8th December 2011

Health and Social Care students met Dr Hitesh Pandya, from University of Leicester and Leicester Royal Infirmary on Wednesday. Dr. Pandya ran a special workshop for the group of over 40 students who are studying the Research Methods unit of BTEC Level 3 Diploma in Health and Social Care.

During the interactive session Dr Pandya covered the role and purpose of research, the differences between primary and secondary research,  and the advantages and disadvantages of quantitative and qualitative methods. He also encouraged a lively discussion about research ethics in clinical research amongst the interested students.

Dr Pandya has offered to provide on-going professional advice and guidance, and support individual students who are conducting research into smoking cessation. This is an area of research that Dr Pandya is keen to gain more insight, particularly the attitudes and factors relating to young people.

Dr Pandya said: “We  at the university and hospital are really keen to inspire and inform young people about careers in health and social care fields.We aim to inspire them to join us in an interesting field and encourage the top students to come into Social Sciences and Healthcare careers. Interacting is a good way of showing them that they can be like us. Another reason I wanted to come in is because I like to find out the views of young people to develop health services for children and young people, and engagement with young people can start that process.”

Junaid Khan, 20, said: “ It was interesting to see a medical professional give a lecture to see what they can do and the challenges of the job, and the rewards that they can get out of it.”