Occupational health
Strategies, services and advice to help keep your employees healthy and your workspaces safe.
Dr Emma Giblin expands her Rich Career with RPS
After a series of rewarding accomplishments in her career, Dr Emma Giblin joined RPS to continue caring for others and improve lives. In this informative interview, Emma shares her first impressions of RPS and how she’s turned challenges into opportunities to learn.
What do you do at RPS?
I am an Occupational Health Physician working on a couple of contracts. I manage the occupational health and well-being of our client’s employees to help them manage their health.
Q How did you gain and build your expertise over the years?
I completed my registrar training in Occupational Health medicine at Guys and St Thomas’s Hospital, which was predominantly NHS work, with a few other contracts, including higher education and public sector services.
Aside from seeing patients, I was also involved in research within the department and completed a systematic review on the Occupational Aspects of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, for which I won several national awards. Once qualified, I moved to two other companies to gain further experience until I arrived at RPS in late 2023.
Q How did you end up joining RPS? And why?
I was looking for a new challenge, with a different client offering to anything I had done before. I came across this job by luck and emailed Dr Ray Quinlan, the current Medical Director at the time who explained they had a position available and after undergoing an interview process, I was offered the role.
Q What critical things have you learned during your career?
The main thing I have learnt is that in occupational health you have to be a good listener when it comes to patients and that everyone is different. You must think on your feet and be a good people person, working with emotional intelligence and empathy to liaise both with the employee and employer.
There are so many elements to occupational medicine, and you must be a partial expert in many realms from medicine to occupational health law, to health and safety. It goes on!
How are we providing value to our clients? How do we ensure a high-quality result?
RPS clearly care about their strong client base and listens to their wants and needs. Both the employer and employee are given time, and we offer a high standard of service. Staff are given time to see the patients and make a proper plan which is important.
Q What’s one of the most interesting challenges that you and your team have encountered? How did you approach it?
I have only recently commenced my first contract, but taking the lead on this has been a huge challenge. Helping to rework the fitness-to-work guidelines continues to remain a work in progress. It is by seeing patients and questioning fitness standards that one indeed does reconsider decisions based on the patient and not the standard that one is learning. It keeps this element exciting for sure.
How does your team and their expertise help contribute to that?
I love working with the teams on various contracts. The nurses of note are outstanding and always on hand to help. The hygienists have also been paramount in helping me get to grips with certain fitness standards such as in audiometry and spirometry.
Q What is your proudest accomplishment?
Personally, it would be, of course, my family. I am very blessed. Most recently in terms of personal accomplishments, I completed a 20,000-a-day step challenge for the year 2024. It was a pretty hard challenge juggling that with work and family, but I did it and I cannot be prouder of myself. Here's to a more restful 2025!
Professionally - This would be winning the awards for my dissertation. It was a very personal project for me, and it was the icing on the cake to be acknowledged for it.
Q What is your most ambitious professional goal?
I would love to find a balance of management and client work that fits in with my family. This is a work in progress. I would also love to pass my second-tier security clearance for the FCDO so I can work on that side of the contract which only a few who have successfully completed clearance can work on.
Q What makes this work so special for you?
The diversity of clients and contracts and the wonderful staff make this such a special place to work.
Q Why should someone work with RPS?
The staff and contracts make the company. Everyone is so lovely and supportive, and it is a pleasure to come to work every day.
Interested in joining our team?
Here at RPS, a Tetra Tech Company, you will have a career like no other. Our people are instrumental to our success and we believe with a strong team we can deliver strong results.
Find out more about what it's like working in our Occupational Health team by clicking the link below.
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