Stepwise Success : Career Development

Use the Gram Stain

Scott Warner — Fri, 24 May 2013 10:18:00 GMT

In microbiology we learn to use the Gram stain results of a direct smear to check specimen quality (usually by a count of squamous epithelial cells) and any predominating organisms (e.g. lancet shaped Gram positive cocci on a sputum) that suggest what...(read more)

Improve Your Criteria

Scott Warner — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 10:04:00 GMT

An acronym pulled from the alphabet soup is CQI, or Continuous Quality Improvement. Managers and quality improvement people use this to show that everything can be improved, even processes that work. Continuously trying to improve quality generates incremental...(read more)

Keeping Benchwork Exciting

Scott Warner — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 10:02:00 GMT

The other day after I explained a change in microbiology an employee told me, “That’s three times you’ve used the word ‘exciting.’ That’s not a word I would use.” This was said in good humor, but the point is valid. Slogging out results day in and day...(read more)

The Power of Humor

Scott Warner — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 11:00:00 GMT

I’ve done some of my best work while laughing with another person. Working on a hospital fire plan with a colleague was split between genuine moments of hilarity (such as inventing a politically incorrect system to remember all the telephone extensions...(read more)

The Truth About Management

Scott Warner — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 11:00:00 GMT

Maine is a small state, and most of us in laboratory management know each other. We share empathy over job stress: regulations, physician demands, nursing demands, staffing shortages, and personnel issues. One manager complained, “When someone walks into...(read more)

Change is Always Good

Scott Warner — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 11:00:00 GMT

“People hate change,” we are lectured, as though it is a law of physics. Change is constant, change is expected, change is inevitable, but people will always resist it. Managers are told to expect that a certain percentage (17% or so) of employees will...(read more)

Dreading Evaluations

Scott Warner — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 11:07:00 GMT

At a leadership seminar a CEO said, “Performance evaluations give you at least one chance to have a conversation with your employees.” I don’t disagree with that, especially for off shifts. But performance evaluations are also a chance to permanently...(read more)

Ask the New Guy

Scott Warner — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 11:05:00 GMT

From Black Friday until after the holidays, it’s bargain hunting season. Like most bargains, a new hire in your laboratory can be good or bad. And your lab will play “Ask the new guy” to figure it out. If management does its job, the news is good. Great...(read more)

What Not To Wear (To An Interview)

Scott Warner — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 11:30:00 GMT

My first management interview was in-house, and I dressed the way I normally dressed for work every day: casual and comfortable. I didn’t get the job, in part, because I didn’t dress with confidence for success. For my next interview I borrowed my brother-in-law’s...(read more)

What-If Questions

Scott Warner — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 10:18:00 GMT

The purpose of a resume is to get an interview, and the purpose of an interview is to see how well you’ll fit into the team. While your resume gives some idea of technical competence, the employer may ask “what if?” questions to gauge what you would do...(read more)

Who Reads Online Procedures?

Scott Warner — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 10:05:00 GMT

If your procedures are online (I added the word “online” to the title of this blog, because it seems like a more interesting question), it’s easy to track clicks to know who reads what. But IT geeks who love online procedures don’t use aging eyes to flick...(read more)

Greener Grass

Scott Warner — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 10:14:00 GMT

Wolfgang Mieder, folklore professor at the University of Vermont, wrote in De Proverbio that the American proverb “The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence” should be old but isn’t. Its earliest appearance in print is 1957, although...(read more)

Our Future

Scott Warner — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 11:20:00 GMT

What is our future? Usually I hear: More and more, patients will be performing home testing. In fact, all the testing with be point of care. Your lab will have to use lab assistants and phlebotomists, because according to CLIA you don’t need lab techs....(read more)

Explaining Errors

Scott Warner — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 10:03:00 GMT

Nurses are often go-betweens for doctors and lab techs, speaking for either. For the laboratory, it usually doesn’t matter if the nurse represents the doctor (“He wants a STAT potassium on the patient in 12”), but is the reverse true? Recently, for example,...(read more)

Sins of Age

Scott Warner — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 10:19:00 GMT

She’s rude. She’s too bossy. He doesn’t want to work. She doesn’t respect her elders. He doesn’t have a clue about email. We work in interesting times, in which three or four generations of techs may create conflict in your lab. Many of the social “sins”...(read more)