Sean Leonard, Senior Medical Scientist
Career snapshot
Originally from Belmullet, Co Mayo, where he attended St Brendan’s College. Sean now works in the haemotology department at Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children, Crumlin, Dublin.
Degrees
- BSc in Biochemistry and Microbiology from University College Galway (1996)
- Master’s degree in Biomedical Science (1997)
After his master’s degree, Sean worked at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in England as a trainee medical scientist. He was state registered in Britain two years later, following an oral examination. The hospital was a large general hospital, where a lot of the laboratory samples were from pre-operative and GP patients. “It was a good place to learn the basic of working in a haematology laboratory,” he says.
After working there for three years he moved back to Ireland and started work in Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children. “It is more specialised than the lab in Reading,” Sean says, “But I enjoyed the challenge of learning how to do new tests and learning about the more specialised tests.”
He started in Crumlin at a basic grade and after a year and a half became a senior medical scientist. He is now in charge of the coagulation section of the laboratory, which he says is growing quite rapidly.
Whats so great about your job?
“The feeling that you are making the difference to a patient’s health. We are part of a network of people in a hospital and we are all working to accomplish the same thing.”
What do you hate about the job?
“Having to work weekends. The lab has to remain open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”
How do you spend a typical day?
“In the morning I come in to the lab and set the analysers up for the day. After that, we run any samples that come down to the lab. We also run any special tests that are run once a week. We have a large number of special tests which are split up and are spread out over the week. There is never a time where there is not something that needs to be done.”
Does your work require a lot of equipment?
“A large majority of the tests done are done on machines, so we have to ensure that they are maintained correctly. Sometimes I feel more like an engineer than a medical scientist when these machines break down.”
Are you a science nerd?
“Yes and no. I am really big into surfing and windsurfing, where physics plays a big part, so indirectly I am still thinking of science even outside of work. My favourite channel on television is the Discovery Channel, so the answer is probably yes.”
Did you get a buzz from science at school?
“I discovered science before I got to school and I couldn’t wait to start the subject.”
Check out the Academy of Medical Laboratory Science
Get a detailed description of medical science careers in the US
