The Fun Side of Clinical Laboratory Professionals
A 60+ year old lady smilingly came into the laboratory and submitted her urine sample. I was assigned at Clinical Microscopy that day but happened to be at the reception area to pick up samples, so I got her well-labelled sample too, and brought it back to my section. As I was reading under the… Continue reading No Age Limit
It was during the annual physical exam period in the hospital where I worked.All employees had to undergo CBC, U/A and S/E. Three employees obviously "shared" specimen as the 3 stool samples were submitted at the same time, with the exact same color and consistency. Who’s fooling the medical technologist? My coworker still read the… Continue reading Sharing is Daring
It was a typical day in the lab until we received an order from the ER. It was a STAT order for two units of packed cells and for us to do a "Clay Howard". What the heck is a Clay Howard test? We were all confused and even tried searching for it on Google.… Continue reading The Clay Howard Test
I work in a small town hospital with team members taking turns doing overnight calls. It was my turn to take calls one night and I got called in for an ER patient right around midnight. I went in, drew his blood, and stopped by the ER physician's office to find out what the patient's… Continue reading He’s Just Tired
At the hospital where I used to work, patients wait for us at the waiting area to have their blood drawn. As soon as their turn is up, we call them by their first name only or at times their "preferred name" to try to keep it as private as possible. My next patient's name… Continue reading She’s Got Enough
All is well in the laboratory until I realized a patient needed to collect a urine sample and it was missed. Nothing like a simple phone call can't fix. This happened when I just started working in the US and I admit I had a bit of an accent back then. When I called the… Continue reading Telemarketer Troubles
One day, I went to the ER to collect a flu swab on a patient. When I got there, the patient told me he needed to go to the restroom. I asked the patient if I could swab him really quick before he goes to the restroom, because the doctor is waiting for the result,… Continue reading Coughing Accident
You know that saying “Don’t judge the book by its cover”? Well, as lab techs, we also have our own version of it. In the lab where i used to work, we do heavy multitasking and ECG is part of the job. That part where the patients have to somehow expose their chest area for… Continue reading At Times It’s QNS
Nurse: I want to check the results on a urine culture. Me: That specimen was submitted earlier today so there are no results yet. Nurse: But I ordered it STAT and the doctor is waiting on the results. Me: Cultures require an incubation period and take time to grow so they are not considered a… Continue reading Urine Culture STAT
I had a nurse call for the results of a blood culture 2 hours after it was collected! I told her it takes 5 days to be completed (faster if it turns up positive). She said “But it was ordered STAT!” I said “Oh, I didn’t realize that. I will put Miracle Gro on it”… Continue reading Miracle Grow Fix
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