Georgia Moth is a Clinical Research Practitioner for NCA’s pioneering Community Research Team. She’s blogged about why and how she developed her career in research.
I got involved in research because I wanted to be a part of real change for patients and the public. I’ve always found it fascinating how everything around us in our lives has formed from some kind of research, especially healthcare research and how we have evolved in what treatments are available for people. I believe that everyone should be given the opportunity to take part in research so that the results from research represent a varied population.
After completing my Psychology degree, I applied for a job at Boots with the intention this was a temporary Christmas job just to tide me over while I figured out what I wanted to do career wise. This turned into me working as a Pharmacy dispenser for Boots for two years – whilst working as a Pharmacy dispenser I experienced my first interaction with patients and quickly realized that I enjoyed this aspect of the job a lot. I also came to the realization that I wanted to either work in research or in data analytics.
Constantly learning
A few months later of job searching I found a job advert for a research assistant at The Royal Oldham. Thankfully, I successfully got the job, and my research career began. Two years later, having gained valuable experience, knowledge and skills, when the newly formed Community Research Team jobs were advertised I thought I might as well apply and chance my luck. I’m now a Clinical Research Practitioner for the Community Research Team and I’m learning constantly and challenging myself every day.
I really enjoy the variety in my work and attending community events and also being able to interact with all different communities. I really do feel like we are already making a difference in just a small amount of time as we are engaging with communities where research isn’t as accessible as others.
In the future I hope that the Community Research Team expands in numbers so that we can open more studies and recruit from as many communities across the NCA footprint as possible. As we are the first dedicated community research team in Greater Manchester I also hope that we will of encouraged other trusts to form their own community research teams so that as a region we can tackle barriers to involving everybody in research no matter their age, gender, ethnicity, or socioeconomic background.