Through working on ADVANCE, I have had the opportunity to travel to many great cities across our nation. I love going to conferences, seeing new places and getting to meet all of you ADVANCE readers! However, I know when I get back to the office after being gone for a few days that I sometimes feel overwhelmed. There are e-mails to go ...

An optimist will tell you the glass is half-full; the pessimist, half-empty; and the engineer will tell you the glass is twice the size it needs to be. - Anonymous The lab tech will tell you it's not properly labeled, but that's another blog. Merriam Webster defines optimism as ''an inclination to put the most favorable construction upon ...

Networking has become an important part of finding a new job or even advancing in your current position or overall career. Attending events with your colleagues is always a great time to network. However, sometimes people feel embarrassed, shy or uncomfortable when it comes time to network. Susan RoAne, author of How to Work a Room, tells readers ...

Have you ever watched House, Grey's Anatomy or any other medical television show and you hear something you know, something you have learned in school, and it gives you goosebumps? I had that feeling one day while I was watching House. We had just learned about chronic granulomatous disease that day, and when I went back home and took a study ...

(Editor's note: This is a guest blog written by Valerie M. Chapman, RN, MSN, a pediatric nurse for 25 years. She is a 3-year breast cancer survivor and lives in Medford, NJ, with her husband and two children.) I am a wife, a mother of two awesome kids, a daughter, a sister, and a nurse. I am also a  survivor. At the age of 43 a ...

I last blogged that I would suggest how to really fix what's not fair in your laboratory. We've all felt rising resentment from unfair treatment: an extra weekend, being blamed for another's mistake, a poor evaluation. Let's consider the chronic problem that's unfair to everyone -- if it hasn't happened to you, it will soon – when the system is ...

Back in September, I traveled home to the Lehigh Valley (Allentown and Bethlehem, PA, area) for a get-together with my girlfriends from high school. I made a cake for the occasion (one I was pretty proud of). We were cutting the cake when my friend Tanya asked if it had egg in it. It did. She was planning on giving a piece to her 1-year-old son ...

This semester has been stressful. I have a full schedule and a lot of projects due. Just this semester I started the Master's program. I have stayed busy with lots of studying and reading assignments. I am taking Blood Bank, Mycology, Chemistry, Hematology/Coagulation and a research class. I must say it's been one of the hardest semesters I have ...

There's been so much material available lately on how to search for a job, especially because of job losses during the recession. We've all read articles about it, and a lot of the advice is repetitive after a while. In her book 366 Tips for a Successful Job Search, Cynthia Wright gives the reader a bunch of new tips I'd never heard of before. ...

As students, we are taught about laboratory safety and how to handle situations as they arise. However, you never know how you are going to react in a situation until you're faced with it head-on. It's important to realize blood products could pose a threat to you. Even the slightest cut could expose you to a lot of bacteria and ...