Headcount of Medical Professionals on CS?

[ho11is]

hi im a medical technologist :D im a generalist so i do it all, like microbiology/immunology, hematology, chemistry, and my fave is da blood bank :3 i got my degree in medical lab science a few years ago and i love this field so much :~)

\o/
You're so brave to have blood bank as a favorite. It scares me so much.

I remember, the very beginning of the year a couple of years ago - Jan 1st - there was a guy that had a type and screen sent down for us and he had a positive screen, with what seemed to be an additional antibody that he hadn't had previously (I think he also had a positive DAT). He'd been transfused within the last 14 days or so, so I had to do an elution on it too and the kits that we have just... really aren't that great. lol So I was scratching my head trying to figure out what it was, and the nurse calls with the doctor on the line demanding I give them blood right then.

So I'm trying to explain to them that he has an antibody and I don't know what it is yet. He could take a severe turn for the worst if he doesn't get the right blood units, and they go, "No, he's bleeding, he needs it now." And so I go into panic mode, calling our on-call pathologists - of course it had to be a on a holiday too - and they call the Blood Bank supervisor and eventually tell me to just cross-match the blood and release it with a form for least incompatible units.

God I hated that experience. I was so sure that my first feat of the new year was going to be murder. XD I checked on his chart a couple of days later and he was, thankfully, still amongst the living.
I think there were a couple of times outside of that one that I walked away from the department that night wondering if I'd killed someone.



Upper management has since changed what qualifies us as a 'generalist' to include either blood bank or Micro and I ended up on the Micro side of things. Actually, it wasn't because of the work itself that I ended up picking Micro but because the blood bank supervisor of the time was..... well, we all called her some pretty sour names and she earned every single one of them.

agh i hate when that happens!! so many doctors think blood is a cure all so it can be hard explaining that sometimes giving a unit can do more damage than good. im glad he was alright tho, thats like a nightmare situation 😭 i had a geriatric patient recently with a STRONG warm auto, and my current hospital is small so we don't even do elutions, we send it to a reference lab. they wanted least incompatible but literally EVERY unit was reacting like 3+ 🫩 (i full crossmatched like 15) and it was like 10pm on a weekend 💔 luckily she wasn't bleeding and they were able to postpone the transfusion but yeah it never feels good having the phone ringing off the hook and you have NOTHING to give them

speaking of blood bank tho i just have to vent i had to deal with a massive transfusion alone tonight while we're short staffed and was literally running back and forth down to the ED trying to do everything, even running a cbc offline just to see what his H&H was and unfortunately the patient didn't make it :( i feel confident knowing i did the best job i possibly could have, it's just the way things play out sometimes. but being short staffed and also working with people that are incompetent less knowledgeable makes everything 10x more stressful. to add insult to injury it took out all our O negs and the blood center doesnt have any on their shelves either 🙃 plus wasted a couple units of thawed FFP but that's to be expected lol. just glad to be home and have tomorrow off =_=

[scmarshtacky]

agh i hate when that happens!! so many doctors think blood is a cure all so it can be hard explaining that sometimes giving a unit can do more damage than good. im glad he was alright tho, thats like a nightmare situation 😭 i had a geriatric patient recently with a STRONG warm auto, and my current hospital is small so we don't even do elutions, we send it to a reference lab. they wanted least incompatible but literally EVERY unit was reacting like 3+ 🫩 (i full crossmatched like 15) and it was like 10pm on a weekend 💔 luckily she wasn't bleeding and they were able to postpone the transfusion but yeah it never feels good having the phone ringing off the hook and you have NOTHING to give them

speaking of blood bank tho i just have to vent i had to deal with a massive transfusion alone tonight while we're short staffed and was literally running back and forth down to the ED trying to do everything, even running a cbc offline just to see what his H&H was and unfortunately the patient didn't make it :( i feel confident knowing i did the best job i possibly could have, it's just the way things play out sometimes. but being short staffed and also working with people that are incompetent less knowledgeable makes everything 10x more stressful. to add insult to injury it took out all our O negs and the blood center doesnt have any on their shelves either 🙃 plus wasted a couple units of thawed FFP but that's to be expected lol. just glad to be home and have tomorrow off =_=

Oof, warm autos >.< I've had to deal with them too, and release least incompatible units with paperwork that the doctors have to sign before giving the unit, but I've never seen more than around a 1+ on AHG. If everything is that reactive, they might as well not even bother transfusing at all - work on the underlying causes first.

