This is Sarah. She is a medical laboratory technologist in hematology.
“It’s hard to explain my job if you’ve never set foot in a lab before. Some people probably just see us as button pushers, but it’s a lot more complicated than that.
The bulk of our testing includes processing complete blood counts and coagulation testing. We do microscopy, including body fluid cell counts & differentials. We are considered frontline in that we are exposed to the specimens. We also go to the patient care floors to assist with bone marrows.
I had been away on vacation right before all of this happened. When I came back, there were a lot of changes to policies and procedures, and a lot of emails going around about COVID-19 – it was a bit dizzying, to be honest. The core lab quickly got 2 new BSC’s (Biological Safety Cabinets). Some staff were redeployed to help with COVID-19 testing. We had to hire and train new staff. Our shift and break times have been staggered to help with social distancing. Being that we do a lot of ‘open tube’ work, we’ve been forced to reexamine all of our processes. We use the BSC’s for all open tube work now, and are wearing PPE more often.”
The comments section is closed.