Claudia Ruffini – NHS England, Leeds Office
I am a Mathematics Undergraduate studying at the University of Bath. During my placement
with the Department of Health, I have been working as an Operational Research Analyst in
the Analytical Services Operations directorate in NHS England. I work within a team of four
within this directorate and collectively we manage a number of data collections that are
published on the NHS England website.
Collections that I have worked on include Mixed Sex Accommodation, Bed Availability and
Occupancy, the Friends and Family Test, Monthly and Quarterly Activity Returns, Cancelled
Operations and Consultant-Led Referral to Treatment Waiting Times. My responsibilities
include collecting this data from providers and commissioners across England, validating the
data, producing publications and supporting analysis, quality assuring these and publishing
on a monthly or quarterly basis. I answer Parliamentary Questions (PQs) and Freedom of
Information requests (FOIs) related to these collections.
I have had opportunity to further develop my skills by attending some courses of my choice
and GORS events throughout the year. These kinds of events were always fully supported by
my line manager as we are encouraged to seek development opportunities where possible
and learn more about Operational Research in Government. There are plenty of lunchtime
seminars and junior analyst meetings to attend where you can present or see others
presentations. These are always interesting and a good opportunity to learn analysis
techniques and about other areas of work within DH or NHS England. I have had the
opportunity myself to present on a few occasions and have considerably improved my
public speaking through doing so.
I have found Quarry House a very enjoyable place to work. Colleagues were very friendly
and welcoming when I first started and everybody is always happy to help if you need
support or assistance. I immediately felt part of the team as I was given lots of
responsibility. The atmosphere in the branch is professional but relaxed which makes for a
good work environment. I’ve become good friends with the other placement students over
the year, we organised the Analyst Christmas Party which was a great success and a few of
us even went on a ski trip together.
Overall, I feel I’ve learnt a great deal during my time on placement and the experience has
helped me hone my skills for future employability that I couldn’t have done at University.
The insight has been invaluable and I would recommend a Health based placement to
anyone considering it.
Dilraj Sura – NHS England, Leeds Office
I am an undergraduate student studying Mathematics at Brunel University. In July, I took a
sandwich placement at the Department of Health, and was put on placement with NHS
England. I work as an Operational Research Analyst within the Commissioning and Policy
team, specifically within the Primary Medical Care sub-team. I have completed many
projects this year around primary care, but my main focus has been in Mental Health, and
producing a “State of the Nation” report.
The roles and responsibilities given to the students allow you to develop a whole range of
different skills. I worked on projects within primary care such as analysing whether there
was a significant difference in the performance of single and non-single handed
practices,and analysing premises funding against a range of metrics for GPs. However, the
bulk of my work has been in mental health. This has allowed me to learn a new software
product called Instant Atlas, a dynamic tool used to compare and assess Clinical
Commissioning Groups (CCGs). I have created atlases across a range of topics within mental
health, including Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) and Dementia. The
most important atlas I built was one to support the “State of the Nation” report, which
brought together all publicly available data on mental health. This involved high exposure to
political and statistical stakeholders.
The environment you work in as part of the of the placement is exciting. You are quickly
integrated into a team with lots of other students. The students traditionally organise the
Christmas Analyst Party, which involved a quiz and Christmas lunch. The premises have a
gym, swimming pool and squash courts, and is located right in the city centre.
The opportunities that arise as part of the of the work placement are fantastic. There are
numerous opportunities to improve IT skills within Office (Excel, PowerPoint and VBA) and
the chance to learn new software (Instant Atlas, Simul8 and MapInfo). There are societies
you can join such as the Operational Research Society, where you can attend events hosted
by people working in the industry. Towards the end of the placement, you are offered to sit
an examination and mock interview as if you were applying for a graduate job, and are given
feedback.