:c
Indeed, sometimes you can do everything in your power, but their fate has already been determined and nothing will change it. But it never is a good feeling to hear from the nurses that the patient on massive passed after everything. Take your off day, and relax. You've earned it!


On a slightly brighter note, I finally got to use my advanced operator knowledge that I went to a different state to learn on the Diasorin tonight. It was throwing an error with cuvette unable fill because the position is already occupied. Dug around in the incubator ring, pulled out every single cuvette by hand, and then re-initialized it, and it seemed to be working okay afterwards. I'll know tomorrow for sure when I go into work.

[ho11is]

Oof, warm autos >.< I've had to deal with them too, and release least incompatible units with paperwork that the doctors have to sign before giving the unit, but I've never seen more than around a 1+ on AHG. If everything is that reactive, they might as well not even bother transfusing at all - work on the underlying causes first.

:c
Indeed, sometimes you can do everything in your power, but their fate has already been determined and nothing will change it. But it never is a good feeling to hear from the nurses that the patient on massive passed after everything. Take your off day, and relax. You've earned it!


On a slightly brighter note, I finally got to use my advanced operator knowledge that I went to a different state to learn on the Diasorin tonight. It was throwing an error with cuvette unable fill because the position is already occupied. Dug around in the incubator ring, pulled out every single cuvette by hand, and then re-initialized it, and it seemed to be working okay afterwards. I'll know tomorrow for sure when I go into work.

ooh digging around in instruments is always fun!! never heard of a Diasorin though, what does it do? ive been to a few labs during my clinicals and ive worked at 2 hospitals so far, mostly ive seen sysmex, cepheid, abbott, cobas/roche, and ortho. my current place has 2 big vitros xt 7600s for chemistry and theyre always having random errors 🫩 but thats chemistry for ya. recently one had an issue where the probe got like attached to a pipette tip in the tip sealer and when it tried to initialize it straight up SNAPPED the probe off the instrument!! 😳 i called service and was on hold for 2 hours until i decided to just pop the thing open and dig around, luckily we had an extra probe and it wasnt too complicated to figure out how to unscrew the old one to replace it (of course that was exactly when service decided to call back) it was crazy how the metal inside was bent at a 90° angle 😭 always makes me feel kinda sketched out reaching elbow deep into giant machines (the bite of 87....) but i feel so lucky to have a job thats SO diverse where i get to have a little engineering on the side 😁 its like i hit the jackpot combining all my favorite things into one job. AND i get to help people!! i wish more people knew about the field, i didn't even know it existed until i majored in it, it might be difficult but it is sooooo worth it

[scmarshtacky]

ooh digging around in instruments is always fun!! never heard of a Diasorin though, what does it do? ive been to a few labs during my clinicals and ive worked at 2 hospitals so far, mostly ive seen sysmex, cepheid, abbott, cobas/roche, and ortho. my current place has 2 big vitros xt 7600s for chemistry and theyre always having random errors 🫩 but thats chemistry for ya. recently one had an issue where the probe got like attached to a pipette tip in the tip sealer and when it tried to initialize it straight up SNAPPED the probe off the instrument!! 😳 i called service and was on hold for 2 hours until i decided to just pop the thing open and dig around, luckily we had an extra probe and it wasnt too complicated to figure out how to unscrew the old one to replace it (of course that was exactly when service decided to call back) it was crazy how the metal inside was bent at a 90° angle 😭 always makes me feel kinda sketched out reaching elbow deep into giant machines (the bite of 87....) but i feel so lucky to have a job thats SO diverse where i get to have a little engineering on the side 😁 its like i hit the jackpot combining all my favorite things into one job. AND i get to help people!! i wish more people knew about the field, i didn't even know it existed until i majored in it, it might be difficult but it is sooooo worth it

Our lab uses it for procals, Quanteferons, and immune status (mumps, rubella, varicella, measles) - it doesn't have a terribly high workload, especially since the latter two are only done on first shift. We get maybe 10 procals through the evening and night. Our main chemistry analyzers are the Siemens Atellicas. Massive machines, but they do run fast. Heme has as Sysmex system too.

Our Vistas used to snap probes like that! XD The Atellicas have done it twice in the three years that we've had them. It was an alignment issue where the probe went into the incubation ring, and before it lifted the probe back up, it moved the ring and just destroyed the probe. I also have a video of the first week that we got the Atellicas, a piece of paper had slipped in through the crack at the top of the module, the probe had pieced it, but it kept functioning completely like normal while wildly swinging around this paper. It was absolutely hilarious.

