Integrated Clinical Academic Careers Project

We have received an email about the Integrated Clinical Academic Careers Project, please see the information below if you or any colleagues are interested:

I’m delighted to let you know about this series of workshops I am leading on behalf of HEE about the Integrated Clinical Academic (ICA) Programme.

This project has been commissioned by HEE to fulfil 2 purposes:

1.       to provide information about the programme to increase the number & quality of future applications across all eligible non-medical professions,

2.       to actively collect feedback, experiences and opinions to assist HEE to consider any other factors that could better support this agenda.

It is important that we reach all eligible professional groups with this information and I would greatly appreciate your assistance in cascading this across your networks of Healthcare Scientists. Thank you!

We are still preparing case studies individuals of who’d like to share their own experiences, or feed in their comments to us. So please let us know if you or a colleague would like to talk to us about this programme?

And I’d also be really pleased to hear as soon as possible if you have any suggestions or comments about other agencies we could invite to join us at these workshops.

The timeline for this project is very short, so we’d love to hear from you straight away – thanks so much!! HRoddam@uclan.ac.uk

Please share this email widely across all your national contacts and networks: you can forward this email & I’ve also attached a pdf flyer for you to use.

We also have an individual flyer for each of the 4 HEE Regions that have the booking link.

Very many thanks –

Dr Hazel Roddam

Reader in Allied Health Practice

Meeting minutes

Minutes are available for all network Board Meetings; please contact eoehcs@gmail.com if you would like to see any specific ones.

Meeting dates available are:

• 23 November 2015
• 8 March 2016
• 23 May 2016
• 18 August 2016
• 8 November 2016

2 February 2017 will be available soon.

The next meeting will be held in early June 2017.

Chief Scientific Officer

Have you ever heard of the Chief Scientific Officer?

The CSO is the Head of Profession for all healthcare scientists (HCS) in NHS England. Her name is Dr Sue Hill and she's been in post for nearly 15 years. She takes the lead on a variety of issues affecting the HCS profession, including Modernising Scientific Careers, and providing professional advice and guidance across the health system.

An STP trainee rep attends the CSO HCS Strategy Meetings. Feedback from these meetings has included the following:

• Have a look at the Five Year Forward View for information on the future of the NHS: https://www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/futurenhs/
• Quality Improvement Champions group: https://www.networks.nhs.uk/nhs-networks/healthcare-science/news/healthcare-scientists-wanted-to-join-quality-improvement-group/newsitem_popview
• NHS Leadership Academy: http://www.leadershipacademy.nhs.uk/
• Women In Science Fellowship: https://www.wisecampaign.org.uk/about-us/wise-projects/csofellowships
• To sign up to the Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) bulletin:  https://www.england.nhs.uk/publications/bulletins/cso-bulletin/
• Chief Scientific officer’s annual conference and healthcare science awards: https://www.events.england.nhs.uk/nhsengland/frontend/reg/thome.csp?pageID=50665&eventID=228&eventID=228

One point raised was the desire to have different healthcare science specialisms working together more closely - the idea of 'One Voice' for us all, to increase our influence within the NHS. The Regional HCS Trainee Networks were held up as a great example of scientists from very different specialisms working together on the things we have in common, such as public engagement or running events, and the CSO wants qualified HC scientists to take their lead from us on this! The professional relationships we're building together at this stage will help us throughout our careers, and most importantly help to benefit patients - having contacts in various departments to provide advice would be an advantage, for example.

Clinical Coding

A member of the Network contacted us recently asking about Clinical Coding and Information Governance (Professional Practice Competency 19).

At our Board Meeting this afternoon, Alex shared a few of the resources that helped her to complete this competency. These links are:

Clinical coding (the last two are written to explain the concept to lay people, perfect if you've never heard of it before!)

• The World Health Organisation www.who.int/classifications/icd/en/
• Jordan Lee Smith, writing in The Guardian, 17th July 2015 www.theguardian.com/healthcare-network/2015/jul/17/clinical-coder-like-being-detective-nhs
• Institute of Health Records and Information Management, published 25 Aug 2016: www.ihrim.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=274:back-the-epr-arms-august-2016-coding&catid=54&Itemid=452

Relevant specifically to biochemisty:

• www.thinkkidneys.nhs.uk/aki/blog/clinical-coding-and-acute-kidney-injury-aki/

For the Information Governance aspect, mandatory training via ESR Oracle may be useful:

• NHS e-Learning’s Introduction to Information Governance course
• HSCIC (now NHS Digital)’s Code of Practice on Confidential Information: http://systems.digital.nhs.uk/infogov/codes/cop/code.pdf - 

Changes to the Network Board

All change!

