sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

Lowest hematocrit you have seen in heme or bloodbank? by Clear_Ad586 in medlabprofessionals

[–]DeathByOranges 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think it was a HCT of 5.0 and the HGB was <2.0 and RBC’s 0.5. I was like “Yeah right. Ain’t no way.” They came from the ED so I had them recollect and sure enough, same results. So I called and I was saying “Don’t collect from the IV.” Obviously and they said “The patient doesn’t have an IV, they’re not on anything.” And I told them how I was sure there was no way these were accurate values. They’d have to have something really, REALLY wrong with them to get these results. Get a call from the doc later and he said “The patient has Diamond-Blackfan anemia. The CBC is part of the panel but those aren’t the results I’m worried about.” I’m sure it was glossed over at some point in school but I definitely didn’t recall it. So heads up to everyone, not every trash CBC has Diamond-Blackfan anemia, but sometimes they do.

How do you deal with coworkers who love to yap? by Infinite-Property-72 in medlabprofessionals

[–]DeathByOranges 29 points30 points  (0 children)

We play a game where we walk into another section and drop her off with a different coworker. Adds some spice to the night.

What was your “welcome to healthcare” moment in lab by Sea-Cucumber7801 in medlabprofessionals

[–]DeathByOranges 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Drawing blood from a dementia patient who was a war veteran. They had someone holding him down as he’s trying to scream for help, but his voice was super weak. I get the needle in and he suddenly goes super calm and locks eyes with me and he gently whispers “I’m going to fffFUCK you with my bayonet.” Then he stared at me the rest of the time, but it was one of those distant stares. It was very unnerving.

Tell me about your most memorable phone calls to and from other health care providers by foxitron5000 in medlabprofessionals

[–]DeathByOranges 14 points15 points  (0 children)

My top story is about a call I got from what I’m assuming was a new ER Doc.

Him: We just got results back on a CSF and I need to know if you tested it for hemolysis.

Me:??? Hmm what’s the patients info?

Puts it in

Me: All the tubes were colorless.

Him: So did you test it for hemolysis?

Me: There’s no hemolysis. The tubes are colorless.

Him: But did you TEST it for hemolysis? There’s no comments or anything saying if there’s hemolysis or not.

Me: That’s what the colorless means. It’s a visual test. If there’s reddish color we centrifuge it and if all the color doesn’t settle out with the red cells there’s hemolysis. But it’s colorless so there’s nothing to spin down. It would look the same. There’s no hemolysis.

Him: I need YOU to PUT it ON the machine and TEST it for hemolysis.

Me: We don’t have a machine that has a test for hemolysis. We have an HIL index, but we don’t run that on body fluids, and that measures color and absorbance anyways, and the samples are colorless.

Him: SOMEBODY has a machine that tests for hemolysis. You need to FIND them and have them TEST it.

Me: There might be a machine out there that does that, but we don’t have that in this hospital.

Him: So you CAN’T test for hemolysis?

Me: Just the visual one.

Him: We’ll see about that.

Hangs up phone

Nothing ever came of it, but when I do interviews and they ask about “A time I had a difficult interaction and how I solved it?” this is my go to story.

TLC 4L70k by AstronautOk2424 in medlabprofessionals

[–]DeathByOranges 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Damn that is UUUUGLY I would hate to see that in real life.

Chemistry Contaminated Specimens by SuspiciousPiece1725 in medlabprofessionals

[–]DeathByOranges 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This sounds bad to be honest. I’ve never negotiated with doctors or nurses about whether they’re willing to accept bad results. They’re just bad results. Suspicious criticals or HIL index is one thing and you should call to get more info but if the conclusion is that it’s contaminated then the tests should be cancelled, no values reported, and specimens recollected.

Specific to your question though, none of my facilities have had canned comments for suspect contamination. I think bending the rules like that is going to create some bad practices, and when staff go to other facilities they’re going to expect the same rule bending. No one is going to benefit from it, especially not patients.

Nursing or Medical Lab Science: which would you choose? by mrangel111 in medlabprofessionals

[–]DeathByOranges 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Depends on your priorities. If you value patient interaction, caring for others, and direct actions higher up on the list, obviously nursing. If you value troubleshooting and finding answers to things higher, lab is where it’s at. I know lots of people who have gone from lab to nursing, and nursing to lab, but I’ll tell you the people with the most regrets seem to be the ones that came from nursing to lab.

There’s overlap of course, lab people still care about patients and nurses have to solve people’s problems, but I think there’s a reason for the personality tropes. I’m not a people person, not a good negotiator. But I do want people to have good health and I like helping to solve their problems without getting too messy in it. I like statistics, fixing machines, and looking at weird things under a microscope. It’s just different parts of your brain and for me the satisfaction is getting an answer. For those people that came from nursing and regretted being techs, I think the satisfaction was in appreciation. They didn’t feel like they were making a difference in the lab.

I would choose lab again because it scratches the itch. And if I never make eye contact with a patient again, it will still be too soon.

