Laurice Keogh: This opportunity has really changed my life
Just one month into this role I found out about the Information Services apprenticeship and had to apply! Working closely with Gower College Employability team to ensure that my CV was spot on, I did mock interviews to best prepare myself. I even brought along a battered leaflet that my mum’s friend gave me about DHCW apprenticeships, except I’d had it so long the information was all about ‘NWIS’, the NHS Wales Informatics Service, which was the company’s previous name!
The interview actually went very well. The interview panel definitely saw that I was keen and even asked me ‘What are you going to do if you don’t get this job?’ and I replied, ‘To be honest, I’ll be waiting for this post to come up again because I know it’s what I’m supposed to be doing.’ Luckily, I didn’t need to wait for another position because I got the job!
This opportunity really changed my life. I started working in October 2021 and began university in the January of 2022 with the University of Wales trinity St David. The opportunity to combine the theoretical knowledge of university with the practical application at work, earn money and without student debt is really incredible.
When I joined, I didn’t have any programming or visualisation skills. Yes, I had good knowledge of Microsoft programs from taking ICT, but I didn’t have the technical skills. University and work based learning really helped me fast track my career. In just a few months I was awarded the DHCW ‘Apprentice of the Year’ award for my attitude to learning and my work on improving our website. Within 2 years I was successful in getting a Band 5 Data Analyst post. This took me 3 attempts which was slightly disheartening, but on reflection, I’m actually really proud of myself because I managed to get this job before being even halfway through my studies, and I was up against people who already had their degrees, master’s and even PhDs. This was such a huge achievement for me.
I am chuffed with the progress I’ve made personally but also the contributions to improving Welsh healthcare I’ve made in just under four years with DHCW. The Data analyst role is so important for Wales as DHCW play a key role in transforming healthcare services and outcomes. By working with data, we are enabling better decisions, more efficient processes, and ultimately improving the lives of the people who rely on the NHS. As a Data Analyst, I’m responsible for using data to make healthcare more efficient and accessible, reducing costs, improving patient care, and contributing to the future of healthcare in Wales. Areas that I have personally worked on include; looking at hospital wait times, how patients seem to be responding to cystic fibrosis medication and looking at how long on average patients with different diagnoses are staying in hospital which can predict a time frame for future patients.
One of my biggest achievements actually came about while I was still an apprentice. I was involved in making sure the Lymphoedema data we store was cleaned, prepped, and ready for analysis. This was actually a big task because health boards would send their data through in Microsoft Excel and often, they would call their headings slightly different things to what our database allowed. This meant having to manually change their headings, where most of the time it was finding where the extra spaces were put. Once that was done the data could flow into our database. This piece of work was taken to Glasgow and Boston, America. This was an important piece of work to be involved with because it was all about patient reported outcome measures, meaning that people having lymphoedema treatment were asked to rate their physical health, mental health, and problems faced, and it gave a good insight into effects being seen from the treatment and in what areas people’s lives were improving, and at what stage.
I think spreading the word about apprenticeship options is so important. Personally, I have seen a lack of knowledge about opportunities available and a lack of advertising positions. Only three people from across Wales applied for the same apprenticeship I did when the opportunity arose again two years later. This is something I couldn’t understand since the opportunity is so incredible.
I feel very passionate about helping spread the world by attending comprehensive schools, colleges and universities to talk about apprenticeships, and to help DHCW have more visibility amongst young people.