At the end of November 2016, we said goodbye and thank you to Rachel Dale, who was a founding chair of the Network. Rachel works in Colchester and is in her final year, and decided that it would be most sensible for her to step down at this point in order to prioritise other aspects of her training. She has worked hard for the Network and will be very much missed!

Alex Nance, our other founding chair, will also be retiring as chair in February 2017, although will remain a board member until the end of her training in September.

Alex and Rachel have worked hard for 18 months to establish the Network,
and are glad to know it's in safe hands.

Very excitingly, the two new Co-Chairs of the Network are Claire Francis and Charlotte Skipper! They took on their new responsibility in December 2016, to ease the transition between the old and new Co-Chairs.

Claire is training at Papworth in Respiratory & Sleep Science, and has previously acted as a delegate at the TRG on behalf of the East of England. Charlotte is training in Audiology at Addenbrooke's, and organised an excellent Christmas social at Nando's. Both were also on the organising team for the OSFA workshop.


Additionally, our Events co-ordinator, Sara Edwards, has retired, and our Secretary Kristina Stone will be stepping down in January 2017. If you are interested in finding out more about these roles, please contact eoehcs@gmail.com for more info (with no commitment!), or check the Network Board page.

If you have found any of the Network events or information helpful - even if just for meeting other trainees - and would like it to continue, please consider taking on one of these roles, or any other described on the Network Board page. Some good reasons to volunteer are:

• The more people involved, the easier the work is for everybody and the more the Network can accomplish. We found this to be very true when preparing the OSFA Workshop.
• You gain useful management experience, which can be used as evidence for multiple competences, and may give you an advantage at a future job interview. 
• It's a really great chance to get to know other trainees and to form and deepen friendships. We thoroughly recommend the buzz you get after an efficient meeting or a successful event, knowing that you worked hard with a team and achieved something brilliant together.

Trainee Network Board Meeting invitation, Thu 2nd Feb 2017

The next Trainee Network board meeting will be held on Thursday 2nd February 2017. All involved with the STP or HSST are very welcome - please pass on this invitation.

Time: 2-3:30pm

Location: Meeting room N3.

Agenda items will include: 

• Changes to the Board
• Review the OSFA Workshop
• Communications from the NSHCS Trainee Representative Group meeting (25th Jan)
• Update from the Inter-Disciplinary Cases Workshop planning committee.
• Is there anything to raise at the next Trainee Representative Group meeting at the National School (May 2017)?
• Set the date for the next board meeting, following the next TRG.

Please email us any questions, ideas, problems you're having or items for discussion, whether you can join us on the day or not - we exist to support your STP experience and your input is valuable. For example, what kind of events would you find useful? Do you need help with a particular Professional Practice competency? Do you have anything to raise with the NSHCS? 

RSVP to eoehcs@gmail.com for refreshment purposes please!

Directions to N3 Seminar Room

Located on level 3 in the 'N Wards' building

• From entering via the Main Entrance, turn right and into where the shopping area is, then turn left and walk past the Body Shop and the hairdresser on the left, and go directly across the corridor to the lift lobby. From here take the lift or stairs to level 3.
• On level 3 turn left and follow the signs to 'Ward N3'. You will be directed off the main corridor, past J3 ward and onwards into the N3 block.
• Just outside the double-door entrance to 'Ward N3' there is a room straight ahead labelled "Seminar Room", this is the N3 Seminar Room.

The OSFA Workshop 2016

This event was held in Cambridge at the end of November, and we'd like to thank all who attended for working hard to make it a success, as well as for their positive feedback and helpful suggestions for improvements. 

The organising team thoroughly enjoyed putting the day together and then seeing everyone benefit from it, including themselves!

Stations are in the process of being collated for sharing.

The NSHCS have included the workshop as a news item on their website.