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Spread the Word: A Medical Technology Student’s Perspective

Rotating through the Microbiology Lab

Published August 16, 2009 10:02 PM by Tiffany Landis
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My last week in the Microbiology lab started with two days of working and reading on the Respiratory and miscellaneous bench then ending with the blood bench. I was able to determine if there was a pathogen growing on the plate versus normal flora bacteria. I saw a lot of Staphylococcus aureus and a lot turned out to be MRSA. When I came upon Beta Strep plates that came the fun of using the latex assay to determine which group of Strep it was. GC screens were interesting two, especially since we had several cases that came up positive. The blood bench was rather interesting as well. Who knew that a person could have so much bacteria in their blood. I really loved my time in the Microbiology lab and was really sad to leave. Maybe, I can get a student internship position?
posted by Tiffany Landis

1 comments
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Hi Tiffany!

There are also a few coagulase-negative Staphylococcus strains that can exhibit the exact same yellow colony color and beta-hemolysis as Staph aureus.  I came across one of those, Staphylococcus hemolyticus, the last time I "read" Micro a few years ago.

Also, it is never normal to have any kind of bacteria in blood since this is a sterile body fluid.  If the only species of bacteria isolated from positive blood cultures is coagulase-negative Staph or Propionibacterium (a twisted Gram-"positive" rod that actually destains, or looks pink on a Gram stain), the possibility of contamination by normal skin flora due to the site not being appropriately cleaned beforehand must also be considered.  It is extremely important to know the difference between contamination and a true blood infection since sepsis can be life-threatening.
Stephanie Mathis, MLS(ASCP), Generalist - Medical Laboratory Scientist, Danville Regional Medical Center September 4, 2009 3:24 AM
Danville VA

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