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Course info
With an ageing and increasingly obese population, healthcare scientists are in increasing demand. Cardiovascular and respiratory diseases are among the leading causes of premature death worldwide; in the UK alone, one in four of us will die from heart disease and one in five from lung disease. With a strong desire to identify novel therapies and improve our understanding, rapid advances in science and technology make healthcare science one of the most exciting, challenging and rewarding areas of the NHS.
During clinical placements you will come across patients with a wide range of cardiovascular (e.g. arrhythmia, heart failure, coronary artery disease, hypertension) and respiratory and sleep disorders (e.g. asthma, cystic fibrosis, COPD, sleep apnoea, pulmonary fibrosis). You will perform and interpret a wide range of cardiac and respiratory/sleep diagnostic tests on your patients including electrocardiograms (ECG), blood pressure monitoring, cardiac stress tests, assisting with invasive cardiology procedures (e.g angiography), spirometry, measurement of gas exchange and overnight sleep studies.
Healthcare scientists are involved in 80% of all clinical decisions in the NHS. The diagnostic tests that you perform, analysis and interpret will ensure patients have the correct diagnosis, medications and improve their quality of life.
Taught by academics, scientists and researchers, our accredited BSc (Hons) Physiological Sciences (Healthcare Science) provides professional training to equip you with specialist skills and knowledge to test and evaluate the functioning of different body systems, diagnose abnormalities and direct therapeutic intervention and long-term management and care. It offers a unique opportunity to experience both cardiac and respiratory and sleep physiology before confirming one of these specialist routes in your second year.
Your learning begins with a broad foundation of knowledge about all of the body systems and the disease processes that affect them, becoming highly specialised by the second and third year.
Over the course of three years, you will spend 50 weeks on clinical placement in several different hospitals, most of which are in London, Surrey, Sussex and Kent, which specialise in cardiac, respiratory/sleep or both. This practical experience will build your confidence and competence to produce, analyse and report clinical diagnostics, with a deep understanding of the physical causes of disease or injury and how to evaluate patient conditions and assign the patient along a risk spectrum (known as clinical risk stratification).
You will treat a wide range of patients of all ages and disabilities (visual, hearing, communication, physical disability, learning disability, mental health issues), as well as patients who are anxious, scared or do not speak English. The tests you perform will often rely on patient cooperation and sometimes maximal effort. Excellent verbal and non-verbal communication skills – being able to explain difficult concepts in a jargon free manner and checking understanding – are therefore essential to perform high quality and reliable clinical measurements. You will also need to take medical and drug histories prior to performing tests, checking for contraindications to ensure the correct tests are performed, and performed safely.