By Amani Elhouderi, HCPC registered Biomedical Scientist (BMS) and member of the Institute of Biomedical Science
LinkedIn http://linkedin.com/in/amanielhouderi
After graduating from RHUL, I continued my postgraduate education in London and completed a MSc in Immunology of Infectious Diseases at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) in 2011. Like any university graduate, I was seeking work experience within my field. There are so many options out there. However, coming out of university without any work experience can make things a little bit difficult. I was looking into either going into research or joining the National Health Service (NHS) workforce as a Biomedical Scientist. I explored both options to get where I am today.
The “Research” or the “clinical” route?
If you are thinking of getting into research, for example becoming a “Research Assistant” as a start-up job, I would say having a non-accredited Biomedical Science degree will not stop you from progressing in your career and that is why I went with this option first. On a voluntary basis, I assisted my MSc supervisor at the time with her project for two months. I then moved abroad to work at the Institute of Pasteur in Tunisia in 2012 where I assisted with two MSc projects looking at anti-leishmania profiles in patients with visceral leishmaniasis. However, when I went back to London getting a paid job in research was not easy and quite competitive at the time due to research funding cuts. I got my first paid job as a “Medical Secretary” at St Mary’s Hospital at the Chest & Allergy clinic. As reluctant as I was about this opportunity, my time as a medical secretary was a real eye-opening experience and had a huge impact on my career. I learnt a lot about the NHS, I developed my interpersonal skills, including how to communicate with patients, enhanced my organisational skills and time management. Even though I excelled at this job, working in an office was not for me and I wanted somewhere where I can apply my scientific knowledge, so I succeeded in getting a clinical laboratory role as a Medical Laboratory Assistant (MLA). This marked my transition to the clinical route.
How to progress from a “MLA” to a “BMS”?
Working as a MLA is the first step of working in any clinical laboratory in the NHS, especially if you do not have relevant work experience and with a non-accredited Biomedical Science degree. While at university, I highly recommend getting a job as a MLA during your summer or Christmas holidays (I know we all look forward to our holidays but trust me this will save you time after graduating). This will not only allow you to have some income and make your CV stand out but importantly you will pick up practical skills working in the laboratory and get a better understanding of what you enjoy much earlier in your career. I very much enjoyed working as MLA at Specimen Reception, but I didn’t see myself doing this longer than a few months so I asked myself what is next? This is where I discovered I had an obstacle, which was my “non-accredited” Biomedical Science degree which means I am missing some essential modules from my BSc to complete the accreditation. According to the Institute of Biomedical Science (IBMS) one of the requirements to become a Biomedical Scientist is to have an accredited degree which is offered only by a few universities and Royal Holloway University isn’t one of them. Therefore I had to do “top-up Life Science modules” after graduating. I had to get my degree assessed by the IBMS and find out what modules I was missing. Luckily, I only had to study two modules (Haematology and Blood Transfusion and Cellular Pathology). I took on a part-time MLA job in a private laboratory and went back to university to finish the top up modules. The next requirement by the IBMS, is to become registered with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) by completing a “Registration Training Portfolio”. Some laboratories can offer the Portfolio while working as a MLA (most common) or while working as an Associate Practitioner (common) or you can do the portfolio as a Trainee Biomedical Scientist (most preferred but rare to find nowadays). Once the Generic Portfolio is completed and you are registered with the HCPC then you can apply for your first BMS job.
Not all heroes wear capes, some wear lab coats...
More recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has shed more light on our discipline and more importantly what it is like to work in a clinical laboratory alongside doctors and nurses. Working as a Biomedical Scientist is not a patient facing job but still rewarding. We work as part of a multi-disciplinary team working towards getting to the bottom of a patient's illness and finding the right treatment. Since the Covid-19 pandemic started, as a Biomedical Scientist, we all tried to play our part in keeping our life-saving service running. They say not all heroes wear capes, which is true, some wear lab coats! We experienced shortage of staff and an increase in workload after the country eased restrictions. I think the challenges that the job brings on a day-to-day basis is what makes being a Biomedical Scientist most interesting. If you decide to join the Biomedical Scientists workforce in the NHS, there are three key things to remember that I learned from my journey: your BSc degree accreditation, gaining the relevant work experience before graduating and completing your Generic Registration Portfolio.
Important links:
Institute of Biomedical Science https://www.ibms.org/home/
Becoming HCPC registered https://www.ibms.org/registration/becoming-hcpc-registered/
Registration Portfolio https://www.ibms.org/education/registration-portfolio/
Health and Care Professions Council The Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) | (hcpc-uk.org)