Healthcare Science Week at Essex builds awareness

The Centre for Healthcare Science at the University of Essex hosted a special networking event as part of Healthcare Science Week alongside numerous other events.

There are more than 50 specialist healthcare science roles within the NHS and healthcare scientists make a vital contribution by innovating around assessment, diagnosis and treatment, working at the heart of NHS laboratories, improving systems for patients, and developing new scientific evidence and technology.

The Centre for Healthcare Science at the University of Essex is striving to improve understanding around this vital area

As part of this work a Community of Practice networking event was held at the University’s Health, Wellbeing and Care Hub. This event included an overview of the University’s Centre for Healthcare Science by Professor Berne Ferry, with outreach lead Olivia Solanke discussing the innovative healthcare science outreach programme the Centre is offering.

Essex sports and exercise science alumna Anna Clapton, who is Principal Invasive Cardiac Clinical Scientist and Trust Lead Healthcare Scientist at West Suffolk Hospital, also shared her healthcare science career journey. Dr Greg Brooke from the School of Life Sciences gave a presentation on innovative cancer research and those attended discussed how the NHS and the University can work together to inspire students to think about a career in healthcare science.

Professor Ferry said: “The Centre for Healthcare Science is proud to support the healthcare science workforce and shine a light on the incredible work these professionals do. The Community of Practice Event was an opportunity to bring together University colleagues teaching or conducting research in healthcare science with healthcare scientists from the NHS, to share knowledge and experiences, while also celebrating the impact of the healthcare science professions. Those attending said they felt really energised to support the work of the Centre.

She added: “Our outreach work will be continuing with schools and colleges, and we will go on providing opportunities for networking and sharing good practice amongst the healthcare science community throughout the year.”

Other Healthcare Science Week activities

Other events organised as part of Healthcare Science Week included a Human Library at Suffolk New College where students got the chance to chat to healthcare science professionals, a range of career sessions across the region including Southend, a CPD webinar for teachers and advisers and a subject taster session on cancer research at Colchester Institute. 

As part of the ‘My Future My Tendring’ virtual programme, students found out about three healthcare science jobs – scientific salesperson, electrical engineer and biomedical scientist. A total of 13 schools took part, with 2,375 pupils taking part in 83 different classes.

Olivia said the feedback from students had been incredible positive: “The students said they were really inspired by the sessions and finding out the different science roles. They also enjoyed learning new things, getting involved in practical activities like looking at germs under microscopes and understanding the impact of British scientists in tackling serious diseases. We’re really pleased with the positive feedback we received and the fact students said it had helped them understand science careers.”