Hayley Pincott

"My personality matches are coordinator, manager and trainer. I'm more than happy with my matches, I feel that the qualities tie to the personality types really fit to certain characteristics and personality traits of mine.Coordinator: I help to run a public engagement group so having qualities such as organised, works well with others, willing to help when needed really fit in well to this work I carry out. Also having qualities such as works well with other, patient and compassionate and provides a service and can deliver what people need is exactly how I see myself and my role within the lab providing a diagnostic service to our patients.Manager: I really don't consider myself a manager however looking at the list of qualities provided in this personality type actually matches some of my traits. I like to think of myself as team orientated, open minded, motivated and understands how to motivate individuals and groups and I think to work in a team where we have such an impact on patient care then many of my colleagues share these traits.Trainer: This I feel is the most matched to myself, again with the manger type I wouldn't consider myself a trainer however when you start to look at the characteristics of what qualities a trainer required then I suppose I fit into this category. I really enjoy advising and helping the student we work with, but we don't just provide advice for physical activities we find that much of our time is taken helping support students emotionally as taking on a PhD is a huge undertaking. The qualities the personality type lists are understanding and helpful, understands how people learn differently, thrives on helping other improve, good listener I feel that these can easily be applied to the students we see. Also in regards to the public engagement I carry out then traits such as good at simplifying complex information and can think of creative ways to get information to other people I like to think are my strongest points.So overall just by going by the title of the personality types I wouldn't have considered myself any of these but when I started to look into what qualities are listed within theses types then I was really surprised to find that I actually matched very well."

"I'm an associate pratitioner healthcare scientist in oral pathology and microbiology. I spend most of my time within the histology lab as this is much more hands on than the microbiology lab. Histology is the study of tissue, and microbiology is the study of small living things which include bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites. My job is to provide support to the biomedical scientist and consultant pathologist and I earn just over £22,000.It would be easier to talk you through a specimen journey to help explain my role.1) A specimen arrives and we allocate it a lab number and this number stays with the specimen, we then book this onto the hospital computer system. 2) The next step is when the specimen is fixed, this means that when the specimen has been sitting in formalin for long enough (usually 24hrs) so it doesn't start to decompose, the specimen goes over to the cut up bench. What happens on this bench is the specimen will be described by our pathologist and I'll write on the request form that accompanies the specimen exactly what the pathologist says. A description is taken because specimens go through various processes and this way we know what the specimen looked like originally and it can also give the pathologists some clues to help with a diagnosis. Either the whole specimen (if it's a small biopsy) of representative samples are taken and placed into plastic cassettes and these cassettes go on a machine called a tissue processor overnight.3) There are lots of chemicals called solvents on the overnight processor, the purpose of these solvents is to remove free water from the specimen and replace it with wax. So we use alcohol to remove the water but because alcohol and wax aren't miscible, (this means they don't mix well together) we then have to use xylene to get rid of the alcohol and then finally wax can be added. We put our processor on at about 4pm and by the time we get in to work in the morning the processing has finished.4) Next we have embedding, this is when the specimen is placed into a wax block as this helps us later cut really thin sections.5) This is the point where the tissue specimen gets put onto a slide by using a piece of very specialist equipment called a microtome. Mictrotomy isn't easy and is highly skilled however over time you get to pick up hints and tips from those who are more experienced. A thin section (4 microns thin, which is 4/1000 of a mm thin and just under half the width of your hair) is cut and floated on a warm waterbath, this helps to pick up the thin section just cut onto a slide and also just smooths out the section as providing high quality slides is really important so we need to aim to get perfect sections for each wax block we have produced.6) We stain slides with haematoxylin and eosin (H&E) this shows the nucleus of a cell as purple and the cytoplasm and connective tissue in pink.7) The final step is to quality check the slides to makes sure they are stained correctly."

"I started as a medical laboratory assistant (MLA) and worked in various labs, I've worked in biochemistry, haematology, blood bank and histology as an MLA and gained valuable experience, skills and knowledge which I have transferred to my current role. While working as an MLA in Specimen REception at University Hospital of Wales I attened UWIC, which is now Cardiff Metropolitan University, as they offered an accredited degree in biomedical science. I worked full time and where I worked sent MLA's to complete their degree as a day relsease whic meant that a degree that takes 3 years full time took 5 years as a day release. I decided to only complete the first year of the degree which meant that I had a HNC in Biomedical Science, this was because I worked full time and had a young family so I thought that I would complete my degree at a later date. I already had a young son when I started my course and was pregnant with my second son when I started. Then in my second and final year I was pregnant with my third son, he was due around exam time but as I was having a caersarean then I planned having him around my exams.Having the HNC in Biomedical Science meant that I could progress from an MLA to my current role as an associate practitioner healthcare scientist (AP). This is still a supporting role like being an MLA but with slightly more responsibilities."

"When I have spare time, which is rare working full time and having a family to look after I really enjoy drawing and sketching. This doesn't mean I'm any good but it's something I enjoy doing, it helps to take my mind off work and it's a bit of escape from the world for a brief moment. I've really started to read a lot more during lockdown. I've got about 3 books on the go, what I read depends on my mood. I'm reading Invisbile Women which is a book all about the gender bias and unconcious bias that is all around. I'm only half way through the book but it has really made me angry, sad and upset as I realise that although I've experienced some form of sexism there is still such a long way to go to reach equality. The book is not a light hearted read but it's a complete eye opener and has made me more aware of how I approach things and has made me look at myself and the unconciuos bias that I might apply to certain tasks and/or people. It's definitely worth a read if you have the time. I'm just finished Dear NHS which is full of short stories provided by celebrities and high profile people, it had me laughing and crying. What an abolutely humbling read, it makes me want to continue to do my best in work and provide a high quality care so that the public can continue to be proud of the NHS and what we stand for.On a lighter side I love just sitting down with some sweets and popcorn and we have Pincott Cinema with the family. It's great to put some time to one side to spend time together infront of a film, under a blanket on a rainy day having cuddles with my boys watching a good film."

"I start my day by checking my emails, while my colleague is on the microtome cutting sections to go on slides and when these are ready I take them to be stained. After a couple of hours I collect the slides and I'll quality check them, match the slides to the request forms and then issue them out to the consultant pathologist. After lunch I'll do cut up with the consultant and this can take anything from 30mins to over 2 hours depending on if we have a cancer resection to cut. We deal with small routine biopsies, urgent suspected cancer biopsies and then if it has been found a patient has cancer then we get the cancer resection to confirm if the tumour has been removed in surgery. We see resections from tongues, larynx, floor of mouth, mandibles, and also the soft tissue from the neck to check the lymph nodes to see if the cancer has spread. Throughout the day we get specimens dropped of from dental clinics and delivered from dental practices and I book these in throughout the day."

"I completed a advanced GNVQ in Science and gained a merit, these qualifications are no longer offered however I believe they are similar to the T-levels that are now being offered.I then completed my HNC in Biomedical Science while I was in work."