HEE-funded Healthcare Science Outreach programme wins Advancing Healthcare Award – Friday 12th April 2019
Congratulations to the Reach Out for Healthcare Science (ROfHCS) Team. They were presented with the Academy for Healthcare Science Award for Inspiring the Healthcare Science Workforce of the Future.
Healthcare Science (HCS) is a workforce that encompasses about 50 different specialisms. This workforce makes up 5% of the NHS workforce – but conducts 80% of the NHS diagnostics. This workforce spans across adults, children and younger people, cardiovascular, stroke, respiratory, diabetes and mental health, all of which have been identified as priorities within the NHS Long Term plan and many more.
Education and training for HCS is not well publicised and many barriers exist for young people entering HCS careers. The ROfHCS programme makes HCS careers more accessible, involves large numbers of students and offers students not only an understanding of, but also hands-on experience, in a wide variety of the HCS professions within NHS Trusts.
This project has been funded annually by Health Education England since 2013 and is co-ordinated by collaborative efforts from Healthcare Scientists based in London NHS Trusts, London universities and is supported by Exscitec and the HEE Professional Lead for HCS in London.
The target audience is Year 10 students who meet widening participation criteria and have stated an interest in a Science Technology Engineering or Mathematics (STEM) career. Students partake in HCS-related, interactive and experiential activities within different departments or in a simulated context. These activities are geared toward engaging students to choose careers in Healthcare Science.
The impact on students is genuinely astonishing. Over 80% of the students have rated the programme as good or very good. Reach out is now in its seventh year and has reached 1600 students. Rather than being a project with a lifespan, this has become a project with a life!
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