Fiona Farrell works at the Sir William Gowers Unit, a specialist treatment centre for epilepsy and related disorders.

My job involves...

The EEG team look after patients having electroencephalograms (EEG), including routine, sleepdeprived, and ambulatory EEGs, and video telemetry. An EEG is a recording of the brain’s activity using sensors attached to a patient’s scalp. Video telemetry uses a video camera to record a patient throughout the day and night while a portable EEG monitors brain activity.

On a typical day I…

Every day is different. We have six video telemetry beds on Gowers, five ambulatory recorders, and a routine EEGs recorder. We might be sticking electrodes on, checking the electrodes or removing them. Each of these jobs involves spending time with the patients and explaining what is happening with the recording. Reviewing EEG is also a huge part of the job and with telemetry we also review relevant parts of the video looking at the brain’s activity to detect seizures. Then I plan who needs to be doing what for the rest of the day.

How I started working at Gowers...

I did a medical physics degree and then did the usual student thing and had some time out travelling. When I came back I saw an advert in the New Scientist which said you could find out what was going on in someone’s brain by putting something on their head. It intrigued me. The consultant doing the interview was just so passionate he made the job sound very exciting. In the dark ages when I started working you trained on the job, whereas nowadays you would have to do a degree.

The best thing about my job is…

It is nice that no two days are the same. You can also build a bit of a rapport with the patients as you see them for a week which is great. Gowers is a great place to work, as all the staff really work hard together as a team.

The worst thing is…

Sometimes it is very challenging to get an EEG recording. If we are unable to get the electrodes on, it is difficult to see the worry and upset this brings the people attending with the patients. If I could do something else… There wasn’t really anything else I wanted to do, except for when I was 10 I wanted to be an actress!