Alun Davies’ experience providing Q-Step work placements at the Welsh Blood Service
| Q-Step work placement host
Welsh Blood Service Analysis of vasovagal (fainting events) occurrence on donation sessions |
|---|
What projects did the placement students work on with you?
Analysis of vasovagal (fainting events) occurrence on donation sessions; testing hypotheses of root causes (time, location, age/gender of donor etc.). ‘Incident’ analysis; errors/events that we need to formally note, investigate and action – establishing whether any themes exist both across and within departments by type, location, time and date etc.
Why did you decide to host placement students?
At WBS, we are keen to develop partnerships with academic institutions as we are striving to achieve world-class status as a blood establishment. Inspiration and support from academia is an essential method for us to develop our ways of working and thinking.
What have been the advantages of hosting placement students to you and your organisation?
Analytical skills are a precious but limited resource internally so having the placement students enables us to progress more analysis and see more variety in the methods of working. This helps us to see things our previous approaches to data analysis did not reveal.
Being recognised as an outward-facing and innovative organisation helps our reputation, which, in turn, generates more positive associations and opportunities.
What advice would you give to other employers thinking of hosting placement students?
Plan well. While the placements are spread over a few months, the actual hands-on time is limited and therefore it could be easy to lose 20-30% of the time due to inadequate planning and scoping of the work. Practicalities such as security passes, data governance, PC access and desk space should be sorted in advance of the work placement. Use existing projects/initiatives (rather than thinking of ideas from scratch) to identify specific pieces of work, which will mean they have some definite and more immediate use and will make gathering support for the placement easier.
Analytical skills are a precious but limited resource internally so having the placement students enables us to progress more analysis and see more variety in the methods of working.”Alun Davies, Placement provider
