Throwing science at the wall and seeing what sticks.

[ninja15]

Losing track of time with these updates.

In the month that I have not posted a proper update I have:

• Got my best man suit fitted
  
• Bought, finished and loved Portal 2 I could just stop playing games forever now, nothing is going to be better than this
  
• Hung out with friends in Nottingham, Liverpool and... did I go to Manchester or was that longer

Comments

[tellezara]

Your speech will be fine - I know we're all joking about booing you and stuff but tbh I will probably just end up crying while you're saying nice things because it will remind me of how awesome they are XD Just as well me and Wai San have waterproof mascara!

I watch the NHS bill progression with interest. I think the only reason the Government haven't done a full turnaround is because it would be too shameful. I was talking to Ian about it the other day and as pretty much the whole of the BMA are against it, and there was Andrew Lansley's embarrassing appearance at the Royal College of Nursing conference, I think even if it does get implemented every little thing that's wrong with it will be very vocally highlighted by frontline staff. It's crap that they're trying to redesign your role when you haven't completed your training - have you talked with anybody about how that affects your training progression? Then again, if they are rejigging the role it sounds like lack of qualifications won't make much difference to you XD Just a shame they're devaluing the profession like that, is all. But hey, less work on your part, right? :P

[ninja15]

Well, I believe it is a bunch of different things happening at the moment that are causing the doomsayers to talk about the devaluing of the profession. I believe a major aspect of it will be due to the fact that many of the BMS' are going to be rebanded i.e. take a significant paycut. I guess I'm not entirely sure what else is making them say things like this. It's just break-room grumbling that I've been hearing, in all honesty. This and the moving of the goal posts is part of a big thing called Modernising Scientific Careers. What the changes mean, essentially, is that they are introducing an entirely new university course, and probably scrapping accreditation on the old Biomedical Science courses - the accreditation that I've been working towards.

What I'm doing isn't a formal training course or anything. I am just doing the modules the Institute of BMS have said I need to do before I could think about applying for a trainee position and eventually becoming state registered with them. And I'm doing this off the hospital's back - they're paying for me to take time out of my working day to do these modules (and I really doubt they're going to continue doing that now that there's such a squeeze on saving money).

Basically, I may have just wasted my time =[ Maybe I should look into trying to become a research technician instead.

[tellezara]

Well, if nothing else, you will be more qualified than other people applying for similar posts, which would give you the edge in conjunction with your experience. So it's not really a waste of time as far as your CV goes :) If the hospital are paying then you might as well take everything they're paying for - not much comes free these days, after all XD A bit of googling shows that the new degree thing is NHS funded anyway so you wouldn't need to worry about tuition fees. The other thing is that if they've already half-trained you it would be more cost-effective I think for them to pay for you to finish, than to try and recruit a new person and fund them through the degree at full price. But meh, it's the NHS, they can backstab you sometimes. You finish your modules this September, right? In which case you might not need to worry 'cause the new program doesn't start till next academic year.

[tellezara]

P.S. It looks like you still need to be HPC-registered to practice as a BMS so that means you do still need all the qualification etc, it's not just a lab tech job or whatever the scaremongers are coming out with.

[ninja15]

The new course is called something like Healthcare Science or Healthcare Scientist or something, isn't it?

I actually need to apply for funding to do Immunology module in September...

[tellezara]

Idno, I just did a quick Google XD