A lot of the opportunities that you are given as part of a placement are impossible to pick up
at university. Doing a placement gives you a much better idea of where you want your
career to go, and whether you want to be an analyst or not. The Civil Service and NHS offer
fantastic graduate schemes, and having a year in the organisation will make your C.V stand
out from most in the future.
Dipesh Mistry – Department of Health, Leeds Office
I am an Economics student from Manchester Metropolitan University. I have been working
in the Financial Planning, Monitoring & Analysis branch as an Assistant Analyst. My main
objective this year has been to maintain and monitor trends in the Health Service Cost Index
(HSCI) which is a model that measures the inflation of non-pay expenditure of the NHS.
The team works on many different areas which relate to how and how well the NHS spends
the money that it is allocated from the Treasury each year. This year I have been responsible
for collating and publishing estimates of NHS inflation (think of it like the NHS version of the
retail price index), analysing changes in the way patients are seen in hospital (things like
A&E attendances, emergency care, scheduled planned care), how productivity varies across
hospitals and how much hospitals have been spending on procurement items (like medical
equipment, general supplies, etc). I joined at a time when DH had been informed how much
money the NHS will be allocated in 2015, so much of the work was focused on how we
measure and monitor the savings the NHS needs to make in the future.
Whilst working here I have always felt valued which stems from knowing the work I produce
is used elsewhere by colleagues and some of it being of high importance as I found myself
responding to requests from Ministers and other high profile senior officials. For example, I
produced a report detailing differences in procurement and staff spend at NHS
organisations, this trust level analysis went on to inform a £12 billion procurement strategy
impact assessment.
I would definitely recommend this placement to penultimate year students as the scope of
opportunity to develop yourself is vast, whether that be technical skills in learning how to
use specialist analytical software such as SPSS / Stata or ‘soft’ skills via public speaking in
presentations and communicating ideas in person on a day to day basis.
Hannah Williams – Department of Health, London Office
I study Financial Mathematics at the University of Surrey and joined the Health
Improvement Analytical Team as an Operational Research Analyst in July 2013. My team is
part of the Public Health Directorate and provides analytical support on different areas such
as Obesity and Nutrition, Wellbeing, Abortion, Drugs and Alcohol.
Since July I have worked on many different things, including an impact assessment which
looked into the link between the folate status of women before and during pregnancy and
the prevalence of babies born with a neural tube defect, such as spina bifida. The impact
assessment considered different solutions to this problem, including the fortification of flour
with folic acid, through cost benefit analysis. I worked with an economist in my team to do
this – we had to find a lot of the evidence needed and feed it back to policy colleagues who
also helped to write the impact assessment.
Another project included analysing the results of a trial which looked at increasing the
uptake of NHS Health Checks by sending out different invitation letters. That sounds quite
simple but it involves quite a bit of analysis and I learnt many new skills in SPSS. It was
interesting to do some analysis on a real problem with real data, something which made a
change from university.
There are often many ad hoc things within the team which I work on, supporting colleagues
with projects that they are working on. This placement has given me a really good insight
into the work that the government do, I had no idea when I first started what goes on in the
background to make sure that things are put in place to try and improve the health of the
country and its interesting to see how so much of that relies on maths and stats. I have been
able to develop my analytical skills which I think puts me in good standing for going back
into final year.
Jasmine Doak - Department of Health, London Office
I am currently an undergraduate student studying Mathematics at the University of Bath.
This year I have been working as an Operational Research analyst for the Department of
Health, within the Dental and Eye-Care Analytical team. The main focus of the team’s work
during my placement has been on the development of a new dental contract, which aims to
reform the way dentistry is practiced and paid for on a national scale, and is currently being
piloted. The team is also responsible for business as usual reporting on dental and eye-care
across the country.
My role within the team was largely to support the extensive analytical work on the dental
contract reform by maintaining key databases, analysing information, and producing regular
reports on the pilots in a timely manner. Additionally, some of my time with the team was
spent working under a statistician whose focus was on the business as usual work
mentioned above. This variety enabled me to gain a more rounded understanding of the
role of the team within DH, as this work area involved gathering, manipulating and reporting
data on a national level for both dentistry and eye-care, rather than focusing on the small
subset of dental practices which the pilots represented.
