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Khazakhstan ?? Geoff you,ve been watching too many movies.!!!

Yeah, I think I saw Borat working in Estates at a certain hospital in North London! But you’re an experienced guy, Tony. What are your thoughts on Mark’s original question about the aging of biomed departments? And how to bring-on the young 'uns, motivate them, etc.?

It is disheartening I think for the Young Uns these days,difficult to motivate them. I really don,t know what the answer is mate, I can see the Guys point re Security of Tenure. ie it will pay the Mortgage. George Bush has definitely put an end to Middle East Careers for at least a Generation. So what to do ? Mr Geoff. I suppose the old ex-pat maxim still applies ie CYA, Keep Laughing, Take the Money. But its definitely the keep laughing thats the difficult bit.

... personally, Mate, I have more of a problem with the "taking the money" bit! But wise words, nevertheless (especially about the demise of the Middle East ex-pat scene, mores the pity, eh?).

Yeah, our young have everything, but in a way they have nowt (nothing much of lasting value going for them, that is)! And when it comes to motivating them ... well, you're not allowed to, are you?

If, apart from the hand holding of clinical staff, the nature of our work is becoming more like that of a domestic appliance engineer, then, the future educational/training requirements of any new entrants in to the game would not need to be so high as HNC/degree level.
Why ask for high level electronics qualifications when they will not be required. Surely, we would stand to lose the people that we train because they would feel that their qualifications can be put to better use elsewhere.
Dead man shoes wouldn't be a problem because there wouldn't be anything to progress to.

Cheers
Mark

Mornin’ Mark. But surely every young person in our bright new Britain gets a degree these days, don’t they? Futhermore, do you find that those new entrants with an electronics degree are any better than we were, with our vocational backgrounds? Also, perhaps any really sharp young wiz should be advised to look elsewhere if he (she) is keen on pursuing a career in electronics (I believe that biomed has never been a purely “electronics” endeavour, anyway – surely that’s part of its appeal)?

Having done a bit of stuff on domestic appliances recently (?), I can say that I enjoyed it almost as much as I once enjoyed working on electromedical kit! Nowadays, despite having put in over thirty years in the game, I’m not allowed to work on medical equipment in UK NHS hospitals. Yesterday’s Man, indeed!

On the subject of “dead man’s shoes”. From my perch as an outsider, I hope I can get away with a comment that it would seem that the cream does not always float to the top in the NHS!

its very annoying that i spent 3 yrs doing undergrad degree and 2 yrs (part time) masters in biomedical engineering and now i dont use ANYTHING that ive learnt in those 5 yrs! the only thing that u will use in this job is what uve learnt DOING THE JOB! dont get me wrong, i like doing what i do but its not what i imagined myself doing. if that makes any sense

Hi,

Sounds like you didn't fully appreciate what the job you're currently doing actually involved day to day when you applied for it. Is that a fair comment?

Surely some of the biomedical engineering postgrad stuff is related to what you do - otherwise why did you take on the course when you were in-post? Were you just offered the chance for PT study when you took your first job?

Personally speaking I tried to avoid courses that didn't go into the Physics & Engineering related aspects of devices, e.g. medical devices.

I reckon the bits of postgrad BE courses that're interesting but not really relevant can't be avoided since the courses that've been available for a while are not necessarily "tailored" towards the needs of technicians working in maintenance.

There are quite a few biomedical engineering courses that go into cell biology, biocompatibility, prostheses, biomechanics, etc, options that probably aren't relevant unless you're working in rehabilitation engineering, etc, or pure research.

I've met individuals working in maintenance that have completed ONC/HNC courses in Medical Physics and Physiological measurement so they could get a grounding in how medical devices work and the range of diagnostics that are available.

However these are now degree-level subjects because the job-requirements dictate it.

Sounds like you didn't fully appreciate what the biomedical engineering PG course involved, or it's relevance to what you were doing at work, when you applied for it. Is that a fair comment?

Considering the requirements for AfC job roles, etc, do you think that having degrees will make it easier for you to progress once you have sufficient experience?

Cheers,

hi, well to be honest i do enjoy my job, i love dealing with people and every chance i get i do try and repair equipments down to component level which is what i love doing. my problem is that, the things they teach on biomedical engineering courses are not really related to wat ull be doing.
the reason that i chose to do an msc was that i did enjoy doing boimedical engineering and i love learning and i think that whatever ur job is, u should always try and be the best that u can in that field. so even though my job is not what i expected it to be, i do enjoy it and i will do my best to get to the top even if that means doing an msc or a phd.
(p.s its 2:30am and im sleepy so im sorry if im not making much sense :))

No, but I was only enquiring out of interest to see why you didn't think the study you'd done was relevant.