Healthcare Science Awareness Week

Healthcare Science Awareness Week, supported by the Department of Health, has been created to both acknowledge the important contribution made by all the Healthcare Scientists in the NHS in England, as well as to help educate children and young adults, the media and other NHS staff about the different roles played by Healthcare Scientists in healthcare today.

Science and scientists play a major part in the modern NHS. Science-based health services use disciplines ranging from physics to genetics and from chemistry to engineering, providing core services for prevention, diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of disease.

Today around 50,000 Healthcare Scientists work in the NHS in over 40 different job and career fields, and this number is increasing as modern medicine becomes more complex and the demand for scientific support grows.

The Awareness Week will help to ensure that school leavers and graduates, especially those with an interest in the sciences, or technology, are aware of all the opportunitiesthat exist within healthcare science.

Whats happening?

-Healthcare Scientists will be visiting local schools and colleges

to talk to students about their roles in healthcare

-Event at the House of Commons plus other regional events for schools, colleges and, in some cases, the general public

-Laboratory and Healthcare Science laboratory and department visits for young people and the media

-Healthcare Scientist ’volunteers’ from all 40 disciplines available for press interviews

-’I’m a Healthcare Scientist’ badges being distributed to NHS Healthcare Scientists across England

’ASK ME WHAT I DO’
Thousands of ’I’m a Healthcare Scientist’ badges are being produced, enough for almost every single healthcare scientist working the NHS. Everyone is being encouraged to wear their badges throughout the week and beyond.

Similar badges were extremely popular last year with one recipient saying that Even other NHS staff were coming up and asking me what I exactly I do

- for once, it gave me a chance to explain!

FOR SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES

If you would like a visit from a Healthcare Scientist during Healthcare Science Awareness Week or at another time in the future, please send your name, the name of your school, telephone number and address and a proposed date for the visit to: bev.bailey@uk.com, and we will ensure that you are contacted by a local organiser who will make the arrangements with you.

NHS CAREERS
Call or visit NHS Careers for more information and free literature about jobs and careers in healthcare science - 0845 60 60 655 or www.nhscareers.nhs.uk.

MEDIA ONLY: COME UP TO THE LAB!
Journalists from the national and regional press, radio and TV are invited to visit a local healthcare science laboratory or department, to meet and talk with the scientists about their particular area of expertise. There are over 40 different job and career fields to choose from. FOR A LIST, OR TO BOOK A PRESS TRIP TO A LOCAL LABORATORY OR OTHER HEALTHCARE SCIENCE DEPARTMENT, EMAIL BEV.BAILEY@UK.COM OR CALL 0208 870 4301.

And finally....
The true scientist never loses his faculty of amazement. It is the essence of his being, Hans Selye, Newsweek, 1958

In art, nothing worth doing can be done without genius. In science, even a very moderate capacity can contribute to a supreme achievement.

Bertrand Russell, 1971