As part of my role I was responsible for updating our three main data sources for the dental
pilots and for producing monthly reports on their progress. The role of these monthly
reports was to give the new contract programme board, comprised of policy colleagues,
analysts and key stakeholders, an overview of how the pilots were operating in several key
areas. This area of work greatly enhanced my IT skills, involving extensive work in both Excel
and Access, which then enabled me to improve the efficiency of how the reports were
produced.
The largest project I worked on focused on analysing treatment volumes data collected from
both pilot and non-pilot practices, in order to explore the implications of introducing a new
care pathway. This was an extensive and complex piece of analytical work, and I was given
the lead on transferring the work to the statistical programming package SAS, once again
giving me a great opportunity to learn to use a popular piece of industry software and
expand my skillset.
My placement also provided a vital opportunity to expand my communication skills, which
I’ve had a limited chance to develop within my degree. Most notably, I had never given a
presentation during my time at university, but throughout my placement I was given several
opportunities to do so, including presentations for other students, for my team, and for the
wider DH analytical community. In addition to this, I regularly corresponded with colleagues
via phone, email and during business meetings and feel that the placement has offered an
invaluable experience to develop my confidence in these situations.
Further benefits of the placement included regular opportunities to attend both courses and
seminars hosted for analysts, which allowed you to gain an insight into different work areas
and to explore techniques that piqued your interest. Additionally, the student analysts are
offered the opportunity to take part in the sifting process for next year’s placement
applicants, which was insightful in understanding how applications are interpreted from the
employer’s point of view.
I would definitely recommend applying for a placement within the Department of Health.
The work environment is both comfortable and welcoming, and also encourages extensive
and varied opportunities for development, including wider learning beyond your particular
work area. I am confident that the skills I have developed over the year will be invaluable
when applying for graduate opportunities, and have given me great insight into my working
interests.
Katrina Walker – NHS England, Leeds Office
I’m a Mathematics student at the University of Bath and joined the Outcomes Analysis Team
in August 2013, where I have been working as an Operational Researcher. My team’s work
mainly revolves around the NHS Outcomes Framework, which gives guidelines on health
related areas that need to be improved on. During my placement I have worked on a variety
of different projects, from producing reports on how many health visitors are currently
employed in the country, and analysing the cost effectiveness of implementing different
mental health interventions throughout the country.
The main project I have worked on is modelling the bowel cancer screening programme, in
order to model how screening affects the stage of cancer and the number of people
diagnosed with bowel cancer. To do this, I used a programme called Simul8 and input
timings, percentages and processes that were found in papers and extracts from journals
about the bowel cancer screening programme to find results.
The work throughout my placement has been extremely variable which I have thoroughly
enjoyed, as it’s given me the chance to try out loads of different things. This has encouraged
me to develop many different skills, mainly my communication and presentation skills, but
also my confidence and IT skills have improved too.
I have had the opportunity to chair and take minutes in various meetings, and have also
given presentations both in meetings and to a wider audience. In addition to this, I have
been able to travel to Sheffield, Birmingham and various places in London for meetings,
conferences, workshops and other events.
Although it was a bit daunting at times, I also liked how much responsibility I was given. I
found that I was included and treated like a member of the team straight away, with
everyone being friendly, approachable and willing to help. There were also lots of other
placement students around, which I appreciated as it meant there were other people my
age around who were in the same situation as I was.
Overall, I have learnt a huge amount and have progressed so much in just a year, developing
many skills and enhancing my employability for the future. I would highly recommend this
placement for anyone that’s thinking of applying!
