So you want to be a biochemist?

This blog is aimed at any future/current bioscience students who hope to work in a hospital lab.

First of all I'm going to talk about how to become a hospital biomedical scientist. Before you apply to uni you need to make sure that your course is accredited by the Institute of biomedical science IBMS and the Health care and professions council (HCPC). You can do this by checking the university website before applying, usually as far as I know you only get HCPC if you do a placement year (sandwich courses) where you will complete a portfolio. It's key that you are aware of these things well in advance. But incase you found out whens it's too late. Depending on how bad you want it, you can do an accredited MSc in Biomedical science, the beauty of that is you can either opt for a part time or a full time course, where the part time will allow you to have a day job and it's only for one day a week, but this may vary across universities.
Or, if your university offers both, see if they let you transfer

The above route works if your degree choice is BSc biomedical science. And what you can become with this is a biomedical scientist specialising in biochemistry.

There is also another route, if you steer clear of biomedical science, this is both at a BSc and at MSc level. you can pretty much do any life science based degree and then become something called a clinical scientist. The role of a clinical scientist is a bit different to a biomedical scientist, a clinical scientist has more responsibilities and a higher pay aswell. One thing worth mentioning is that a clinical scientist has a MSc. But not your  average MSc which lasts a year. This masters lasts 3 years and you are paid 25K per year whilst undertaking it. The link below should explain it better than I ever could
http://www.nhscareers.nhs.uk/explore-by-career/healthcare-science/training/nhs-scientist-training-programme-(stp)/

I must say though, most of the work you will be doing in labs will be machine operated. This picture is QE hospital laboratory where I did my work experience, the biochemistry part. So here you'd feed your sample in one end and expect results from the other.

 

Hope this gave you an insight of the different paths you can take to become a hospital biochemist,

 

Peace out!