Profile
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William Tolmie
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About Me:
I am a trainee clinical scientist in Bristol working in St. Michael’s hospital. I play A LOT of sports and you’ll find me in the cinema most weeks. I finished university last year in Newcastle and am new to the South West!
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Hi,
My name’s Will and I’m a northerner hiding in the South West. I moved recently from Newcastle but I grew up in a place called Clitheroe about an hour’s drive from Manchester. Moving to Bristol to start my career was a big step but one I enjoyed taking and would love to inspire the same passion in others.
My favourite sports are tennis and football ( any Liverpool fans?) and I also go rock climbing despite my fear of heights! I also love film, my favourites being Iron Man and Dune.
I love living in Bristol and have become an honorary Bristol City fan as I live just 5 minutes from the Stadium. I have not quite come round on the cornish pasties yet but I love a run under and over the Clifton Bridge.
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My pronouns are:
He/Him
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My Work:
I am a trainee clinical scientist in clinical engineering. I am training to be responsible for the management of any devices within the hospital that may interact with a patient.
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Being a trainee, I am currently visiting neighbouring departments in and around the South West. This has included medical physics (very clever people who deal with MRI and X-Rays), cardiology (heart specialists), neurophysiology (brain specialists) and a place in Cardiff where they make special custom wheelchairs for people with complex disabilities. This is all with an aim of understanding how devices are used by other departments and how we, as clinical scientists, can help to support the safe use of these.
I also have a number of ongoing projects within my department. We are responsible for managing all the devices that will likely come into contact with a patient between Bristol and Weston-Super-Mare. This can range from a machine which delivers medicine at a controlled speed to incubators to keep babies warm to ECG’s which are those sticky pads which measure your heart beat. We also help other departments if they need a specific device which they don’t have access to as well as dealing with when things go wrong with the equipment (which doesn’t happen too often, touch wood)!
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My Typical Day:
I get to my office in central bristol at 8:30am. I will read and reply to emails before possibly going to a different department to watch an interesting procedure or to be trained on how to fix a certain piece of equipment in the morning until lunch. In the afternoon, I may attend a department meeting and collaborate with my colleagues to tackle any issues or projects. I will finish off the day by writing about my experience of my task in the morning, making sure to reflect on my feelings and ability.
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My days vary a lot as a trainee as I need to gather a lot of knowledge about different areas of our department in order to best equip me to perform my job as a fully registered clinical scientist in the future.
Recently, I observed a procedure that places a new valve in someone’s heart, the thing that makes the classic “bu-bum” sound and makes blood go the right way through the heart. They do this in an operating theatre so I had to put scrubs (essentially very clean pyjamas) on and make sure I was watching everything that happened. I finished this by 12pm and spent the next hour writing up what I had observed before heading for lunch.
In the afternoon, I had a meeting with my training officer (my boss) to review how my training was going and to identify areas that I may want to become better at. After this, I helped my colleague out by taking part in her research study. She is trying to create a small device which will allow doctors to check how much oxygen is in a baby’s brain during birth.
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What I'd do with the prize money:
I would spend the money on travel to and promotional materials for the major university recruitment events (such as UCAS discovery) to increase the visibility of apprenticeships within the NHS and clinical engineering in particular as I believe these are vital roles to upskilling our workforce.
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Education:
I went to school in a town called Clitheroe, about an hour from manchester. It was called Clitheroe Royal Grammar School and I had to pass an exam to get in. Here, I developed an interest in maths and science, and dabbled in languages. I went from here to the neighbouring Sixth Form where I took Biology, Physics and Maths. Sixth form was a step up from GCSEs but I, eventually, enjoyed the challenge and it was here I started to become interested in engineering in medicine. I attended a work experience in Preston at a Specialist Mobility and Rehabilitation Centre where they make and fit fake legs. This was an amazing experience and the one that confirmed that I wanted to do something in this industry as a career.
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Qualifications:
I got 12 GCSEs at secondary school. The options I chose were triple science, French, German and ICT among others. I didn’t love them all but I think a lot of them are useful in my job.
I did 3 A levels and got ABB across Maths, Physics and Biology which meant that I scraped into my first choice university in Newcastle. Here I did an integrated masters in Mechanical Engineering with Biomedical Engineering.
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Work History:
This is my first full time job however during school and sixth form, I worked part time in weddings as a bartender. I loved chatting to all the customers, had lots of fun making up weird cocktails and watching a lot of adults do some very silly dancing. I made some really close friends through my part time jobs.
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Current Job:
I am a trainee clinical scientist in clinical engineering. I am training to be responsible for the management of any devices within the hospital that may interact with a patient.
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Employer:
I work for University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS foundation trust. The NHS are a the biggest employer in the UK and, so far, have been really fun to work for. I don’t get quite as much holidays as you guys but I am lucky to have a nice big office and I get to go home at 4:30pm every day. With it being such a big company, the application was a bit scary as I think I had to do 4 different tests/interviews but with the help of past trainees it made it quite fun. I have worked for them for 10 months now and have no complaints!
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My Interview
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How would you describe yourself in 3 words?
Sporty cinephile and engineer
What did you want to be after you left school?
A prosthetist
Were you ever in trouble at school?
Sometimes, I got a few detentions and chatted a lot, but I think I paid attention when it came to crunch time.
If you weren't doing this job, what would you choose instead?
Pilot
Who is your favourite singer or band?
Tyler the Creator
What's your favourite food?
A chicken parm
If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!
To constantly live in 25 degree sunshine, to own my own orthopaedic implant company and to learn every language in the world.
Tell us a joke.
Why was the skeleton always calm in the lab? Because nothing could get under its skin!
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