Congratulations to Kimberley Hulse who became the latest AAPT member to achieve the RSciTech award
You must be very proud to achieve the RSciTech award through the new shortened application process. Did you find applying straightforward?
Overwhelmingly proud of attaining the RSciTech award, it’s brilliant that I am part of a team of professionals who are slowly becoming recognised in the field of anatomical pathology.
The shortened application route was straightforward. The only difficulty I had was choosing the most fitting examples that contained the question criteria. I wanted my examples to evidence my professionalism, skill set, knowledge, and respect for the deceased in its' entirety.
Can you give your main reason for wishing to achieve the RSciTech registration?
I initially wanted to gain science registration to be able to undertake the Level 4 Diploma but as the application process took me through each question, it was a way to portray my knowledge and skills throughout my time as a qualified APT.
It made me more aware of my continued professional and personal development and allowed me to focus on how I could incorporate the science council values into my everyday way of working.
The AAPT provided guidance documents and other useful references within the AAPT website. Did you find these useful as you completed the application?
The references the AAPT provided were extremely useful. I initially attempted to answer the questions with minimal help from the guidance but found using these aids helped steer me back on the right track as it was so easy to divulge in an example that took me off course, away from what the question asked.
I did end up printing the guidance documents and kept them under my keyboard in work which was so handy to have close by.
Once the award is achieved it must then be maintained through CPD and adherence to the standards. Is this daunting or a new professional challenge to overcome?
I find this a new challenge that I will be most definitely grabbing with both hands!
Being able to keep a professional log of my continuous personal development provides me with pride knowing how far I have come and what I have learned and achieved within such a space of time. To be able to continue to add to the ever-growing list of valuable skills and learning makes me proud of being an APT and part of the close-knit team I am in.
Any good examples of meeting a standard you used that you could share with others?
I think the best example I used was the use of different techniques of reconstruction, especially for the likes of forensic postmortems.
Knowing H/O PMs can go into a lot of detailed examination, sometimes the forensic pathologists are that engrossed in their findings that they forget the families of the deceased will want to view their loved one afterwards.
Approaching the reconstruction process has always been one of the best parts of a postmortem for me and knowing I can make a difference to the families and friends gives me so much pride in my work.
Every second spent is me “taking responsibility for the quality of my work and the impact on others” to quote a section from one of the questions.
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