There’s something that underpins an excellent working laboratory and it’s not difficult to guess what that is; It’s the staff. But understanding how we arrive at the finished product of a well rounded, educated, and knowledgeable Biomedical Scientist (BMS) is a bit more of a complex task.
Developing a Biomedical Scientist from their initial days in the laboratory through to a competent and knowledge hungry BMS is a process in itself and I think it’s important to discuss the importance of how we can start out on the right foot. Ultimately at some point you will either be involved with training a biomedical scientist or you may be one that is currently training and so I would like this article to serve as a primer on the training environment itself. Training is not a task, it’s a culture.
It’s always important to start out on the right foot. It’s often said that failing to prepare is preparing to fail and I think this is as true in the laboratory as it is anywhere else. So if you’re a BMS in training or a training officer responsible for the training environment itself, or someone with a bit of an interest in training then this is the article for you.
Positive Learning Culture
This one is simple and starts long before a prospective Biomedical Scientist enters the laboratory. The place in which you want your scientists to learn, has to be a place that people not only want to learn in but where they feel empowered to make decisions and develop professionally. It’s a very simple idea but that doesn’t mean it’s replicated often enough. Sometimes the simplest concepts are the ones first overlooked.
It stands to reason that if you’re eager to learn, you will do more of it. Time and time again I have seen staff that are demotivated and unhappy with the environment fall short of the standard of work they are capable of. The sadness of it is just that, the standard of which they are capable is much higher than the work produced and it’s purely the result of environment. Even the best training officer on the planet can’t out teach a negative working environment.
So what can be done about it? The good news is this. There are a plenty of things that can be done to start making a change in training culture.
- Make training a priority
- Turn potentially negative interactions into learning opportunities
- Stop viewing the completion of an arbitrary qualifications as an endpoint
- Get trainers interested in training
- Get trainees interested in training
Training as a Priority
Staff training should never be an afterthought. The effort and commitment you give to your staff while they undergo training, will result in the output you get following the completion of that training period. Not only that, but it is critical to patient safety, lab quality, and workforce development.
Prioritising training means it needs to appear on the lab schedule. There should be a clear understanding of who the trainee is and who the trainer is. It should not be squeezed in amongst the endless service pressures simply because a trainee exists and needs somewhere to be. Applying this training methodology will put trainers under unnecessary pressure and will lead to sub-optimal learning from a trainee who will be feeling like a burden. To do this, there needs to be active planning development and not a reactive training ethic. Training needs to be planned in advance and it needs to be structured.
When training is seen as essential and not optional by those in charge of training, it creates a culture where learning is embedded into everyday practice.
Turn Potentially Negative Interactions Into Learning Opportunities
Laboratories are high pressure environments. That comes with a level of pressure and a certain expectation that along the way people are going to make mistakes, have misunderstandings, and a near miss is on the cards as well. The better the training input, the lower the likelihood of these occurrences and the lower the chance that where the do occur, they are high risk issues. That said, they will still occur no matter what you do to prevent them. When these moments happen, a trainee will likely feel discouraged and take a bit of a hit to their morale and optimism. The training officer and colleagues are key players here in ensuring that these moments are utilised for teaching, rather than escalating issues.
Calm conversation and encouragement is always the way to go here. It ultimately depends on what led to the mistake that will direct the conversation but there are a plethora of tools at your disposal when handling tricky conversations with a trainee that has made a mistake. Identify why it happened and address it, but do so in a positive light. If a trainee has missed a step in the SOP for example, remind them that mistakes happen to all of us but the SOP is there to be used and to provide support for any process or assay being carried out.
For training officers the goal should always be to shift their perspective from fault finding to feedback giving. The aim is encouragement not retribution. A trainee should always leave these conversations feeling supported to have another go. Encourage your trainees to be open to reflection and growth rather than fear mistakes.
Stop Viewing the Completion of Arbitrary Qualifications as an Endpoint
“Once you’re registered…”
“Once we get your specialist signed off…”
“After your BBTS exams…”
All of these statements indicate that qualifications currently being undertaken are acting as barriers to the workforce. It places a negative emphasis on what should be a very rewarding learning experience. Qualifications are not checkpoints they are milestones. A robust training environment should encourage curiosity, not compliance. One of the best ways to develop a change in narrative regarding this is to use continual professional development or CPD as the backbone for how you feel about training. That’s because it never ends. We should always be seeking out CPD opportunities that encourage growth, keep us up to date with new developments, and for training officers, enhance and inform our practices when training staff for other qualifications.
Secondly, there’s no such thing as self directed learning in biomedical sciences. Qualifications may be self driven in terms of completing the necessary evidence but if you’re using the terminology of self directed learning as a way of palming off training then there needs to be a hard reset on training values within the laboratory. What you’re essentially saying when you say something is self directed is that you can’t be bothered to provide the necessary level of training required and that feeds back to the first point of making training a priority. Why would any trainee focus on their learning, if the example given to them is that nobody cares about their training?
Get Trainers Interested in Training
Not everyone is interested in training, but everyone is likely going to be involved in it along the way. What this means for laboratory management is that identifying your staff that are good teachers, and the one’s that are keen to teach (these are not always the same people) is vital to how your tailor your trainer training. Yes your trainers need trained too. Laboratory training officers should be primarily responsible for both trainee development and trainer development but they also need to be given protected time to do this. Again, if training fails to be made a priority, the laboratory suffers the consequences.
Encourage everyone at all levels to get involved with training. This means you have multiple levels of training ongoing at various times. More formal training provided by a training officer can be enhanced by peer to peer training at the bench. Encourage staff to get involved with training and reward good practice in training. Excellent trainers produce excellent trainees.
Get Trainees Interested in Training
An engaged and enthusiastic trainee is an effective trainee. Encourage the learner to take ownership of their learning journey and development. That way you will be able to identify where their strengths and weaknesses lay. There still needs to be a structure in place with regular reviews and goal setting, but the trainee should be encourage by allowing them to have freedom to explore the relevant topics at their own pace and in as much depth as they see fit (provided they always learn the necessary components of a topic). Some learners will engage heavily in a topic of interest and less so in others, this isn’t laziness its an encouraging development for a learner to figure out what they like and what they don’t.
When trainees feel empowered respected, their capability and confidence grow in tandem.
Final Thoughts
A strong training culture is driven from the top, but it is everyone’s responsibility. Your training officers are part of the training team, and a big part at that, but they aren’t the only person that should ever open a competency document or deliver a training package. It’s oversight versus micromanagement. The priorities above are not extensive, but they are powerful and will set you on the way to correcting attitudes and developing training culture where needed. Whether you’re new to lab or you’re in charge of it, helping to prioritise training is one of the most impactful things you can do.
Are you a training officer or trainee thoughts on this article? Drop your ideas or experiences in the comments below or share this with someone who’s passionate about training in biomedical sciences.
Blood Geek 
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