Since 10 December, a group of eight MSc Pharmaceutical Sciences with Industrial Practice students have answered the call for help and have joined frontline health workers by administering PCR tests. They have been stationed at different sites across the country such as Stanstead, Hull and Exeter.
The students were trained in a herculean effort by staff as the call for workers went out the week before campuses were locked down in December, in line with government guidelines. Joanna Miest and, first, Milan Antonijevic tell the story.
“When we had the request for students, I know we didn’t have long to get our students trained and ready to go. I am a chemist, so this isn’t my area of expertise, but I put out a request within the faculty and thankfully Joanna came straight back so we got to work”
Joanna says “my area of research is fish biology but the technique of PCR is transferable between fish and humans. I told Milan that I’d be happy to help with in person training as well as preparing an online hub for teaching materials so that the students could have access to more information at any time. Time was really tight as we knew the campus would have to close in line with government guidance very soon so we organized a face-to-face lab session and sent out the invite to our students. “
“About 20 turned up.” Says Milan “and we managed to do a three-to-four-hour session and supplement it with all the online resources. Eight students were placed in the field and have been working right through until this week. One of the strengths of our course is industry placements. We are proud of our ability to get our students access to amazing opportunities and this year is no different.”
Joanna says: “I thought it was wonderful that our students were given the opportunity to help combatting the pandemic and enhance their skill set at the same time. This was a fantastic opportunity for them.”
Milan says: “We also need to mention a great support provided by technical staff in Nelson building as the session run smoothly due to their great efforts and timely preparation of the lab. Also, we built the repository of a general knowledge for our students around the current PCR and qPCR testing, hence all MSc Pharmaceutical Sciences students have the opportunity to expand their knowledge and fully understand current analytical efforts used to support
