Loretta Wason: Test Coordinator

Job title:

Test Coordinator at Royal Cornwall Hospital’s NHS Trust/Cornwall IT Services

Location:

Truro, Cornwall

What inspired you to go into engineering?

I have a keen interest in ICT, and love to help others, so chose to pursue a role within Healthcare IT, enabling me to support staff in providing patient care to our communities.

What do you love about your job?

I love working through challenges, learning new things, deeply focussing on, and navigating through configuration, documentation, workflows, and testing as a whole - identifying functions and items needing attention, and ensuring that systems and solutions are safe and ready for Live deployment.

How did you get your job?

I’ve been working within healthcare IT for 23 years, initially starting frontline on the ServiceDesk, before moving into the Clinical and Business Team, providing second line support for patient systems. Here, I worked as a C&B Support Assistant, then Support Officer, before starting a secondment with the Clinical Projects Team as a System Specialist for eObs.

I then returned to the C&B Team, and became Clinical Systems Specialist for the ED, UTC and MIU system, and Digital Dictation solutions.

I have always had a keen interest in testing, and following a successful application, moved into the Testing Team’s Test Coordinator role approximately a year and a half ago, where I am today.

What advice would you give to a young person looking to start a career in your industry?

Learn as much as you can about the Industry, solutions, and technological skills.

Keep focussed on your dreams, persevere, keep an eye out for job roles that come up. Experience within other NHS departments can be useful, learning front end system use, and also understanding both the pressures on and importance of the roles staff undertake (and the impacts on patient care).

Speak to people who actively work in the NHS/Healthcare IT, and if you are applying for a role, take the contact person up on the offer of a chat or meeting/in person visit, before interview, and prepare questions in advance of the meeting and/or interview.

If you start within one team, and decide a change of direction within the department, when roles become available, don’t be afraid to adjust your route and go for it.

What do you think will be the most exciting developments in your industry over the next 5-10 years?

Artificial Intelligence. Where/how it may be adopted, the implications, impacts and opportunities to further develop existing and future technologies will be very interesting to see.

Why would you encourage more girls to pursue a career like yours?

It is incredibly interesting, and varied, and I feel girls and women would enjoy the role if they have a quizzical, and constructively critical mind, with great attention to detail. There are a lot more women and girls within IT as time goes on, and I would encourage anybody who has a keen interest and career aspirations to work within Healthcare IT to go for it.