Biomedical science

Dingle_berry

Hi Macflea,
Yeah biomedical science sounds interesting, it's even interesting to work in on occasion!

What kind of veterinary degree do you have? Did you study things like clinical biochemistry, histology, haematology, clinical microbiology, etiology and epidemiology?

What is it about working in pharmaceutical industry labs or hospital diagnostic labs that interests you? They have similar aspects but different hours, career paths, regulations and knowledge requirements.

I don't have much experience in the pharmaceutical sector but AFAIK the people in the labs have at least an honours science degree (level 8). A lot of people would now have an MSc. I know UCC has a few taught masters programmes aimed at the pharmaceutical sector.

Working as a medical scientist requires a related but different set of knowledge - more pathology orientated. We need to know what to check for if the calcium is really low but potassium is really high, if platelet count is extremely low, if the patients seems to have an antibody to every red cell or what can go wrong with a stain. It's analytical and kind of clinical. Depending on the lab you work in you may have to participate in out of routine hours work. Some specialise, others don't.
If you read the "pathways to membership" document in my previous post it outlines (quite well I think) what is required to convert a qualification to become a medical scientist. In cork your only option is the CIT/UCC undergraduate course. I would approach the UCC admissions office to ask about entry requirements and if you could get an exemption for parts of the course based on your first degree. Otherwise I know that DIT allow non-students to apply and study some final year modules as a CPD course. I'm not sure what the University of Ulster (coleraine) offers at undergraduate level but they do have a popular distance learning taught MSc (you would need an undergraduate programme though)

macflea

hi dingle berry

many thanks for reply , ucd graduate , standard veterinary degree,5 years small animal, 5 years dairy work, did histology , embryology, haematology , biochemistry, pathology , pharmacology , physiology , microbiology , parasitology , anatomy etc the course covered a lot , but a bit rusty now . will be doing more research on biomedical science ,ucc might be a better starting point than cit, cit have a open day next week so will go to that as well if not busy at work. many thanks again

cheers

Dingle_berry

Well at least you've covered the subjects. Do you have any preference between biochem, haem, transfusion, microbiology or histology from your previous studies?
Have you visited/toured the vet labs or hospital labs? If you go to CIT maybe ask someone from the school of biological sciences to see some of the lab stuff from the biomed course (bold films, special stains etc).

CIT used to be the only cork institution to do med lab when it was a cert/diploma. When it was changed to a level 8 degree CIT couldn't award level 8 qualifications so UCC did the honours degree, students from CIT transferred to UCC after clinical placement. The UCC students transferred to CIT after getting the degree to do the clinical placement. But for the last few years its been run as a joint course between the two. It was similar between DIT and TCD.

Turtle_Dove

Hi Dingle Berry,

You seem so well informed on all of this, I have about a million questions I hope you won't mind answering some of them. I'm actually a biomed student in UCC/CIT and I'm going into 4th year this year. But we are surprisingly ignorant of life after qualification so I was wondering if you could help me with a couple of pretty silly questions:

1. What are employment opportunities like at the minute? Do you know roughly how many from your class found work in Ireland?

2. How did you go about finding work once you qualified?

3. Have you ever worked abroad and if so did you have to do further entrance exams etc.?

4. The question that everyone avoids but really is important, we all have loans to pay off after all, what is the average starting salary?

5. How does placement work? When does it begin, did you have to organise it yourself or was it assigned to you, how did you prepare for it, etc.?

6. How does specialisation work? How long do you have to practice as a medical scientist before you can begin to specialise?

If you could answer even half of these you would really be helping me out.

Thanks a million.

Dingle_berry

Turtle_Dove wrote: »

Hi Dingle Berry,

You seem so well informed on all of this, I have about a million questions I hope you won't mind answering some of them. I'm actually a biomed student in UCC/CIT and I'm going into 4th year this year. But we are surprisingly ignorant of life after qualification so I was wondering if you could help me with a couple of pretty silly questions:

Has anyone in your year, like the class rep, approached the head of the degree to enquire about this? It may have changed with the new degree format.... I would start asking lecturers.

Turtle_Dove wrote: »

1. What are employment opportunities like at the minute? Do you know roughly how many from your class found work in Ireland?

employment opportunities in the sector in Ireland aren't great, but there are some. 5 permanent scientists have been taken on where I work this year.

