swollennode

There's a lot of shit that happens in that TV show that should've killed a lot of people. Matt Murdock's falls, his injuries, stab wounds, excessive bleeding should've killed him.

As someone who comes from a family of mental illness and having mental illness myself, I can say that going to a therapist really helps.

The weirdest thing I've ever seen was stained gram-negative rods alive. I was working in microbiology and we had a positive blood culture on a guy that grew gram-negative rods. The protocol is to make a smear from the blood bottles we get. The slide was dried on a slide warmer for like 15 minutes, fixed with methanol, sat in crystal violet for 3 minutes, in iodide for 3 minutes, decolorized, and counter stained with safranin for 3 minutes. Then it was dried again on the slide warmer. Then I looked at the slide under the microscope, under high oil power. The little buggers were still alive, tumbling around, but stained. Normally, the staining process kills anything, but these bastards were still alive. It stumped every micro directors we had.

Do you have a clause in your contract with centurylink to prevent them from deprioritizing wholesalers?

What is the daily life of a med lab tech?

Depends on what your role is. If you're a bench tech, which is the core idea of a medtech, you come into work, and you take over a bench for someone to go home. Then you do maintenance and QC for anything that needs it, and then you run blood samples.

what is the first thing you do when you get there.

I talk to the tech currently on the bench where I'm assigned and see where they are at, then I pick up where they are. If there isn't anything to do, I start setting up for my shift. Run QC, maintenance, and read magazines.

what is the first thing you do when you receive a specimen.

I look at the label on the tube to know what test is ordered, then I put it on the appropriate instrument to run it, or I send it to the appropriate bench for other techs to deal with it. If it's blood for CBC, it gets put on a hematology analyzer, if it's chemistry, it gets spun down and put on the chemistry analyzer, if it's urine, it gets put on the urine analyzer.

is there a hierarchy sort of thing(least paid to most paid) - what are the duties?

The hierarchy is bench tech-->senior tech--> supervisor---> manager--->director. Increasing pay, control, and duties.

Bench techs run the specimens, senior techs also runs the specimen but is the go to person for problems. Supervisors deal with personnel issues, scheduling, and also run specimens if the lab is short. Managers administrative handles the lab. That is, they get us money to buy new things, and they sort out problems that supervisors can't handle. Director is the one in control of everything in the lab.

what happens when you mess up. for example, you misidentify a microorganism

Best case scenario, the doctors questions us and have us redo the test or look at the smear again. Worst case scenario, the patient gets treated for something they don't have and go into organ failures. The former is more likely in hematology, chemistry, and coagulation. The latter happens more in microbiology and blood banking.

what are your schedules like? 7am-7pm? 9am-4pm?

Depends on the lab. Most day shift starts at 7A-3:30p, evening starts at 3p-11:30p, nights start at 11p-730a. But labs will usually work with someone to adjust their schedule to come in later in the day.

what can you do with a masters or phd in medical lab science.

With a masters, nothing much. You may have a better chance at moving up compared to a bachelor, but experience trumps degrees. A PhD might get you into the director position, but there isn't an PhD in medical lab science.

do you plan on going back to school to pursue a masters or phd?

Yes, but for a doctorate degree in something.

when you were in high school, did you envision yourself to be a medical lab tech?

No. I wanted to be a drummer, but the thoughts of job security sat better with me, so I chose CLS over drumming.

would having a computer science background be helpful?

Yes, if you want to go into lab IT. Believe it or not, Medtechs are under appreciated, but lab ITs are even more so. Many people don't know about medtechs, but even fewer people know lab ITs. But, without ITs, a hospital can longer function in the 21st century. As technology progress, more computer proficient people are needed to keep a hospital updated.