Rehana Saleem
Studied BSc Medical Microbiology and Immunology, Graduated 2008
I gained an upper second class honours degree in Medical Microbiology & Immunology from the Newcastle University in 2008. I came here because of its reputation, very high quality of teaching and prime location. Although the course was two-pronged, I always had a keen interest in immunology. I attended regular meetings and guest lectures organised by the North East Immunology club to broaden my knowledge in this field.
I thoroughly enjoyed the three years at the university and all the lecturers were very helpful. My personal tutor (Dr. Carys Watts) was extremely supportive throughout and helped me settle in the challenging environment. This made my time at Newcastle very memorable. My final year laboratory project allowed me to gain hands-on experience in cutting- edge research and encouraged me to consider laboratory medicine and/or research as a career option. I attended the Biosciences Careers Conference, whereby I came across, quite fortuitously, the Clinical scientists (CS) scheme. I explored further into this career path and was overwhelmed by the special niche of Clinical Scientist within the NHS, which in fact is not restricted to life sciences only. In addition, the fine combination of academic and diagnostic laboratory work appealed to me the most. I applied for it in my final year and after much fierce competition, I secured a place as a Grade A trainee Clinical Scientist in Immunology.
This is a 4 year training post in which trainees follow a set curriculum including 3 years of pre-registration training followed by post-registration period. During this time, trainees are expected to acquire new diagnostic skills, expand their knowledge of clinical immunology and become fully competent. This leads to Certificate of Competence and HPC registration which serves as a platform for further academic development. Many choose to do a PhD at this stage and sit MRCPath exam to proceed to Consultant Clinical Scientist position. Therefore a constant and steep learning curve is available.
Although I have been in this post for only two months, I am thoroughly enjoying every aspect of the training. My job involves a variety of tasks: ranging from routine laboratory tests, literature research, audits, development of new assays and studying for MSc in Human Immunity (part-time). The knowledge I gained during my first degree has become very useful in understanding and interpretation of the results obtained in various clinical scenarios. In addition, I feel very privileged to have the opportunity to attend national & international conferences and meet leading immunologists from across the globe and other trainees in the UK.
I would certainly recommend this to anyone considering biomedical career within the NHS yet at the same time have an extensive academic component attached. It is very worthwhile and far superior than ordinary laboratory associated jobs. Please see the list of very useful websites below.
Useful websites:
http://www.nhscareers.nhs.uk/details/Default.aspx?Id=235
https://www.nhsclinicalscientists.info/clrl/recruitment/index.xsp
http://www.prospects.ac.uk/cms/ShowPage/Home_page/Explore_types_of_jobs/Types_of_Job/p!eipaL?grpno=V2&state=showgrp
