Personal profile
Overview
I attended The University of the West of Scotland (Then the University of Paisley), studying Biomedical Science, between 1998 and 2002. After graduating with Honours I commenced a career as a Biomedical Scientist, at that time known as a Medical Laboratory Scientific Officer, at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children (RHSC) in Glasgow, probably better known as Yorkhill. I worked in the Department of Haematology, specialising in areas of, mainly paediatric but with a small amount of adult, Haematology, Coagulation and Blood Transfusion. As a trainee I completed an IBMS (Institute of Biomedical Science) Logbook that allowed for my competence to be assessed and to become eligible for registration with the Health and Care Professions Council and thereby become a fully fledged Biomedical Scientist.
The opportunity to complete a Masters Degree in Biomedical Science was taken and I studied and completed my MSc at Glasgow Caledonian University whilst continuing to work and provide a 24/7 service as part of the out of hours service at the RHSC.
Following on from this I continued to participate in various activities such as training courses, student and staff engagement and mentoring and was heavily involved in the process of validating the new Haematology analyser set up at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH), prior to the lab buidings opening.
At Yorkhill I built strong professional relationships with my colleagues and had a strong working relationship with a number of highly regarded medica including specialist Haematology and Oncology Consultants.
After a period of 12 and a half years the Royal Hospital for Sick Children was closed and the service was moved to the new Royal Hospital for Children at the QEUH. At this point the move to the QEUH allowed for the opportunity to increase my working knowledge of adult Haematology and the opportunity to work with new and up to date equipment, and to join a larger workforce allowing for a strengthening of both my skills and the opportunity to help in the teaching process of techniques used in the paediatric service to staff who had been primarily adult Haematologists before.
During my career a particular highlight for me was, starting in 2008, both UWS and GCU adding an NHS placement scheme to their degrees and both the labs at Yorkhill and QEUH were strong supporters of this allowing for a 15 week placement in the working laboratories for students. I was involved in mentoring (as a Trained Trainer) and helping the students during their placement and gave me a great interest in further working in this area.
After a further 6 and a half years I left the NHS 9 days short of my 19th anniversary and made the switch to academia in the new year of 2022.
As part of my role I will be continuing to be involved in the NHS placements, from the other direction, and will be heavily involved in the teaching of Biomedical Science going forward. I am interested in several areas of research and am looking to further my development by undertaking a PhD whilst employed within the University.