Career progression

University of Plymouth

(2011 - 2014) BS, Biomedical Sciences

Charlie studied Biomedical Sciences. He chose the subject because he believed it was “broad” and would equate to plenty of opportunities. However, upon reflection he found that to be that untrue! Another regret of Charlie's is that he didn't apply for any internships!

Charlie was the Social Sec and Founder of the Biomedical Sciences Society at Plymouth. He recommends joining a society that focuses on something your interested in, or creating one that does!

n hindsight, Charlie believes he missed out on plenty of opportunities to network and to learn from others. So he advises students to make the most out of what is offered!

NHS Bristol

(2014 - 2015) Clinic Support Clerk

Charlie provided general admin support, Registering patients on NHS systems (Medway), and handling and filing medical records and maintaining databases.

After being promoted to Senior Clinic Coordinator, Charlie was working to strict deadlines to fulfil stock orders, process timesheets and annual leave requests, while ensuring any customer enquiries are dealt with both politely and swiftly. This post provided him with valuable communication skills by having to respond to constant requests via email and phone.

University Hospitals Bristol

(2015 - 2017) Senior Assistant Technical Officer, Pharmacy

My daily duties comprised of assembling and preparing ingredients for use in cleanrooms, as well as undertaking regular environmental monitoring for the Quality Control department. I maintained a clear and accessible audit trail. I manufactured medicines by hand in isolators and laminar flow cabinets.

This is a high-risk complex manual process, to produce safe effective medicines in this setting takes dedication to a methodical stringent process and a strong work ethic as negligence can cause death and injury to the recipient patient.

Alongside my SATO role, I undertook several IT-based projects; I worked on several data validation projects working with pharmacy managers. To produce documents that helped to record data efficiently and maintains high levels of accuracy. These projects gave me vital experience in the IT systems used to support the hospitals pharmaceutical manufacturing

University Hospitals Bristol

(2017 - 2019) Validation Officer, Capital Projects Team

In this role, I assisted in the procurement and implementation of new hardware and software many of which were untested in the UK and the processes and documentation developed could be used in other hospitals once successfully implemented.

More specific tasks included:

• Writing validation documentation such as user requirement specs, qualification documents, and standard operating procedures, producing detailed project reports for divisional project groups.
• Performed Root cause analysis (RCA) and risk assessments.
• Handling and manipulating complex testing data, liaising with external contractors and stakeholders.

University Hospitals Bristol

(2019 - 2021 )Capital Projects Manager - Pharmacy Productions

In charge of procuring and implementing complex capital projects in the high-risk aseptic production unit. Work with the pharmacy's senior directors to identify and promote the department's long-term transformation.

Projects include:

• Refurbishment of a high-risk pharmaceutical production facility (budget £487,000)
• Modernising the unit's IT infrastructure (budget £6,000).
• Major capital equipment procurement and qualification, including:
• Bespoke clinical software (budget £250,000)
• Negative pressure isolators (budget £30,000)
• Auto-compounders (budget £25,000)
• Environmental monitoring equipment (budget £7,000).

Day in the life

Below is a typical day in the life of Charlie and an example of what his role entails in the NHS.

Wake Up

I wake up at 7am, and walk to work. Walking towards a central inner city hospital is enjoyable due to seeing lots of other familiar faces around the hospital walking at the same time. It creates a small sense of community.

In the office

I am in the office for around 8:30 am.

Morning tasks

My morning tasks normally consist of:

• Organising inbox
• Chasing up on tasks for other stakeholders and medical experts
• Meetings with clinicians
• Plan and work on various new projects

Lunch

1 hour long, pretty flexible.

Afternoon tasks

I will usually resume with my morning work.

Finish

I like to have a 5pm hard stop, this is self enforced due to seeing how a poor work life balance affects people in a strict work environment.

Work in evening

No, I commit to finishing with all work for the day at 5pm. Maintaining a good work/life balance is very important to me. You need to be able to switch off.