A year of blogging: Creators Edition

Meet the creators

Teya Agnese, Apprentice Clinical Trial Support Officer

I am an apprentice with Oxford University Apprenticeships, working as a Clinical Trial Support Officer based in the Surgical Intervention Trials Unit (SITU) at the Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences (NDORMS). I have completed my Level 2 business and administration apprenticeship, and I am now working towards my Level 3 business and administration apprenticeship with Abingdon and Witney College.

• A hobby: I really enjoy travelling and I am currently working on my blog/ Instagram account which currently has 7.5k followers. One of my next goals for the account is to hopefully reach 10k by April 2021. 
• Favourite part about working in SITU: The experience, skills and confidence I have gained throughout my apprenticeship and time at SITU. I also enjoy working with such a brilliant, friendly and motivated team. 

Katie Chegwin, Personal Assistant

I am a Personal Assistant to Director of Surgical Intervention Trials Unit (SITU) at Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences (NDORMS). I completed my Level 3 & 4 Business Administration Apprenticeship in 2018 and have since been mentoring Teya through her Apprenticeship with the University of Oxford. 

• A hobby: I enjoy planning my travels to new countries and cities. The team know about my highly organised travel itineraries! 
• Favourite part about working in SITU: This is my first role since graduating from my Apprenticeship, I would say the experience, knowledge, networks and friends/colleagues gained all combined. As a side, running events such as the BOSTiC course has been very fun and also the mentoring opportunities with Teya (still being involved in the Apprenticeship scheme) has been wonderful and very rewarding. 

OUR TOP 3 FAVOURITE BLOG POSTS:

1. Q&A/ Meet the team series  - we have really enjoyed this series as you get to know the new members of the team and it helps to spark up a conversation, and recognise common interests. 

2. More informative blog posts such as Twitter for Trials, Presentation skills and the two sides to SITU - these blog posts are fun, yet informative. Reading them leads to us learning something new. 

3. A day in a life series/ blog posts about other roles - we enjoy these blog posts as it gives us an insight into what other roles involve. 

Why did we set up the SITU Blog?

The SITU blog was created as a fun platform and a way for SITU to put forward information, stories & activities that our team have been getting involved in. It's also a way for other Nuffield Department of Surgical Science
(NDS) and Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences (NDORMS) staff, Chief Investigators and staff working on the SITU Trials to read about what we have been getting up to, and help to further advertise SITU.

As the blog has grown, we have started using it as a way for our team (and others working on the trials) to get to know each other better, understand our roles and how they connect, and offer advice for our team members on how to do things. E.g. Tips on how to stay organised as a trial manager or 'Meet the Team' blog posts.

Blog statistics for 2020

Top blog posts

1. SITU Blog with 1128 page views. (The front page of the blog has the most views meaning a lot of our viewers are spending time looking through it for different blog posts).
2. What it's like being an Oxford University Apprentice with 1007 page views, and 888 entrances (the number of times visitors entered the blog through a specified page or set of pages such as social media).
3. How the SITU team effectively work from home “wfh” with 209 views and 99 entrances. 

TOP series

According to the statistics, 'A day in the life of a...' and 'Q&A with the newest additions to the SITU team' were the top two most popular series on the blog this year. 

Plans and Goals for 2021

For the year 2021, we hope to…

• Write more informative blog posts
• Write more light-hearted, honest content like the ‘Truth about Microsoft TEAMS.’ 
• Request blog posts from members outside of SITU. E.g. 'What Trial Statisticians really think about working with SITU...'

Thank you to everyone involved for your hard work, support and contributions to the SITU blog. If you have any ideas, thoughts or feedback, please drop us an email.