Events during September 2023

The IBMS Certificates of Achievement are designed as gateway qualifications to reflect the training needs of people working as Assistant Practitioners or Associate Practitioners in laboratory services.

In this ‘show and tell’ session designed for trainees, training officers, training managers or laboratory managers, we will outline the structure of the Certificates of achievement and give some information on the support and guidance that the IBMS currently offer for completing both parts of this qualification. We will interactively explore how the resources available as a result of our recent collaboration with LearnSci can supplement the existing training matter you have in your laboratory, to help you scaffold and deliver engaging, supportive and enjoyable training experiences to those completing this qualification.

We will also canvass the views of everyone present in this talk to better understand the needs of each group and to gain insight into the resources and support that attendees would find useful, to help the IBMS drive the evolution of this qualification by ensuring it remains relevant and useful to practitioners.

This talk will focus on how level 2 and level 4 apprenticeships can help to engage in widening participation and EDI agenda as well as create an entry level workforce pipeline and staff that can be grown through apprenticeship progression routes into the Biomedical science profession.

Expanding your role into Point-of-Care Testing – a career opportunity to consider

This session is aimed at staff who are on the front line of Pathology services. Those who are in sample reception, taking calls and frequently being the interface between Pathology and our users.

Human beings are built to size each other up quickly. These first impressions are influenced by a number of factors, such as facial shape, vocal inflection, attractiveness, and general emotional state. People tend to get attached to their initial impressions of others and find it very difficult to change their opinion, even when presented with lots of evidence to the contrary.

As a result, it’s important to be aware of how we come across to others during a first meeting. Then we can employ impression management skills—modulating any irritating traits and accentuating one's strengths—to ensure that people have a more favourable opinion of one. Everything from clothing style and posture to conversational topics can be adjusted to form a better first impression.

It takes a mere seven seconds to make a first impression. People thin-slice others based on how a person looks and sounds, more so than their explicit verbal statements. Often, someone's first impression is influenced by implicit attitudes of which they are unaware, which explains impulsive actions like giving special preference to those with physical beauty or more easily trusting a person who has a babyface. The observational powers (biases) of the observer are just as important as the qualities projected by the target, or person being judged, making these judgments a constant dance between objective information and selective signal-reading

This presentation will create awareness of our own and others first impressions and allow us consider how to make a good and lasting first impression.

There is a tendency to promote staff into supervisory roles and then allow them to find their feet on their own as the are faced with managing staff and taking on more responsibility. Departments tend to be very good and training these supervisors on how to perform tasks such as rotas, overtime payments, etc. but assume they have the necessary skills to mage and lead staff.

Often these supervisors look to role models from managers they have worked with or for and Tv (the apprentice, shudder) to help them developed their interpersonal skills. Sonic healthcare UK has recognized this as an opportunity to help with the development of all grades and has a novel training program to aid in supporting management and leadership skills. This will be discussed in this lecture.

A role with a difference – anatomical pathology technologist in a mortuary

This presentation will:

Summarise the key points within the BSH guideines for blood grouping and antibody testing in pregnancy
Give an overview of the main updates to the BSH guideline for blood grouping and antibody testing in pregnancy

What’s in the new precompatibility guidelines?

Highlights from the 2022 Annual SHOT Report: lessons learnt and learning from excellence

Reporting haemovigilance incidents is vital to the ongoing learning from errors and improvements of quality management systems in transfusion. It is a statutory reguirement of the Blood Safety and Quality Regulations (2005) (as amended) and the data collected is used by both MHRA and SHOT to analyse and demonstrate key learning opportunities.

This presentation will give an overview of the legal requirements of the BSQR and the Good Practice Guide. Common isnspection findings will be presented and practical learning from SABRE reports will be shown. Common issues associated from reports received will be discussed and tips given as to how to improve the reporting of haemovigilance data.