Posted on Tuesday 29th March 2011
lab
Inside a laboratory at the Cumberland Infirmary
Staff at the Cumberland Infirmary will welcome students from Carlisle College to look around the hospital’s Pathology Department this week.
Around 25 mature students on a one-year access to Higher Education course will visit the pathology laboratories on Wednesday to get a better idea of what goes on behind the scenes at the hospital.
Many of the students, who are all aged 19 and over, are interested in pursuing careers in the health service or related fields, including nursing, occupational therapy, physiotherapy and forensic science.
Judith Redwood, Biomedical Scientist in Virology/Immunology laboratory at the Cumberland Infirmary, helped organise the visit. She said: “Most people only ever come to hospital as a patient or visitor and never really get to see what goes on behind the scenes. There is so much work that goes on out of public view, hopefully visiting our laboratories will give the students a good insight into what we do.”
Dr Jane Sullivan, lecturer in the Health and Social Care Department at Carlisle College, said the students were really looking forward to the visit.
“It will be quite an eye-opener for them, to see all the labs in action,” she said.
“Hopefully, if this visit is a success, we will look at bringing more students in the future and develop a link with the hospital which we can maintain. We are starting a forensic science course next year so it would be really beneficial to the students.
“A lot of our students want to stay in the local area and are applying to the University of Cumbria to do nursing and other related courses, so they could be working at the Cumberland Infirmary one day. It will be really interesting for them to see another side to the work that goes on at the hospital.”