Matthew Baugh – Department of Health, London Office
I am an undergraduate in Maths, Operational Research and Statistics at Cardiff University,
coming to the end of my placement with the Department of Health where I have worked as
an Operational Research Analyst in the Health Protection Analytical Team. This team is
responsible for delivering analysis that helps develop government policies designed to
protect the nation, or limit the damage, from risks such as: infectious disease, pandemic
influenza, endemic outbreaks, contaminated blood, antimicrobial resistance, and any other
event that poses a threat to the nation’s health.
I was assigned to the Pandemic Influenza and Immunisation team, but I have had the
opportunity to be involved with projects across Health Protection. Examples of the projects I
have been involved with include: Undertaking cost-effectiveness analysis into a national
meningococcal B (Men B) vaccine for infants. Providing quality assurance of a financial VBA
model that estimates the amount of compensation DH will pay out to patients, over a ten
year horizon, infected with blood borne viruses from contaminated donated blood.
Developing System Maps of the elements that influence the spread and development of
antimicrobial resistance, and the interventions the government can make to delay the point
in time when infections will no longer be treatable by antibiotics, and a grazed knee could
once again kill.
There have been a significant amount of training courses and seminars on offer over the
course of the year. I often receive emails detailing statistical, operational research,
econometric, programming (VBA) and many other courses on offer. Cross-governmental
seminars provide the opportunity to have an insight into policies colleagues are working on,
and to see new analytical techniques being developed. As an Operational Researcher, I was
enrolled with the Government Operational Research Service (GORS), which provides a
community of analysts to extend your network with, and further courses and seminars.
I can safely say that I have had a unique insight into how government operates and that I am
doing a job that not only feels interesting and worthwhile, but that will also stand out on my
CV. It has provided solid experience in risk analysis, analytics, operational research,
modelling, and data analysis. Added to which, the Civil Service operates with Agile Working,
meaning there is flexibility on my working hours. This additional autonomy to my
professional life promotes a healthy work-life balance.
I feel very satisfied with my experience at the Department of Health. It has changed my view
of life beyond University and I know it will stand me in good stead whichever direction I
choose to take my career in.
Rebecca Fry - NHS England, Leeds Office
I am an undergraduate student at the University of Leeds, studying BA Economics and
Geography. During my placement year with NHS England, I have been working as part of the
Analytical Service within the Policy & Commissioning Team. My work throughout the year
has been extremely varied, but this has allowed me to develop skills and gain experience in
many different areas.
My work is predominantly focussed around analysis of clinical commissioning groups (CCGs)
and commissioning support units (CSUs). I have spent a proportion of my time this year
updating the CCG Outcomes Tool, which is an interactive tool on NHS England’s website,
allowing users to see for themselves how their CCG compares to others in their Area Team,
Region and nationally, across a number of different health outcomes and demographic
indicators. This gave me the opportunity to develop a complex knowledge of Excel,
something which I have used on an almost daily basis this year.
Alongside another non-analytical team within NHS England, I was involved in the Prime
Minister’s Challenge Fund bids process. I was asked to produce a series of maps, which were
to be used in press releases when bids were announced to the general public. This task
allowed me to use Mapinfo, a complex piece of mapping software which I had some
exposure to during my first two years at university, and wanted to develop my skills in this
year.
There are several other opportunities for personal development while on the analytical
placement scheme. There are analytical seminars which you are invited to attend, and
students also get the opportunity to present at these as well. There are opportunities to
organise events throughout the year, and every effort is made to ensure that you gain as
much varied experience as possible throughout the year. You get the opportunity to attend
Operational Research (OR) Society events, which are extremely useful in realising where
your placement can take you with the skills you have gained over the year.
