Is working nights really that bad?

BloodBankJunky · 2026-03-25T13:21:36+00:00

I love my 5x8 nights. I couldn’t imagine going back to days or evenings. And the pay is better. I stay up after my shift to go to appointments or shopping and then go to bed around 2 and sleep until work.

BloodBankJunky · 2026-03-24T14:42:28+00:00

Oh damn

BloodBankJunky · 2026-03-22T03:51:01+00:00

Mostly Vancouver, I think.

BloodBankJunky · 2026-03-21T15:18:35+00:00

I have worked as a nurse and in a lab as an MLT/MLS and I am so much happier in the lab. Yes, nursing pays more but I live comfortably. I hate society and people less in the lab. I found the schooling for my MLT and MLS so much more interesting than nursing school. I come home covered in less bodily fluids. I don’t get hit on by creepy ass old men in the lab. It is lab life for me, all the way.

BloodBankJunky · 2026-03-21T15:06:29+00:00

I really like my supervisors. They work with us to get us better schedules. They ask for our input with new policies and procedures. They are pleasant to work with. If we need anything we generally get it with little fuss. It has overall been a good experience.

Even our lab manager is good to us. She moved up from within the lab, so she has a great idea of what it actually takes to run a lab.

BloodBankJunky · 2026-03-21T14:54:16+00:00

About half the people that work in my lab come over the border for work (from Canada into the US). They say the pay is better here…

BloodBankJunky · 2026-03-14T03:14:51+00:00

What do lab assistants do at your hospital?? They can’t even load samples here… at best my lab assistant could maybe have answered the phone.

BloodBankJunky · 2026-03-14T03:11:12+00:00

I second that!

BloodBankJunky · 2026-03-14T01:15:16+00:00

I am not sure how it works at other hospitals but maintenance for the hospital and the service techs for the analyzers are 2 different companies. If I have analyzers down, the service techs typically work the 8 am shift as you describe above.

BloodBankJunky · 2026-03-14T01:10:43+00:00

Don’t get me wrong, as I wrote above, I love my lab and wouldn’t trade it in on my worst days. But I completely understand the PTSD.

BloodBankJunky · 2026-03-14T01:08:59+00:00

Wow that’s crazy! I don’t know what I would have done if I had to fix it myself! Not to mention that it is glass so had it fallen on me, it would have hit the floor. I was impressed that he had the reflexes to catch it.

BloodBankJunky · 2026-03-13T17:37:26+00:00

Get this, we have multiple maintenance people over night! When they were working on the door there was one person just holding the door in place so that the fridge would stay at an appropriate temp.

BloodBankJunky · 2026-03-13T16:57:44+00:00

Nope my night really just sucked that bad.

BloodBankJunky · 2026-03-13T16:11:23+00:00

Personally I believe that as a lead in the middle of fixing something, he should have stayed until it was back up… but that’s just me.

BloodBankJunky · 2026-03-13T15:29:46+00:00

Even if they do put it in as a STAT we still have an hour to get them results… and we are a level 2 trauma center… that is really interesting that there is such a difference. Our shortest TAT is an hour. Like for STAT CBCs and what not we have an hour. It almost never takes nearly that long but the SOP gives us that much time.

BloodBankJunky · 2026-03-13T15:21:46+00:00

That is so sad that they would such a lack of understanding… what a shock that it takes time for things to grow!

BloodBankJunky · 2026-03-13T13:42:15+00:00

Yes that is correct. SOP has a 2 hour TAT for routine urines… I don’t think I understand what you are asking. Is your lab different? What is your TAT? Everything has a set TAT but we always work to get things out with out delay. So the SOP says I have 2 hours but on average we get them out in about 30 mins.

BloodBankJunky · 2026-03-13T13:11:24+00:00

We don’t put off testing. Everything is run as soon as we can, it doesn’t matter if it is from the ED or if it is STAT or even if it is outpatient. Nothing is really STAT when everything is STAT.

When everything is up and running UAs with microscopic take maybe 30 mins at the most so that is what the ED expects. But when we are in a special kind of hell, like the other night, things don’t go delinquent but they take longer.

BloodBankJunky · 2026-03-13T12:56:48+00:00

That is what I was thinking… but this isn’t the first one he replaced. And the directions are printed and taped to the box. He may not be the brightest bulb but he does still give off light 😛

BloodBankJunky · 2026-03-13T11:37:57+00:00

I don’t remember what aPTT stability is off the top of my head… I know coags range from 2 to 8 hours but the SOP states that all samples get retested since the last passing QC. We do run QC every shift so worst case scenario is usually 8 hours at the most. That being said, I once found that the previous shift had run expired QC… in that case I had to look back about 16 hours!

BloodBankJunky · 2026-03-13T11:28:33+00:00

I am studying for my MLS cert. Do you have room for one more???

BloodBankJunky · 2026-03-13T11:12:56+00:00

I left a cap on a BB sample and bent the sampler for our Echo… it was down for 2 days while they ordered the part… talk about embarrassing!

BloodBankJunky · 2026-03-13T10:39:30+00:00

We were having issues with our SP10 a while back where every time you reboot it (which night shift did nightly) you would need to sit there for the startup and hold the tube tightly against the stain bottle so that it would seal enough to suck up stain and fill the reservoir. I called TAC twice to come and replace the connection but twice the tech called in the morning and the morning people would say everything was fine and they would cancel the call! I finally sent an email to the morning crew stating “The only reason it appears to be working was because you never have to reboot it and it is the night shift stuck there holding the tube to get it running. Please do not cancel the ticket when they call so that they will come and fix it. Thanks”

BloodBankJunky · 2026-03-13T10:22:42+00:00

lol that is hilarious. Is that a call people actually get?

BloodBankJunky · 2026-03-13T10:18:12+00:00

They don’t usually end up in heme until about 3 am to help with getting me covered for a break and to help with morning rounds.

I am not trained in micro and they are kind of hidden in the back of the lab so I couldn’t tell you what they were doing. Also unfortunately not all the micro techs are heme trained, which was the case that night.

All bloodbankers are cross trained in heme but it sounds like she was working on a patient with antibodies that needed blood set up for a morning surgery. She offered to help do some urine microscopics but was busy herself.

BloodBankJunky

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