Activity fund round-up 2022
For #BiomedicalScienceDay2022, members could fully return to celebrating in-person; many public engagement events and laboratory tours took place up and down the country, and hundreds of members set up stands for the public and medical colleagues in hospital foyers. Additionally, celebrations continued enthusiastically online, with members able to follow along and engage via our social media channels.
With the profession more visible than ever following COVID-19, this year's celebrations focused on expanding upon our success to showcase the extensive breadth of knowledge and skills of the profession across a wide range of specialisms in Biomedical Science while rightly celebrating our members' hard work and contributions to society.
The fund provided grants of up to £500 for IBMS members to develop their biomedical science related activities and events.
The grants could have been used to support a range of activities and resources for experiments, exhibition space at careers events, marketing and communications materials, incentives and giveaways.
Activities aimed to raise public awareness of biomedical science and demonstrate the value of the profession and its role in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of infections and disease.
We recognise that not all members were able to participate on the day and therefore grants may be used for activities up to 30th September 2022.
Biomedicine Society, University of Salford
Salford Biomedicine Society celebrated Biomedical Science Day in style, holding a day of events, including presentations, workshops and quizzes; activity funding went towards goodies, lab coats, resources and prizes.
Salford's Biomedicine society used their funding to hold an event which aimed to celebrate Biomedical Science Day and raise awareness of Biomedical Science careers to young people.
Students took part in competitions including a Pathology quiz. Prizes were awarded including Harvey's Gang goodies and lab coats!
Tahmina delivered a practical laboratory activity to teach the students how to interpret blood groups. The students were presented with a scenario where Shrek had been admitted into hospital for a surgery and the students needed to identify his blood group and determine whether he had MRSA.
Go Tahmina! Biomedical Scientist Team Manager and IBMS national council member Tahmina Hussain leads a 'Shrek-themed' practical session with students as part of the day's activities
The event was publicised by the Biomed Society reaching out to the school via email.
Regular updates were posted on social media throughout the day.
The attendees learnt about red blood cell morphology in disease, blood transfusions, blood types, Biomedical Scientist roles and careers, and MRSA diagnosis.
Lecturer in Biomedical Science Dr Sara Namvar is in high spirits as she prepares for her presentation on Careers in Biomedical Science
The event involved also included number of presentations, including:
- Biomedical science careers (Tahmina Hussain), Other career pathways (Dr Sara Namvar)
- Blood transfusion (Charles Middleton)
- Biomedicine Society (Alia Boda)
Feedback from school teachers and students:
70% said that they had a better understanding of Biomedical Science after attending the event.
100% said they enjoyed taking part in the activities.
100% said the resources available in the exhibition area were useful and engaging. These resources also included the IBMS event pack as well as those that were bought utilising the IBMS funding.
Members attending the event commented:
Charles:
"I took part because of my passion for life sciences and Biomedical Science careers. I gained invaluable skills and was even able to give eye contact for the first-time during presenting. I was able to give back to the wider community and inspire younger people."
Sara A Kassam:
"Biomedical science Day 2022 was the perfect opportunity to celebrate our heroes who are always working behind the scenes in hospitals and industry to provide the best healthcare. I got involved as my way of expressing my gratitude to the countless Biomedical Scientists who work tirelessly for us, especially through the pandemic. I shared my passion for Biomedicine with younger people and strived to inspire them to enter the field of Biomedical Science. On this day, I was able to learn many things about Biomedical Science which I did not know prior to Biomedical Science Day. I also met people who shared the same passion as me and I became more confident in networking."
University Hospitals Birmingham (UHB) – Queen Elizabeth Heartlands, Solihull and Good Hope Hospitals Birmingham
Winning pose! UHB won this year's 'Best group photo with placard' competition with this photo, congratulations.
Activity funding supported UHB's event and activities in order to celebrate the day. In addition to celebrating, the event was organised to thank the UHB Pathology workforce for their commitment, perseverance and resilience during recent and ongoing challenging service pressures during the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequently, increasing conventional diagnostic workload.
There has been no rest-bite for pathology staffs and this was a small window of opportunity to celebrate our workforce with sincere thanks for their hard work. Visitors were not permitted on site within our laboratory settings and hence took the opportunity to celebrate and motivate pathology staff to partake as outlined below to promote the profession:
- UHB produced a TikTok video of Pathology of the specimen journey. It provides a small clip of each of the specialisms within Pathology at UHB.
- UHB posted on various social media sites as outlined below; images from day and prior using IBMS provided posters, placards and banners. UHB graphics printed placards with roles pre-printed and departments to assist with making this a professional and renowned event.
- Details of all our social media and all our other channels are available via UHB Connected. Biomedical Science Day content was shared across our public and staff Facebook groups, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok on the day.
- A small selection of refreshments was provided for staff, supported by IBMS and UHB as a show of appreciation.
- Best meme, cake and photomicrograph competitions were hosted with prizes.
The event was popular with attendees, with numerous emails of thanks from staff. One example is shared below:
"Just a quick note to say thank you on behalf of Automated Chemistry for the efforts made today for Biomedical Science Day. What a lovely thought, it is very much appreciated by all of us."
Evelyn Owusu - The Peterborough School & Hampton Vale Primary School
Great effort Evelyn! Quality Manager Evelyn Owusu delivers a presentation highlighting the work of Biomedical Scientists to school pupils at the fair. Evelyn used activity funding to provide Science kits and Science themed cupcakes at the fair. Yum!
Evelyn Owusu MIBMS, Quality Manager at HCA Healthcare UK organised science fairs to highlight the important work of Biomedical Scientists at The Peterborough School and Hampton Vale. She was given 2 days off as educational days and spent a full day in each school, from 9am to 4pm.
The events took place on the 9th June and 24th June 2022. The Science Fair showcased the work of Biomedical Scientists. The event in each school followed the format below:
- PowerPoint presentation by Evelyn Owusu (Evelyn's career journey, science and biomedical science testing and diagnostics).
- Questions and Answers following the presentation.
- Science experiments with all kids using Science kits.
- Kids were split into 2 groups in each school and year group.
- Discussion of science experiments and outcomes
- Science themed cupcakes distributed to kids at the fair.
- Assistance from a science graduate who’s aspiring to be a Biomedical Scientist.
Evelyn commented following the event:
"Great feedback from students and teachers from both schools. Students from schools would like me to come back to organise another science fair, but doing more science experiments. I really enjoyed engaging with the kids and setting up the science experiments. I will definitely do it again. I have since written to two more schools to organise a similar event."
