Good scientific and clinical practice
Most of this T level topic on Good scientific and clinical practice focuses on procedures for working in these environments, such as standard operating procedures, and these could be linked with experiences on the student's placement to reinforce ideas and gain exemplars for future teaching. There are very few teaching resources available on this topic, but numerous examples that could be used from the school or college lab technicians on how they clean, maintain and calibrate equipment and also opportunities to bring in work related examples to lessons, for example looking at the standard operating procedures for a local NHS trust.
Whilst this list provides a source of information and ideas for experimental work, it is important to note that recommendations can date very quickly. Do NOT follow suggestions which conflict with current advice from CLEAPSS, SSERC or recent safety guides. eLibrary users are responsible for ensuring that any activity, including practical work, which they carry out is consistent with current regulations related to Health and Safety and that they carry an appropriate risk assessment. Further information is provided in our Health and Safety guidance.
Using blood pressure monitors
This activity on using blood pressure monitors could be a starting point for looking at standard procedures in general and why they are important in a workplace. Students could annotate the procedure to talk about what would happen if certain details were not included and how that could impact on the reading itself or even the patient experience. They could then go on to look at specific examples of standard operating procedures you might find in industry/ workplace and even collect an example from work experience to discuss if this is possible.
Operating procedures : HSE
This is a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) summary about operating procedures that is a useful introduction for students to read and summarise or for teacher background information before teaching.
Estimating environmental damage in freshwater
This resource from Nuffield introduces the idea of standard procedures in the context of environmental monitoring and so could be a useful activity to do or discuss with students. Alternatively, students could highlight the key parts of the procedure that would ensure the procedure is carried out in a consistent way each time.
Risk assessment for chemical storage; CLEAPSS
Although this is information for schools and colleges from CLEAPSS, it could be an interesting starting point for looking at chemical storage and some of the components of good practice. It could even be supplemented by a talk from the senior technician in their setting and followed by a question and answer session for students to ask 'What would happen if ?'- type questions.
pH meter calibration
This CLEAPSS video on calibration of pH meters could be a start to students trying this out as a practical activity and then comparing results against pH meters that have not been calibrated in this way. There could then follow a discussion on the different ways lack of or incorrect calibration could be an issue if it happened in the workplace e.g. in the quality assurance of toiletries.