Sara Martins - clinical neuro physiologist

In a much summarised way, my job involves performing diagnostic investigations of the central and peripheral nervous system in neonatal, paediatric and adult outpatients and inpatients. As part of my job as well I also perform intraoperative neuromonitoring which involves monitoring and mapping neural pathways during spine, brain and brainstem surgeries to prevent paralysis and other post-op deficits.

The role me and my team played during this pandemic has been quite demanding. We are often asked to attend intensive care units to perform investigations in patients with poor neurology post-covid infection. In some cases we were also asked to provide diagnostic tests for brain death. We played a challenging role in theatres as well when monitoring the orthopaedic and neurosurgery cases many in a life or death situation. Due to the pandemic, many other neurophysiology departments in Cambridgeshire closed. Our department was one the few to stay open and therefore we also received urgent outpatients from other hospitals.

Constantly learning new things and interacting with patients. It is incredibly rewarding to know that the testing, analysis and report writing that we do are an important part of the patient’s treatment.

I personally enjoy the team and the work environment. Everyone respects everyone and gets along well, there’s a deep understanding of different personalities and different cultures. This is imperative for a team to work in synchrony. I enjoy working in Neurophysiology and the challenges I face every day, the learning experiences and the overall fulfilment I get from helping patients and colleagues.

Thank you Sue and the team for shining some light in all the clinical roles in all the sciences that sometimes are not so well known. Our team really appreciates it.