In Quarry House, there is plenty to get involved in, and there is a lovely, friendly
atmosphere. HASSRA has many different sports and hobbies clubs to get involved in, and
there is a leisure centre as well. I have always felt completely comfortable asking anyone in
my team for help on tasks I have been assigned, and they are always more than willing to
share their knowledge and time with you. I have developed both professionally and
personally, with my time management, professional communication and excel skills all
improving considerably. I would recommend this placement scheme to anyone wanting to
gain experience working in a government department/arm’s length body, and develop skills
in OR or statistics, whilst being given many opportunities to develop more general
professional and personal skills in an analytical environment.
Romana Karolia –NHS England, Leeds Office
As part of my placement year I worked for the Analytical Services (Finance) team as an
Operational Research Analyst. I mainly worked on strategic pieces such as simulating the
Dementia Care Pathway and the Urgent & Emergency Care system. I have also worked on
various other projects alongside this.
During the year I worked on my own project – simulating the Dementia Care Pathway. Not
only did this enhance my technical skills, as I was working on my own I was able to lead in
this project. This included working with external stakeholders such as the Bradford
Dementia Group and researchers at the University of Bradford. I was able to travel to
Bradford to present my model to stakeholders and work alongside them to develop my
work. This required a great deal of responsibility and I was able to learn a lot about project
development and management.
I have had the opportunity to develop a variety of skills over the course of the year. In terms
of technical skills, I attended a training course for a software package called ‘Simul8’ which
was a wholly new skill for me. This is a piece of modelling software used throughout DH in
various projects for predictive analysis. I was also able to use the software frequently which
helped develop and maintain my skills in writing code.
There are various presentation opportunities in DH and I was able to present at two of the
three student presentation opportunities, this included one in London. I was also able to
present my work at an Urgent and Emergency Care event to external clients such as CCG
Board Members. This helped to increase my confidence and presentational skills greatly.
I was also provided with the opportunity to get involved with various Operational Research
groups such as the Yorkshire and Humberside Operational Research Society (YHORG) where
I was able to attend monthly lectures and training events. I also attended a two day training
course with the Government Operational Research Society (GORS) which helped develop my
understanding of OR in other Government departments. Both of these were excellent
networking event.
My time at DH has been extremely educational and I have been able to develop a whole
variety of invaluable technical and personal skills. The placement has presented me with a
series of challenges which has been exciting. Working for a Government department is
always interesting due to the size of the organisation which means there are always training
and networking opportunities. There is also the added benefit of knowing how useful your
work can be. Therefore I would recommend that student should apply for a placement year
at the Department of Health.
Sarah Brill – NHS England, Leeds Office
I am a mathematics student from the University of Sheffield. For my placement year I have
been working for NHS England analytical services supporting work on primary medical care
and mental health. During the year I have had the opportunity to undertake many
interesting projects; the most recent of these was a “State of the Nation” report on mental
health. Another student and I were responsible for pulling together a report collating a vast
amount of data around mental health. To do this, we had to communicate with customers
to understand their expectations as well as with mental health experts who helped guide us
to relevant data. We then conducted analysis on the data collected and produced a report.
It was a really interesting project to work on as mental health is currently a high profile issue
within the NHS. I gained many skills through doing this project including communication
skills, project management, and time management. I also gained a greater understanding of
data and the limitations that need to be considered. Through doing the project, I had the
opportunity to attend events in London and present some of the work to mental health
experts.
I have also worked on a variety of other projects, including a project comparing the
performance of GP practices where there is just one full time GP against the performance of
other GP practices and a project looking at winter pressures on mental health services.
Through working on all of these projects I have gained a higher knowledge of excel and a
greater understanding of putting statistical techniques into practice in the workplace.
The job is extremely varied so is always interesting. There are often a few projects to work
on at once so I have gained valuable time management skills and learnt how to work
efficiently. I have really enjoyed being given the responsibility to work on my own projects
but everyone in the team is always willing to help if there are any problems.
Overall it has been a really fun year, there are 13 students in Leeds so it has been fun to
socialise with everyone inside and outside of work. It is easy to make some really good
friends. The best part of the placement has to be organising the analyst Christmas party,
which the students are responsible for every year.
