A big congratulations to Abigail Elias and Mandy Hubbard, the first Clinical Scientist trainees in Haematology who recently passed their Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia (RCPA) Fellowship FSC Part II examinations.

Not for the faint-heart­ed, this achieve­ment is the cul­mi­na­tion of four years of hard work under­tak­ing robust advanced train­ing in haema­tol­ogy, includ­ing transfusion.

They have gained in-depth knowl­edge and exper­tise and demon­strates NSW Health Pathology’s (NSWHP) com­mit­ment to devel­op­ing our sci­en­tif­ic leaders.

Abi­gail is a Trainee Clin­i­cal Sci­en­tist based at NSWHP’s Liv­er­pool Lab­o­ra­to­ry in the Haema­tol­ogy Depart­ment. Her RCPA train­ing is in haema­tol­ogy and transfusion.

“The train­ing pro­gram digs deep­er and equips you with more knowl­edge in both areas, and has cement­ed my knowl­edge of all test­ing areas in haema­tol­ogy and trans­fu­sion. Being able to write and pub­lish in rep­utable jour­nals and com­mu­ni­cat­ing my work with all sci­en­tif­ic pro­fes­sion­als was an icing on the cake,” she said.

Abi­gail said it wasn’t with­out chal­lenges, as she jug­gled fel­low­ship study with work and fam­i­ly life, but it was worth it.

“There is a real­ly high work­load so it requires good time man­age­ment and ded­i­ca­tion. There would be sleep­less nights at times and a lot of writ­ing, but I always believe that you need to fin­ish what you have start­ed, even when the going is tough.

“The knowl­edge you get from train­ing and work­ing in dif­fer­ent areas is price­less. The pro­gram has reward­ed me with new friends and has giv­en me the oppor­tu­ni­ty to meet oth­er rep­utable sci­en­tists and clin­i­cians in the organ­i­sa­tion and nationwide.”

Mandy is a Senior Sci­en­tist in Haema­tol­ogy, based at NSWHP’s lab at Coffs Har­bour Base Hos­pi­tal. She said the Clin­i­cal Sci­en­tist trainee­ship has been a won­der­ful experience.

“It’s not only increased my knowl­edge base, but it has also allowed me to meet and work with var­i­ous tal­ent­ed sci­en­tists with­in our organ­i­sa­tion. As a trainee based in a region­al area, I was required to trav­el to var­i­ous loca­tion expe­ri­enc­ing the diver­si­ty of lab­o­ra­to­ries and their man­age­ment styles in places like John Hunter, Liv­er­pool, Prince of Wales and Roy­al Prince Alfred Hos­pi­tals,” she said.

Mandy was grate­ful for the sup­port of many super­vi­sors and mentors.

“In par­tic­u­lar, I would like to acknowl­edge my super­vi­sors Dr Mar­tin Browne and Dr Anoop Enjeti, who have been instru­men­tal in guid­ing me through this process. I’m also grate­ful to the peo­ple I work with at Coffs Har­bour who have sup­port­ed me,” Mandy said.

Abi­gail and Mandy encour­aged any­one who is con­sid­er­ing the RCPA FSC Fel­low­ship to go for it.

“All you need is pas­sion and ded­i­ca­tion, as you would get help from oth­er trainees, sci­en­tists, RCPA and NSWHP,” Abi­gail said.

Mandy’s tip was to reach out to any­one else at NSWHP who was com­plet­ing the pro­gram, as they can be your new friend and study-buddy.

“Hav­ing Abi­gail as this per­son has been price­less and I am for­ev­er grate­ful for her knowl­edge, expe­ri­ence and encour­age­ment. The Clin­i­cal Sci­en­tists that you will meet will be like a new fam­i­ly, peo­ple that under­stand the chal­lenges and demands of this train­ing, and who are always will­ing to help,” she said.

Abi­gial was grate­ful to her sup­port crew who cheered her on and helped keep her motivated.

“Thank you so much to my super­vi­sor Dr Pene­lope Motum, for help­ing and sup­port­ing me to achieve this and I will for­ev­er be grate­ful for men­tor­ing and trust­ing in me. Thank you so much to my part­ner in train­ing, Mandy Hub­bard from NSWHP’s Coffs Har­bour Lab­o­ra­to­ry. I wouldn’t have achieved this with­out your help. Our end­less meet­ings and hard work have paid off. Final­ly, a huge thank you to all Liv­er­pool Haema­tol­ogy and Trans­fu­sion staff for assist­ing with my train­ing,” Abi­gail said.

Abi­gail and Mandy were also grate­ful for the sup­port of NSWHP’s Direc­tor of Sci­en­tif­ic and Tech­ni­cal, Vanes­sa Thomson.

“Vanes­sa for her sup­port in all the areas of our train­ing – your belief in empow­er­ing sci­en­tif­ic lead­ers is admirable and thank you for always being there when­ev­er I need­ed your advice,” Abi­gail said.

“Vanessa’s belief in the abil­i­ty of Clin­i­cal Sci­en­tists and the way that we can con­tribute to our organ­i­sa­tion con­tin­ues to moti­vate me,” said Mandy.

Abi­gial and Mandy agreed it’s been fan­tas­tic to learn about the var­i­ous Haema­tol­ogy depart­ments, mak­ing new friends, exchang­ing ideas with oth­er sci­en­tists, con­tribut­ing to var­i­ous research projects and show­ing that com­plet­ing this pro­gram is also pos­si­ble for sci­en­tists no mat­ter if you live in met­ro­pol­i­tan or rur­al and region­al sites.

Well done to Abi­gail and Mandy. Your hard work and ded­i­ca­tion has paid off and we look for­ward to see­ing what you do next!

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