Facebook Feedback: Beginnings and Benches
If you're
not following us on Facebook,
you're missing a lot of fun feedback. If you are, keep following and spread the
word! The conversations are far from over.
We asked Facebook fans: How did you first learn of the laboratorian profession?
Here are
selected responses, copied verbatim without editing:
- It was a
mos (job) available to sign up for in the Army.
- From a
poster in my high school chemistry class from Ferris
- I saw
Outbreak. I wanted to work for the CDC so bad. lol
- High
school. HOSA
- Career
fair in high school in 10th grade.
- my aunt
was a phleb. im a MT its in the family. hoping my son follows me.
- Enrolled
in the classes. I had no clue what it was about.... phlebotomy and
parasites would have kept me away. I got very lucky and feel like the job
was made for me!
- Pre-professional
school fair at CBU put on by UT
- Taking
prereqs for nursing school, enrolled in microbiology. When we got into
testing for various bugs, I was fascinated. Changed major to MLT. Later
took the MT (C) exam and work in chemistry. Love it.
- Was in
nursing freshman year and thought the chemistry class was very
unchallenging. Then saw a bulletin board for Med Tech and realized I was
more the "science geek" than the nurse type so I changed my
major! Had never heard of it before.....high school guidance counselor was
not too broad in her definitions of what women who were good in math and
science could do.
- Had an
aunt who was (is) a histotech.....
- I was 11
or 12 and was sick, they drew some blood, and I remember being fascinated
with what they were going to do with the blood sample and what they would
be able to find out.
- I learned
the profession from my microbiology instructor who work party time as MT
in another hospital.
- Met my
husband at a health fair... he's also a med tech and I decided to try it
myself!
- I have an
older sister who is a Transfusion Services MT who got me interested.
- From a
student of mine...I was teaching high school science and thinking about a
change of jobs. SOOO glad I found lab science!
- I was a
Chem lab aide my sophomore year & realized I loved the bench work. My
boss was a former MT and steered me in the right direction.
We also asked Facebook fans: What is your least favorite bench to work on?
- Diffs and
urinalysis
- At the
last hospital where I worked, it would have to be the ER STAT lab. It was
even more cramped for space than the main lab (which was cited by CAP
inspectors for that reason)...
a million and one urine specimens during a typical 12-hour day shift or
7P-2A shift for nights...
at least one analyzer problem about every other day...
no chair or computer workstation near the UA microscope (just one for
techs and one for phlebotomists)...
constant calls from doctors/nurses concerning the whereabouts of mainly UA
results...
due to having no specimen processors, constantly having to run
microbiology specimens and specimens for which tests aren't run in the
STAT lab up to the main lab...
being scared to death that I would forget to run 3 PM or 11 PM CBC and
coag QC...
the list could go on and on! :(
- urines and
streps....BORING!!!!
- micro...ewww
stinky stuff
- Hematology
- Definitly
Diffs!! I hate it!
- Micro,
hands down. I just hate it.
- point of
care, love/hate love-gets you out of the lab, hate- your not dealing with
lab techs QC? what's that?
- Supervisor.
- Was UA
till I got a job doing ANA's by ifa
- we batch
our Glucose Tolerances, and hands down, they are the worst, there are
ALWAYS samples with the wrong times....I hate them!
- DAU at
work... Want to get back to the analytical chem lab.. Research was much
more enjoyable
- Ugh,
chemistry! Boring!
- chemistry...no
challenge
- Wow! No
love for micro! I guess you have to have a passion for it! My least
favorite area in micro is the respiratory bench because that area is in
charge of all of the QC.
- Blood gas.
- Manual
cell counts on body fluids.
- Cell
counts and manual retics, hands down!