Sunday 29 August is the last day of our Celebrating Health and Social Care Support Workers Week at NHS Lothian. We’re shining the spotlight on our Health and Social Care Support Workers across all departments who work 24/7 across the whole of NHS Lothian.
To find out a bit more about just some of this wonderful workforce, we’ve caught up with another much-loved colleague.
Tanya Van Der Westhuizen has worked all over the UK during her FETAC Level 5 Nursing Studies. She’s now a Research Practitioner at the Anne Rowling Clinic in Edinburgh.
What was the pathway into your current role?
I did my FETAC level 5 Nursing Studies and worked as a Healthcare Assistant in a Lower GI ward in Southampton, Healthcare Assistant in Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit in Birmingham, GI Research Assistant in Birmingham, and Support Worker in DCN Ward 33 in Edinburgh before becoming a Research Practitioner in the Anne Rowling Clinic in Edinburgh.
Since 2016, Tanya has added various certificates and achievements, culminating in a BSc Honours degree in Health Science. Her experience proved vital when she was redeployed during the first wave of COVID-19.
What did you do when you were redeployed to ICU during the first wave of the pandemic?
The team in ICU were fantastic and welcoming. They showed me around and I was there to help alleviate the burden on nurses to do runs for items they need for their patients in the bubble.
I was also there to always help stock supplies and ensure that clinical waste was disposed of according to NHS COVID regulations and to help with turning and sitting patients up that were able to do so.
I was at hand if required at any given time to ensure that staff were not overwhelmed.
What are your daily tasks in your usual job?
Typical routine in the clinic: We do checks such as flushing taps, ensure clinic rooms are setup, ensuring that all equipment is functioning, phone messages are checked, glucometer is checked and ensure trolleys are fully stocked.
After every patient visit in clinic whether from the NHS or University side we deep clean the rooms to.
Typical routine in research: I predominantly work on our MND-SMART trial and DELIVER-MS trial. Both trials although they are different neurological conditions require organisation, bloods, cognitive tests, and questionnaires.
MND-SMART requires a few extra tests to ensure the safety of our MND patients such as ECGs, SNIP and FVC.
I help with site file management, which entails ensuring all documents are up to date when we get amendments through or any correspondence from sponsors or site.
Part of my role involves spinning and freezing blood samples and updating sample logs accordingly and keeping in close contact with sponsor sites and their staff to ensure any issues are addressed and dealt with and to keep them up to date on our recruitment figures.
What it’s like being a research practitioner?
It is a very rewarding job, and I am very lucky to have gotten this role. No day is the same and every day presents with different challenges and obstacles, so you must prepare for the unexpected. It is nice to come into a job that you love every day. Every day is a day of learning and gaining a greater insight to what our patients experience.
What do you love most about the job?
One of my favourite aspects of the job is that it is both an administrative role and clinical role and I love the balance between both. I also love working with my team as we are close-knit and help each other out with anything.
I enjoy seeing patients, recruiting patients, and doing what I can to ensure that patients with neurological conditions get a chance to take part in research.
Without research we would not be able to develop treatments that work better for patients and can find answers to things that are unknown.