Turtle_Dove wrote: »

2. How did you go about finding work once you qualified?

I did my placement after my degree and was offered a contract after my student year finished in the hospital I had been in

Turtle_Dove wrote: »

3. Have you ever worked abroad and if so did you have to do further entrance exams etc.?

nope I've never worked abroad, luckily. I know for Canada exams are required. Possibly not for the UK and the rest of Europe as the irish qualifications have the highest academic level in the EU

Turtle_Dove wrote: »

4. The question that everyone avoids but really is important, we all have loans to pay off after all, what is the average starting salary?

at the moment for a new entrant it's about €31K i think but there are "promises" in croke park 2...

Turtle_Dove wrote: »

5. How does placement work? When does it begin, did you have to organise it yourself or was it assigned to you, how did you prepare for it, etc.?

for me, I was told the week of the graduation ceremony that I had a placement (CIT were telling us that they couldn't place us) and we started the week after graduation. We were assigned to a hospital and the labs student training officer organised our timetables etc. the lab manager just sent us a letter saying be here on Monday the xxx at 9am

Turtle_Dove wrote: »

6. How does specialisation work? How long do you have to practice as a medical scientist before you can begin to specialise?

You specialise by taking a job! As our degree is multi disciplinary you just apply for any job and hope you get it. If there's a discipline you really like or hate you can target your applications but you'll be limiting yourself.

Your whole class should join the AMLS. You should meet and network with the years below you and get them to join the AMLS too. Student membership is free, it will keep you informed on developments in the sector, the job adverts are hidden from non-members on their website and going to the events/meetings provides a networking (get to know chiefs and managers to get jobs) as well as educational opportunities.

Tree

Regarding working abroad, a chat to your course coordinator will help. They will have had to interact with AMLS equivalents in other countries where their students have gone to work in the past.

For the UK you will have to register with the IBMS, as the CIT/UCC course isn't already accredited with them, there's some extra steps to go through, but if you contact them they're very helpful. Generating a portfolio can be done on the job so you don't need to do that before you apply for work.

Some countries will get you to sit an exam (certain US states do), for others registration with the local agency responsible for medical scientists is enough. You will usually need to provide transcripts and module descriptors to prove your qualification matches the local one. The course coordinator in CIT/UCC will be used ot this sort of thing. In DIT, we got a talk on working abroad from ppl who worked in Canada, New Zealand and the UK, there was some paperwork involved but all got jobs grand.

Turtle_Dove

Thank you so so much! We have asked and we have tried to find out all of this information but nobody seemed to have a straightforward answer. No doubt a lot of the confusion is due to the fact that this is a relatively new course and all of these problems will probably be ironed out over the next couple of years. Your answers have been invaluable, however, so thank you both again.

Dingle_berry

Turtle_Dove wrote: »

Thank you so so much! We have asked and we have tried to find out all of this information but nobody seemed to have a straightforward answer. No doubt a lot of the confusion is due to the fact that this is a relatively new course and all of these problems will probably be ironed out over the next couple of years. Your answers have been invaluable, however, so thank you both again.

You're welcome. It seems like some things never change!
It shouldn't be but a possible spanner in the works could be CP2. IIRC it states that students must be paid. But I think that that was only an issue for Dublin/non-HSE hospitals.

It really is worth getting to know the other years of Biomed (you may all be together in the same lab later on). Also join the AMLS now, it's free as a student, an OK way to get information and going to the conferences is a good way to meet managers, chiefs and seniors who will be interviewing you for jobs.

Turtle_Dove

Hello again! I thought continuing this thread may be the best way to contact people in the know. I have two scenarios I need advice on this time, the first being summer placement in a lab in the UK. I complete my degree in May but I don't start my clinical placement until September so I want to move to London for the summer and get work in a medical lab perhaps as a lab assistant as I won't be a qualified medical scientist. I'm just wondering if anybody has done something similar in the UK and if so, how did you secure a position, and what are the UK requirements for such a post?

Also, does anybody know the requirements for securing a work visa for Canada? By the time this comes about I will be fully qualified but won't have much clinical experience at all, so would anybody know what restrictions are in place in terms of applying for work as a medical scientist and also what the likelihood of getting a position in a hosp/clinic in Vancouver would be?

Thanks in advance

MoonDancer

What is the actual job you would get with a Medical BioTechnology honours degree?