Three months ago, we welcomed Jemma Garratt as a Knowledge Transfer Partnership Associate at the London Women’s Clinic. I caught up with her to see how the project is going.
Three months in, how are you finding the project?
So far, the project has been amazing. As the aim of the project is to assist a subset of women suffering from infertility, it is a job that will be extremely rewarding throughout. It also combines both of my interests, the patient side of the clinic as well as the research elements of reproductive genetics in infertility treatment.
What have been your highlights so far?
For me, being given the opportunity to interact with patients on this project has been one of the biggest highlights. Another highlight is the fact that you can be given opportunities to gain higher qualifications throughout these KTP projects, such as PhDs or management qualifications. I also love that I have a development budget that I can use solely to develop my skills and can be used to book skill-based courses and attend conferences around the world.
What attracted you to the KTP project?
Coming out of my MSc, I was torn between how much I wanted to have patient interaction in a job but also did not want to become completely clinical and abandon my love for research. This KTP project offered me the opportunity to complete my own research in reproductive genetics and then experience how my research is impacting the patients through direct contact. I was sold!
When people hear Women’s fertility clinic they may automatically think that it is a predominantly a female working environment. Is it? If so do you think any implementations could be made to make it equal or do you think that some businesses should be gender specific?
I think some job roles here tend to end up predominantly female, such as nursing and midwifery. However the fertility consultants here are a complete mix of male and female. I don’t think any roles at this company should be gender-specific, I think it just can’t be helped that the majority of applicants for nursing, midwifery, embryologist positions etc. are women and then this therefore translates into the clinic. I don’t believe there is any bias towards or against selecting a particular gender at this clinic in order to gender-balance. Everyone here has a genuine passion for helping patients that are struggling through the trauma of infertility and are excellent at their jobs and that is what predominantly matters, rather than their gender.
What does International Women’s Day mean to you?
I think having an International Women’s Day, from a broad perspective, serves everyone as a reminder of all the women in history that fought with their lives in order for us women of today to have equal rights. For me personally, one half of me loves and embraces that we have a day solely recognising and appreciating women. However, it would be lovely to some day get to a point where every day can be women’s day, where there is no inequality or sexism present at any level in society. For me, it serves as a reminder that although we have come far, there is still a little way to go to truly achieve equality for us women.
Find out more about the London Women’s Clinic: https://www.londonwomensclinic.com/