas of medicine and technology.
STP Perspectives 