April 10, 2011 (Sunday) - HPC Newsletter


The HPC have just released their latest newsletter. I wasn’t too impressed with the last two, but this one has one or two bits in it that made me think.

I don’t like the idea of the health self-declaration. Previously before anyone could be HPC registered they needed a doctor to certify that their health (both mentally and physically) was up to par. Now potential applicants can just announce they are healthy enough and off they go. Surely if someone has spend five years or more trying to obtain HPC registration (a not unreasonable estimate of time from commencement of degree to portfolio verification) they are hardly going to then announce they aren’t up to it, are they?
I’ll leave aside the whole tangled mess of what medically unsuitable registrants might get up to….

There was an article about exactly what a registrant can and cannot mention about work on social networking websites. There are websites out there that are good – take for example “I am a Biomedical Scientist” on Facebook. Or look at any of the links in the panel on the right hand side of this page. These are good examples of professional use of social networking. I aspire to be that good. I try – but there’s no denying that a few of my rants have got close to the line recently, but I do take care to follow the HPC guidelines when I’m blogging on this website.
It annoys me that others do not. Take for example the Facebook group “The Hospital Lab Biomedical Scientist”. I’ve “unliked” that page – do we as health care professionals really want to be associated with such quotes as “just so cannot be arsed to look at anymore smears... make it up time methinks!”. And some of the stories related on that website make me cringe. I can’t pretend that the medical profession is perfect, but there’s something frankly idiotic in openly broadcasting failures to the world in the worst possible light. Look at the post from last Thursday at 13:39 and ask yourself what your employer would do if you’d posted that.

There was an advert: “We are seeking to recruit registered professionals to fill vacancies for the role of Visitor. Visitors make recommendations about education and training delivered (or proposing to be delivered) by education providers.” I would have applied, but they didn’t want biomedical scientists (this time).

The newsletter ended by saying that the HPC is now on Facebook. I’ve “liked” it – but bearing in mind some of the other work-related Facebook pages, I wonder how that page will pan out…

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