Congrats on being about to replace the part! Fixing probes is one of my favorite things. haha I'd so much rather fix a mechanical issue that I can see then try to troubleshoot QC that just won't behave no matter what. I never realized how much I kind of like the engineering aspect until I spent so much time in Chemistry, but as you said, it's so much fun. I always say that if I ever quit my MLS job, I'm running straight to Siemens for a FSE job.

[Rainbow Dash]

I am a veterinary assistant/receptionist! I'm trained as an assistant, got halfway through tech school before dropping out due to being unable to get classes during the pandemic and then to do a huge move. Took receptionist role for mental health and stayed.

[Strange_Atoms]

I'm a medical laboratory technician, and I currently work in a microbiology lab!
It's been a heck of a year, between finishing school, graduating, passing the board exam and getting my first full time job. It's really surreal that I'm living out this thing I spent so many years dreaming about and working towards.

Anyways, I fell in love with microbiology after reading the books "The Hot Zone" and "The Demon in the Freezer". I think it'd be really interesting to work in research or a reference lab rather than in a hospital setting, but for now I'm content with getting settled in my job.

@scmarshtacky- merging hematology with blood bank is wild IMO...but the hospitals I've worked/studied in have been very busy in both blood bank and heme

[scmarshtacky]

I'm a medical laboratory technician, and I currently work in a microbiology lab!
It's been a heck of a year, between finishing school, graduating, passing the board exam and getting my first full time job. It's really surreal that I'm living out this thing I spent so many years dreaming about and working towards.

Anyways, I fell in love with microbiology after reading the books "The Hot Zone" and "The Demon in the Freezer". I think it'd be really interesting to work in research or a reference lab rather than in a hospital setting, but for now I'm content with getting settled in my job.

@scmarshtacky- merging hematology with blood bank is wild IMO...but the hospitals I've worked/studied in have been very busy in both blood bank and heme

Congrats on passing your boards! That's the hardest part, and then the rest is so much easier from there.
It's always funny to me - we have a MLS program integrated into our hospital - the new students always ask me about the background physiological stuff with this or that, and I say, "Sorry, I forgot almost all of that 5 years ago." XD Now I know my job in practice, and have forgotten a lot of the theory of the things.

The business of blood bank is almost dependent on how bad off Heme is. If they're calling alerts left and right, we grit our teeth because we know people are about to start slamming us with samples and demanding units right and left. lol



I don't actually know if I've shard this on this thread or not, but about 3 years ago, our hospital split the second shift generalists into "teams." You either did Heme, Chem, Micro OR Heme, Chem, Blood Bank. Prior to that we did all four. Well, with someone leaving the shift, they're now short a Blood Bank person again, and I finally cornered upper management into letting me get my full generalist status back. So I'll be retraining in Blood Bank.

On the one hand I'm excited. On the other, I'm slowly remembering how stressful that department could be. Micro is so much easier for second shifters: put sample on plate, read gram stains for any new positive blood cultures, or any body fluids that come down. The stress of Micro is pretty low in comparison to blood bank. I'll also have to train on first shift, and I'm not looking forward to waking up early.

[Konata.]

I knew it must've been my shawty who posted this just from looking at the title!! I hope life is treating you well... ICU is so stressful you barely have time for yourself !! My sister is currently an ER nurse and I never see her anymore TT

Not sure if it really counts since I don't plan on doing this for the rest of my career, but currently I'm a medical office assistant :3 I help the physicians do physical exams on our patients, communicate with specialists/other doctors/pharmacies, keep the office supplied, etc. It can be depressing at times especially with old patients, but it's all so worth it in the end!

[yuketsu]

I knew it must've been my shawty who posted this just from looking at the title!! I hope life is treating you well... ICU is so stressful you barely have time for yourself !! My sister is currently an ER nurse and I never see her anymore TT

Not sure if it really counts since I don't plan on doing this for the rest of my career, but currently I'm a medical office assistant :3 I help the physicians do physical exams on our patients, communicate with specialists/other doctors/pharmacies, keep the office supplied, etc. It can be depressing at times especially with old patients, but it's all so worth it in the end!

It's a stressful job when you're trying to keep ppl alive in the middle of the night :'D Even though I only work 3 days/week, those consecutive 12 hour shifts definitely are challenging... takes me like 2-3 days of doing nothing to recover from a work stretch :(

Are there any other healthcare specialties you're interested in or would you want to get out of healthcare eventually?

[Alexandrite]

I was a phlebotomist, I'm now a medical secretary (bc frankly the pay is better for doing 1/3 of my prior job lol)! I'm also a GoodSAM responder in aus and contractor for disability support work:]