Quarry House is a great place to work, it’s a really friendly atmosphere and there are so
many facilities. There is even a swimming pool and hairdressers! I have learnt so many skills
and have really enjoyed the year so I would definitely recommend it as a placement year for
anyone interested in analytical work.
Stephanie Carpenter – Department of Health, London Office
My placement year has been spent working as an Assistant Strategy Advisor for the
Department of Health’s Strategy Group in Richmond House, London. My team of 17 is
comprised of both analysts and non-analysts; my role is that of an analyst, specifically an
Operational Researcher.
Strategy Group has been working on a programme of work that is comprised of 11 projects
that cover the upcoming strategic challenges that the department faces. I have contributed
to a number of these projects both through larger pieces of work and more ad hoc pieces of
analysis that others in the team have requested to support their projects.
The largest piece of work I have completed is a project to build a model to estimate the cost
of working age ill-health to the economy. This has involved working with a number of
economists to ensure all components had been covered and methodical problem
structuring. The model had to be presented in a way that was clear, accurate and able to be
handed over for others to use.
I have also had experience of quality assurance, handling large data sets and linking
different sources of information together to build up a robust picture. This was largely in a
project looking at long term conditions and their change in prevalence and costs over time,
with a view to how this will change in the future.
Throughout my placement I have attended a whole host of seminars in the department
ranging from ethics in genomics to health technologies and innovation. These are a great
way of finding out about other work being carried out in the department and the wider
health industry as outside speakers are often invited to speak. On a larger scale, the
Government Operational Research Service holds an annual two day conference which brings
together Operational Researchers from across all Government departments for a wide
range of seminars and workshops.
Taking a year away from university to get some work experience has been invaluable on a
variety of levels. It has allowed me to test out a career before committing and to speak to a
wide range of people about their career paths and experiences. Furthermore, it has given
me new motivation for my final year of studying with the added financial bonus of a year
earning a full time salary. I would whole heartedly recommend any second year student
considering doing a placement year to apply for the Department of Health.
Susu Zhang – NHS England, Leeds Office
I have been working as a Data Analyst within the Analytical Service (Finance) team. My main
focus for the year has been the work on a Medicine Optimisation Prototype Dashboard and
the Health Premium Incentive Scheme. I have also partially worked alongside the Better
Care Fund.
The Medicines Optimisation Prototype Dashboard (MO Dashboard) brings together a range
of medicines-related data in a way never previously done, with the hope that it will help
CCGs explore how well their local populations are supported to optimise medicines use. Our
team role was to provide the analytical support on this work, including leading the technical
development of the dashboard. My task was to produce an active dashboard and deliver all
the technical measurements in Excel. This included measuring the distribution of the
proposed metrics that covered the required domains and principles, collecting and
understanding data for all the sub-indicators, obtaining and converting results at different
levels, creating an interactive report, generating charts, and making a quality assurance
plan.
Health Premium Incentive Scheme (HPIS) is a scheme to reward local authorities based on
their achievement of performance. My tasks were to produce an index summary based on
the data quality and provide data analysis covering 61 sub-indicators and 152 local
authorities using mathematical forecasting techniques.
Working in the analytical team has heavily enhanced my Excel skills which I use on a daily
basis to solve problems. This has required a higher working knowledge of Excel whilst also
learning more about statistics and also writing statistical commentary. Having a focus on the
MO Dashboard and HPIS has given me an understanding of the NHS structure and bodies
such as Clinical Commissioning Group, Area Teams and Trusts.
My written communications have also improved significantly while on placement. Writing
reports and giving presentations to the MO measurement and technical groups has required
me to consider my audience and constantly think about the purpose of the presentation.
Vaishali Shah - NHS England- London Office
I am a mathematics undergraduate from The University of Greenwich. I am currently
working as a statistical analyst for the Outcomes Analytical Team which is a team that sits
across both organisations, Department of Health and NHS England. The team carries out a
variety of work surrounding the Outcomes Framework and carries out many projects in
order to improve services and care provided to patients.
