South London GCSE students have been gaining experience of a range of healthcare and research training, including emergency medicine, mental health and palliative care, at a school run by our BRC.
The week long King’s Health Partners Summer School gave students from Southwark, Lambeth and Lewisham a range of experiences at health organisations in south London. Run by our BRC, the School included sessions with organisations across King’s Health Partners.
The 20 participating students got to experience healthcare training situations such as simulations of births, leg fractures and cardiac arrests.
The students worked with the paediatric research team from Evelina London Children’s Hospital, and found out about the research taking place across Guy’s and St Thomas’.
The students took part in a simulation of providing mental health care to a patient, played by an actor, with severe depression and substance abuse. The session, run by Maudsley Simulation Centre, took the patient from a suicide attempt to recovery. This gave the students valuable insight into mental as well as physical health care and opened up important discussions in the group.
The group also had sessions with Science Gallery London, the Cicely Saunders Institute of Palliative Care and the King’s College Centre for Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine.
Professor Charles Wolfe OBE, Director of the NIHR Guy’s and St Thomas’ Biomedical Research Centre said: “I speak from experience when I say that biomedical research is one of the most rewarding careers you could choose to pursue. Every day my colleagues and I work towards our goal of discovering new ways to diagnose and treat diseases, in order to improve the lives of our patients and the clinical care that they receive. I hope that this year’s Summer School inspires the students to consider a career in research.”
Professor Sir Robert Lechler, Executive Director of King’s Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre, said: “Our partners work together to solve some of the biggest health challenges that face our local communities. I hope the King’s Health Partners Summer School students will be inspired by our people and our research, and we help and encourage them to pursue their own careers in medical research that will have a positive impact on solving the health challenges of the future.”
