Meet our alumni
Matt worked for the St John Ambulance Emergency Ambulance Crew in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. He wrote a blog post to talk about his experience:
"We’re currently into the ninth week of supporting the London Ambulance Service. At the beginning, things were incredibly busy with barely any time between calls to catch a breath – now, however, things are a lot calmer and we’re beginning to see more ‘business as usual’ calls being sent down to us. It’s been an incredible learning curve – not just with the new, unknown, threat of COVID-19, but also with our way of working as ambulance crews. We’ve had to learn new methods of communicating with our patients as most of our face is now covered by some form of mask. We’ve had to become highly adaptable to procedural changes as new evidence rapidly overwrites old guidance. Most importantly, however, we’ve had to learn to depend on each other more than ever. During COVID-19 it’s been fantastic to feel a part of a much bigger team, all pulling together in extraordinary circumstances to achieve the unbelievable."
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"Before I started my MSc, I had substantial knowledge in mycology. However, I was lacking expertise in other areas, such as safety, clinical infection and laboratory management. The MSc helps you learn many aspects of clinical microbiology and also teaches the fundamentals, from clinical disease in a patient to the microorganism which grew from the disease. I learnt essential practical skills and professional knowledge from being in a clinical microbiology laboratory setting."