Finley's Lab Tour
Finley's Lab Tour at Royal United Hospitals Bath
On 5th June, Finley and his parents visited Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS for their very first Harvey’s Lab Tour post COVID-19. These tours, which had been paused due to the pandemic, are now starting to resume, giving young patients and their families the chance to meet biomedical science staff, learning more about the important work done in hospital laboratories.
Finley is currently undergoing treatment for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL), and was excited to visit the lab and see first-hand what happens to his blood samples. He was thrilled to wear his own lab coat and lanyard, setting the right tone for the rest of the tour.
A member of staff began by showing Finley how samples arrive using the pod system, and he enjoyed sending pods to different areas of the hospital.
In Haematology, Finley booked in his blood sample, placing it on the analysers for a Full Blood Count. Finley had fun making a blood film and using the microscope to see his blood cells, which were printed out for him to share with friends at school.
In Biochemistry, Emma and Dalma demonstrated how the analysers work through engaging experiments. Finley particularly enjoyed racing Emma to draw up liquid in pipettes, and he was fascinated by the large analysers in Biochemistry!
Shahad then showed Finley the Transfusion lab, explaining the importance of blood and platelets in his treatment. Finley was curious about the blood bags in the fridge and the platelets on the agitator.
Throughout the tour, Finley's enthusiasm and curiosity was evident. The staff thoroughly enjoyed the experience and are looking forward to future tours.
Krystyna Turek, who prepared for the first RUH Bath post-COVID tour, answered a few questions about the experience and what to expect.
- Did you implement any specific safety protocols to address COVID-19 concerns?
The hospital no longer has COVID-19 restrictions, so we didn't need to include them in our risk assessment. We used our pre-existing assessment, reviewed it with the children's ward nurse, and ensured there were no overlooked risks.
- What steps did you take to communicate safety measures and make families feel safe and comfortable during the tour?
We provide visitor rules to guardians which cover fire safety, hygiene, and confidentiality. This includes the protocols in which visitors must adhere to in order to keep them safe while in the lab, including things like wearing lab coats and practicing good hand hygiene. The visitor does not handle specimens, except their own blood, to eliminate exposure risks during the tour.
- After such a long break, how did you re-engage the children and make the tour interesting and accessible for them? Were there any new activities or demonstrations you introduced?
We have already been contacted a few times by a nurse in the children's ward asking about starting the tours again and had several patients keen to visit. . We tried to include staff members from each of the lab areas to take part in the tour to keep the children engaged, with each volunteer aiming to inspire young visitors with fun activities. They tried to think of things that children would find fun to do in their area, this included sending pods to different areas in Specimen Reception, looking down the microscope to look at their own blood in Haematology, seeing the bags of blood in Transfusion, and doing some experiments in Biochemistry to learn how the analysers worked (included a pipette race with a BMS).