Jocelyn Pryce reflects on the past year as she leaves her role as Deputy Executive of Education at the IBMS.
Throughout my career I have always been driven to support and mentor others. My role at the IBMS as the Deputy Executive of Education has perfectly positioned me to offer guidance to members across the profession. Since joining the IBMS in 2016, I have thoroughly enjoyed working with and helping our members. But 2020 is the year I will be most proud of as we accomplished so much in such a tumultuous time. Most notably, we moved to virtual assessments and developed our Support Hubs.
Progress is often made following the pressures of a crisis and the advances we made during 2020 are testament to this. The pandemic offered the opportunity for us to look at how we work and be open to changes that would enable us to improve. The pandemic also brought with it other challenges – not least the feeling of isolation, both physically and psychologically. One way we looked to help was by introducing the Support Hubs – online forums on a wide variety of subjects that could bring us together and get us talking to one another. As we have grown and developed these sessions, I have loved seeing the camaraderie, true kindness and support all around from Support Hub participants.
For me, the future looks both exciting and scary. After five years at the IBMS, I will be stepping outside my comfort zone and into a new role. I believe that it is beneficial to take a step into the unknown once in a while, to challenge ourselves so that we keep moving forwards. Many of us undertake CPD as part of our HCPC registration and that CPD should drive progress. We should all look to stay connected with others and through them grow and develop ourselves. I believe this applies to both individuals and organisations, and the Institute is no different. Though I will be leaving the IBMS, the wonderful connections and experiences I have built are something I will take with me.
I know I am leaving my work at the IBMS in good hands and look forward to seeing how programmes like the Support Hubs and eLearning platform continue to grow and develop. In June we held our biggest Support Hub sessions yet to celebrate Biomedical Science Day. We had over 100 live participants in attendance, with more wishing to attend!
We’ve seen this past year how the Support Hub format is an accessible way for us to offer guidance to members at every level of the profession and I encourage you all to continue supporting and helping one another.
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