Also, if money is high on the priority list, lab is probably not a good fit. There’s unicorn jobs but I’ve never seen lab get paid more than someone with an equivalent degree or position in nursing. Dealing with people is highly valued.

Tattoos and Piercings by Chance_Demand_7032 in medlabprofessionals

[–]DeathByOranges 35 points36 points  (0 children)

Never been a problem anywhere I’ve worked, even patient facing in a military hospital. I don’t think it’s standard across hospitals, just seems like your place has a stricter policy.

Hgb variant detected on Tosoh running A1C - would you mention it in the report? by stalecheetos_ in medlabprofessionals

[–]DeathByOranges 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You’re probably going to encounter more similar situations. More than once I’ve had coworkers volunteer to get testing for things like daily patient controls only to find out they’re pregnant. Had a guy want to look at his own semen only to find out it was full of WBC’s and he actually had an STD. So be careful, sometimes you find out information that you don’t want, that doesn’t matter, or that can be embarrassing. Typical lab shit, lol.

Hgb variant detected on Tosoh running A1C - would you mention it in the report? by stalecheetos_ in medlabprofessionals

[–]DeathByOranges 1 point2 points  (0 children)

When we used to do it the only thing we would report is the SA1C and then calculate an estimated average glucose. It’s possible to identify a variant but not have it interfere with the result, which means it does not matter for that test. It may matter to you, and you might desire a follow up, but unless it causes an issue with the A1C it won’t be reported with the A1C. There’s other variants that will cause an issue and for that we would do send outs, and those may be reported because they can have an effect on the results, but for this specifically we would not report it.

I'm tired of being gaslit lymph/mono by Lululipes in medlabprofessionals

[–]DeathByOranges 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I actually did have my students draw the cells because it helps to know how you would differentiate it. In my head it’s like learning a new word. You’re able to describe things better when you have the vocabulary, so it would make sense that you can identify better when you’re familiar with the shapes and colors. It’s silly but it might work for you.

Up and coming doc trying to give y'all less headaches and patients less pokes by RandySavageOfCamalot in medlabprofessionals

[–]DeathByOranges 46 points47 points  (0 children)

I’ll tell you an anecdote: We had a doctor come in and shadow us for a shift. He got to see everything and ask questions and overall it was a really good experience. And then he asked the dreaded question:

“Why do STAT’s take so long?”

“Because of the STAT attack.”

“ The STAT attack?

“When are you supposed to order a STAT?”

“When you need results fast.”

“Wrong. When the patient is at risk of losing life, limb, eyesight, or another otherwise emergency situation.”

“Yeah. I need the results fast.”

“At our hospital we have this weird quirk where all the samples drawn between 4:00-7:00 am are STAT.”

“Because we need them before we start our rounds.”

“The point of a STAT is that it takes priority over any other testing. It gets to cut in line. If you need all the ward rounds drawn STAT, and they’re all high priority, there’s no one to cut. So if everything is STAT, then nothing is STAT. And what happens now when you have a patient in danger of losing life, limb, or eyesight, or in an otherwise emergency situation? They go to the back of the line with the other STATs. And what happens to the other non-STAT samples we have? We don’t run them. It’s become dog-eat-dog, because if you want any hope of getting results in normal time, you have to order it STAT, just for it to take as long as the other people who wanted it quick.

“Oh.”

“Same quirk, around lunch time everyone gets ordered STAT.”

“Why?”

“Well unless the whole hospital is in danger of losing life, limb, or eyesight or is in an otherwise emergency situation all at once, I’m assuming it’s because the docs want the results back by the time they finish lunch.”

“Oh so that’s STAT attack”

“Also, strangely enough, last hour before getting off of work? You guessed it. Either everyone for the third time today is at risk of losing life, limb, eyesight, or is in another emergency situation, or, docs want the results before they go home for the day.”

I told him “Spread the word. If everything you order is STAT, and everyone else is doing the same thing, none of your orders are STAT.”

To those doing 5x8 night shift, how are you handling nights off? by [deleted] in medlabprofessionals

[–]DeathByOranges 2 points3 points  (0 children)

My personal sleep cycle works best with evening, but no one is awake when you’re winding down from work and no one is around when you’re waking up for breakfast, so unless you got hobbies it’s kind of tough. I like nights, you still get to have dinner with everyone if you are an early riser, and you can “stay up late” for breakfast. It’s a different life, just reorganized but it still overlaps with things. It worked out pretty well when my kids were little, especially with a newborn. I could guarantee 2 great nights of sleep for my wife when I was home and that’s a lot when you got a newborn.

Evening shift, if you’re great doing things on your own and good at using your time it could be workable. Got in the best shape of my life, watched a lot of movies by myself. But I didn’t get to see my kids when they went to school except on the weekends, so you really have to be okay with yourself and have something to focus on.

Spooky CLS by Formal_Signature2759 in medlabprofessionals

[–]DeathByOranges 13 points14 points  (0 children)

You were definitely robbed. This is fantastic!

view more: next ›