During my time in the team I have acquired many software skills such as SPSS, Simul8, Stata
and have extensively used Unify2, which is a software that has been created for trusts to
submit data in a secure manner. I have extensively used Unify2 for the data collections that I
have been working on. My Excel skills have significantly improved through handling large
spreadsheets. The presentation of my spreadsheets has also drastically improved as I have
shared spreadsheets with non- technical colleagues and so have learnt the art of presenting
them in ways that spreadsheets can be interpreted and understood in a simpler manner.
I have also been presented with many opportunities to enhance my non-technical skills and
abilities such as project management. I have organised and chaired many meetings during
the year which has in turn improved my time management skills. There have also been
many opportunities to present my work to analytical audiences and clinicians as well as
engaging with stakeholders on a daily basis which have improved my communication skills.
By working on projects that support both organisations I have had extensive exposure to
high profile projects such as the Dementia data collection which is one of the Prime
Ministers priorities. As well as this I have been involved in a project by the Secretary of State
with varying and tight deadlines which has improved my ability to meet tight deadlines. I
have also had the opportunity to work on rewarding projects for National Clinical Directors,
as my work will help improve services provided to patients.
Throughout the year I have had a very supportive team who have guided me and advised
me on areas I am unsure about. Due to this I have seen a huge growth in the skills I now
possess which I feel has enhanced my confidence in applying for jobs after I graduate.
Waleed Backler – Department of Health, Leeds Office
Studying Mathematics at the University of Greenwich for two years ensured that I had a
sound knowledge of mathematical elements. However, I wanted to do a year-long sandwich
placement so that I could apply my mathematical skills to real world problems and build my
experience as well as other key skills such as communication and time-management. I
joined the Patients and Information Analytical team of NHS England where I worked mainly
as a statistician.
Our team deals almost exclusively with data generated by patient opinion – data that tells
us how patients think and feel about the care that they receive. This means we have a huge
responsibility to act upon the data and to flag up problems with policy teams. I have created
a number of user tools of which some have been published on the NHS England website and
received positive feedback from colleagues both within and outside the organisation. I have
been given responsibility to carry out important tasks such as the creation of national
statistics. It is rewarding to know that some of the work I have done has been shown to the
Director for improving patient experience and decisions are being made based on that work.
Another aspect of my placement that I have enjoyed is the fact that I have been able to
work in many different areas of patient experience. For example, one day I was working on
the Inpatient survey while the next, I was working on patient’s personal health budgets. I
think this has improved my skills even more as I have become more flexible when taking on
tasks which are not similar in any way.
The main skills I have used from my degree have been my statistical skills as well as my
time-management and problem-solving skills. I have applied statistical testing on real-world
data while using my problem-solving skills when trying to deduce software codes or
following methodology statements. I have learnt to prioritise between multiple tasks
because unlike university where you have a set timetable, unexpected work of high priority
can emerge at any time when working in NHS England. I’ve also developed my
understanding of how to communicate complex information to non-technical audiences. I
am delighted to have developed this significant skill because not everyone understands
mathematical and statistical terms which is different to what you’d expect in university.
NHS England also funded a VBA course that myself and other colleagues undertook. I also
had the opportunity to take an active part in the latest Patient-Led Assessments of the Care
Environment (PLACE) at Leeds General Infirmary. This allowed me to see the bigger picture
and understand the significance behind all the work that analysts do and how one bit of
analytical work can affect policy decisions which in turn can affect the level of care that
patients receive.
I have enjoyed working in NHS England, especially since all members of my team are
focused and dedicated to their work. This experience will certainly benefit me for the rest of
my degree and future employment. I would wholly recommend the Department of
Health/NHS England to anyone looking for an interesting and rewarding placement full of
opportunities and diversity.