The funding scheme, available to healthcare scientists, pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, nurses, midwives and Allied Health Professionals (AHPs), aims to promote a positive culture of research and allows people in these professions to develop their research awareness and critical thinking through an innovative six-month development programme.
Karen Hartley and Stephanie Quinn are two of the interns who took part - here they describe their experiences and how the internships have helped them develop – while working to help improve patient care:
Karen Hartley, Pharmacist in the Children’s Rheumatology Team at Newcastle-upon-Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (NUTH).
“If something doesn’t look right – investigate! You could find something you can change for the better. While undertaking prescribing activities for the children there seemed to be a link between the children with the most difficult disease and higher body weight for age. I wanted to look at the data and see if there was a link. I think the research in very important because we need to find out if there is a need to adjust the way we treat children with a higher body weight. Is the disease influenced by higher body weight or are we not adjusting doses effectively? We need to provide more individualised care so that we can make sure children are managed in the most effective way possible. Since completing the internship, I feel that I have a renewed passion for work. It has given me enthusiasm to engage with colleagues more and encourage others. I have really appreciated the time the internship has given me to expand my network by meeting others involved in research. It has given me to opportunity to dedicate some time to research and learn how I can incorporate this into my role. I have also found out numerous opportunities to move forward with in the future if I would like to continue in the research pathway."
“If something doesn’t look right – investigate! You could find something you can change for the better.
While undertaking prescribing activities for the children there seemed to be a link between the children with the most difficult disease and higher body weight for age. I wanted to look at the data and see if there was a link.
I think the research in very important because we need to find out if there is a need to adjust the way we treat children with a higher body weight.
Is the disease influenced by higher body weight or are we not adjusting doses effectively? We need to provide more individualised care so that we can make sure children are managed in the most effective way possible.
Since completing the internship, I feel that I have a renewed passion for work. It has given me enthusiasm to engage with colleagues more and encourage others.
I have really appreciated the time the internship has given me to expand my network by meeting others involved in research. It has given me to opportunity to dedicate some time to research and learn how I can incorporate this into my role. I have also found out numerous opportunities to move forward with in the future if I would like to continue in the research pathway."
Stephanie Quinn, Clinical Scientist at NUTH
"I am a clinical scientist in ophthalmic and vision science, in this role I perform clinical visual electrodiagnostics tests which assess how the cells at the back on the eye and the brain are working. We see a range of conditions in clinic including untreatable genetic conditions that affect the retina and lead to irreversible sight loss. My research interest focusses on investigating these diseases to understand what changes in the eye lead to visual loss and how we can measure this clinically. To do this I plan to use a new technique to image the back of the eye, the retina, with a technology used in astronomy called adaptive optics. Adaptive optics detects and corrects how light rays are changed when they are shone into the eye. This improves the quality of the images, allowing the retina to be pictured in much finer detail, making it possible to visualise single cells at the back of the eye. In my research I plan to compare the cellular structure at the back of the eye with the type of functional tests I perform in the clinic. This research is important as understanding what happens in the retina to cause patients to lose their vision will allow us to target the development of new treatments appropriately. Understanding how we can measure individual cells at the back of the eye with adaptive optics will also be important in the future to assess how well treatments that are targeting these cells, such as in gene therapy, are working in clinical trials."
"I am a clinical scientist in ophthalmic and vision science, in this role I perform clinical visual electrodiagnostics tests which assess how the cells at the back on the eye and the brain are working.
We see a range of conditions in clinic including untreatable genetic conditions that affect the retina and lead to irreversible sight loss.
My research interest focusses on investigating these diseases to understand what changes in the eye lead to visual loss and how we can measure this clinically. To do this I plan to use a new technique to image the back of the eye, the retina, with a technology used in astronomy called adaptive optics. Adaptive optics detects and corrects how light rays are changed when they are shone into the eye. This improves the quality of the images, allowing the retina to be pictured in much finer detail, making it possible to visualise single cells at the back of the eye. In my research I plan to compare the cellular structure at the back of the eye with the type of functional tests I perform in the clinic.
This research is important as understanding what happens in the retina to cause patients to lose their vision will allow us to target the development of new treatments appropriately. Understanding how we can measure individual cells at the back of the eye with adaptive optics will also be important in the future to assess how well treatments that are targeting these cells, such as in gene therapy, are working in clinical trials."