Edge Hill alumna Justyna Styczen-O’Keefe has started her new role teaching operating department practitioners at St James’, our Manchester campus.
Justyna, 36, loved studying at our Manchester campus so much that she never really left and has recently started in her new role there as Senior Lecturer in Perioperative Studies.
Originally from Poland, Justyna met her partner, a radiographer, after visiting the UK with a group of friends and soon had her own dreams to work in the healthcare sector.
Following a four-year stint working as an in store trainer at Specsavers, Justyna was ready for a change: “I attended an open day at Edge Hill’s Manchester campus and was really impressed with the facilities and what they had to offer in the city. I loved how welcoming, friendly and informative everyone was.”
“This continued whilst I was on the course too. The pastoral care available and the support from lecturers was a really important part of enabling me to complete my degree, as a mature student with a family. No matter what was happening in my life, university staff were always there to support me.”
So, after graduating in 2017 with a BSc (Hons) in Operating Department Practice, how did Justyna get into teaching? “A clinical skills facilitator asked if I’d ever thought about teaching and to consider it.”
Whilst working as an anaesthetic practitioner, Justyna enrolled onto a postgraduate course with Edge Hill University to deliver teaching and learning in the clinical context. Never far from the St James’ campus, she was invited back to support with teaching and simulation skills, sit in on interviews and moderate examinations.
Justyna beamed with pride as she commented: “I am so happy to be here, teaching the future ODP workforce in a setting that brought me so much joy.”
Justyna’s advice to anyone thinking of becoming a mature ODP student: “It is never too late to start a new career. Being an operating department practitioner is a vocation and having previous life and academic experience is extremely valuable and helpful within any healthcare sector, it does not only mean working in a clinical setting. ODP’s are very flexible and adaptable as professionals and continuously advance the ODP profession in the area of research, education, management and advanced practice.”
To discover more about our courses, please visit ehu.ac.uk/study.
September 28, 2022
