Name: Jo McNamara
Job Title: Senior Lecturer & Admissions Tutor
How long have you worked for the University?
I have worked at the University now for 11 years. I was a SHU graduate and working at Weston Park Hospital as a Therapeutic Radiographer when I was approached to help support students in the department, until I was then asked to apply for the job as a Lecturer. They wanted someone excited about Oncology and Physics! I met the brief!
How do you usually start your day?
I’m one of these people who is constantly rushing around and this starts more or less from the moment I wake up at 5.30am. I work out, whether it’s at a spin class at the gym, running with our dog George or a HITT workout in my living room. I used to run a Bootcamp at RWB for my colleagues, that was until they built the RWB annex on our ‘bootcamp pitch’.
I listen to BBC Radio 4 in the mornings whilst I’m in the shower, which allows me to hear the news and have an ear out for anything oncology related.
I then get my son Noah, who is 7, ready for school. He is amazing and helps me a lot in the morning. I have taught him well to be independent and he often makes me a juice to take to work.
I drop him at breakfast club at 7am……….. I get mummy guilt all the time, but he loves it and they make a much better breakfast than I do! Getting in to work at 7.15am is my ‘crack on and get it done time’. I am most productive when there is no one around and I get to work my way through ‘my to do list’.
Can you sum up the main aspects of your role?
I now work within the recruitment team for 3 days a week, undertaking a project to support hard to recruit courses. I am hugely passionate about the recruitment and retention of health and social care students. They are after all our future workforce and the recruitment stage is not always appreciated within the grand scheme of student experience. I am determined to change that, as well as raising the profile of Therapeutic Radiography nationally.
As part of the project I am undertaking lots of school and college engagement work at the moment and getting out into the community to talk about public health and the various careers available. During National Science week I had contact with over a 1000 students and of those students, only two knew the role of a Therapeutic Radiographer and an Operating Department Practitioner. We have some work to do! It is very different presenting in schools and colleges compared to lecturing at Uni and it’s been a big learning curve for me.
What is the most interesting project you are working on right now?
I am currently part of a nationally funded project investigating Male Therapeutic Radiographers: Understanding and addressing barriers to higher education recruitment. https://www4.shu.ac.uk/mediacentre/hallam-chosen-lead-project-recruit-more-diverse-healthcare-workforce
On the back of this, I am also leading a project within Sport to look at ‘Females in Sport: Understanding and addressing barriers to higher education recruitment’.
One of my favourite parts of my job is to go back into clinical to support our current students. It is great to see the impact they get to make to cancer patients and I always feel very proud that what we teach them can have a positive impact on the practitioner they become!
Can you recommend any useful tools that have supported you in your role?
I love Goggle sites, Goggle Docs and Google Drive to co-create documents, reports and resources with my colleagues.
Anyone who knows me will know I love Twitter! It’s a great way to develop a community, whether that’s from a professional perspective or for personal and professional development. I have recruited to the profession through Twitter, made friends, supported colleagues with research, given feedback on national policy and initiatives, supported graduates with job applications, joined national campaigns and even organised an International Radiography conference. If you haven’t tried it, have a go……… and come along to one of my staff development sessions about using Twitter.
The best part of your job is…
Everything! I absolutely love my job and my family have stopped requesting that I consider being a stay at home mum now………..
Seeing our graduates excel in their careers, drive excellence in practice, enhance patient care and support our new students in placement is for me the best part of my job.
Have you any interesting Hobbies?
I am a Girl Guide Leader! I run Dore 1st Blackamoor Rainbows unit where I have eighteen 5-7-year-old girls. I run an active unit which gets the girls out of their comfort zones and pushes their social development.
I also help organise my village Gala. It is a huge undertaking, but I run it like I used to run the Interprofessional Conference and all meetings are in the pub to make it more enjoyable!
Tell us something about yourself your colleagues might not know about you?
I am an avid horse rider and I used to have a horse until life took over and my spare time became consumed with a small person. I now ride whenever I can and every holiday I go on I get time on my own to go riding.
I have a bucket list that I am working through and I try to say yes to all opportunities!
If you are interested in sharing your story for the: A day in the life of… blog series please contact the staff engagement inbox; ! HWB Staff Engagement
