Profile
Rachel Jackson
My CV
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Education:
Our Lady of Lourdes Primary School.
St Andrews and St Brides High School.
University of Strathclyde. -
Qualifications:
Standard Grades
Maths – 1
English – 1
Chemistry – 1
Physics – 1
Geography – 1
French – 1
Spanish – 1
Drama -1Highers
Maths – A
English – A
Chemistry – A
Physics – A
Human Biology – A
Geography – A
Spanish – AAdvanced Highers
Maths – A
Chemistry – C -
Work History:
Brand Representative – when I was 16 I started working at Hollister Co. in Glasgow City Centre. I worked there for five years! I used to enjoy being left alone to tidy up messy tables of hoodies.
Cashier – After Hollister, during my last couple years of uni I worked at Morrisons as a cashier. I loved the chat of the little old dears on a Sunday.
Model – since I was sixteen I have been modelling with an agency in Glasgow, Model Team. I started this when I was at school and sometimes I had to be off in the morning so I could go to shoots. My teachers knew about it and thought it was really cool. I did modelling for a year when I left school, before I started university and it was so fun! I continued to do modelling during university and I still do some from time to time.
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Current Job:
I am a trainee clinical scientist within the NHS. I specialise in clinical engineering which is a bit confusing, but basically my job combines science and engineering which is all the more exciting.
I am on a training scheme where I get to see lots of different areas within the NHS which do very specific work.
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About Me:
I love my dogs and being cosy!
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I am 25 years old. I live just outside of Glasgow where I stay at home with my parents and my beautiful doggies, Ollie and Larsson. My boyfriend is called Ryan and he is a personal trainer. We have just finished watching Modern Family and now we don’t know what to do with ourselves.
I am the youngest of six siblings so I am very good at laughing at myself! I am a member of a musical theatre club called Studio 32 who performs musicals, pantomimes and plays. My favourite holiday is Orlando, Florida and I love visiting the theme parks, especially Universal Studios. I hope to take a big holiday in the next couple years and travel to Australia as I have never been.
I went to the University of Strathclyde and studied Biomedical Engineering, a course I had never even heard of when I was at school!
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I work as a clinical scientist specialising in clinical engineering. This means that I use both scientific methods and engineering principles to do my job. For the last year I have been on rotations seeing a whole bunch of things that come under this topic.
Examples include:
Special wheelchairs that allow someone to control the direction of their wheelchair by using their eyes or their chin. Devices like this give patients a level of independence they would not normally have.
Creating medical devices in areas where doctors/clinical staff keep running into the same problems. For example, this year I created a device for ‘interventional radiology’ which is where doctors use very long wires to reach far away parts of the body and do so with the use of x-rays. They had an issue in that the big long wires were very difficult to control, so I made a device which has helped them control the wires and made the overall procedure more safe.
‘Gait analysis’ which looks at the way people walk by placing sticky markers on different parts of the body such as the knees, hips and feet, using special cameras and producing a ‘stick figure’ of the person. This is used in the NHS to look at how a person is walking and if there are any issues, this can then help inform other professionals if further work is needed like operations or physiotherapy.
Vascular department where pressure measurements are taken to check if there are issues with the blood vessels in patients legs. The measurement tells you if there is a difference between the pressure at the top of the legs and the bottom. If there is a difference there may be something blocking the flow of blood, which can be double checked using an ultrasound machine.
ICT department where code is written on a super tiny computer called a raspberry pi and used to take data out a medical device. An example is a pulse oximeter which is used to check the percentage of oxygen in the blood. In COVID-19 wards this is a vital measurement as it can help see if the patient is receiving enough oxygen.
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My Typical Day:
My typical day can change so much depending on where I am! An example is waking up and driving to work whilst listening to a youtube video or podcast episode.
I drive to where I am based that day, for example the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital. I spend a lot of time working with ‘bioengineers’ in a wheelchair service. During the day I will attend lots of clinics, speak to lots of patients and use my toolkit to make changes to make patients more comfortable.
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My Interview
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How would you describe yourself in 3 words?
Kind, organised, bubbly
What did you want to be after you left school?
I didn't know!!
Were you ever in trouble at school?
Only for being too chatty...
Who is your favourite singer or band?
Biffy Clyro or Taylor Swift... strange difference
What's your favourite food?
Chicken Tikka Masala
If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!
Healthy friends and family, unlimited holidays, more wishes...
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