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Rhian

During summer 2022, HEIW took on 15 students for an eight-week internship. They each spent time in a specific department within HEIW to gain an insight into what it’s like to work for the NHS in Wales.

Here you can read about Rhian’s internship experience at HEIW.

Name:                                Rhian

Studying:                           Biology

University:                        University of south Wales

Internship with:               Allied Health Professionals team at HEIW

 

My overall experience

My name is Rhian and I am a second year biology student at the University of South Wales. 

When I first joined this internship, I really didn't know what to expect. But anything I could have predicted is surpassed.

I thought it would just be a job for the summer, something to keep you busy. But it's definitely been an opportunity that I won't forget, and I encourage people to do this internship if they can.

I'd like to thank the team for all the help and giving me such a warm welcome.

 

Rhian’s Project

Project summary

My internship has taken place in the Allied Health Professionals (AHP) [team]. I am working on data collection to establish what is known about the 13 individual Allied Health Professions. I’ll then use the data collected to lay the foundations for future educational resources.

I started my internship by creating a tool to gather information, understand what is already known of the 13 allied health professions in Wales and try to figure out how to build on this knowledge. My vision and goal for this project was to create a survey with around 50 responses from allied health professionals and those that work alongside them.

The future goal was for the survey results to be used to create resources and education tools for AHPs and the wider multidisciplinary teams that they work within.

 

The survey

I set various milestones for each part of this project which are listed below:

  • research
  • creation of the survey
  • research on how to get the most engagement with the survey
  • trailing the survey
  • releasing the survey

These milestones helped create the action plan for the project.

 

In the beginning

Various research was done to make sure the survey would be beneficial. I met with each member of the AHP team to ask about their field and what they would be interested in knowing and gaining from this experience.

I looked at the best ways to promote a survey, whether that be on the internet, social media or via emails.

I also worked with other teams, such as the Communications team and Nursing and Health Professional Education team to finalise the survey and its promotion.

 

Making the survey live

We released the survey, initially through e-mail and Twitter, and we had a great response, but we felt like we could do more. So, we released the survey through the intranet, more social media posts, the website and word of mouth through meetings and follow up e-mail reminders.

 

The response

So far, we have had 160 plus responses to the survey from a variety of professions. This is a lot more than the initial 50 I had anticipated.

From the results so far, we can see that the lack of knowledge about AHP’s isn’t within the Allied Health Professions or the teams around them. It's the wider team who doesn't understand what the AHP's do. With this in mind, we've decided to extend our target audience to all NHS Wales and HEIW staff to see where this lack of knowledge lays and where to target the education first.

 

Outside of work and university

In my spare time I enjoy scuba diving and exploring new places both in my local area and further afield.