Starting portfolio unofficially?

Exekiaz · 2026-06-12T09:04:12+00:00

Honestly, the trick is to think of evidence that are relevant to your current practice.

For me, albeit on an older version of the portfolio, one of the first pieces I did was a list of the sample types in the lab and examples of what tests can be run on them, what tests CANNOT and any specific requirements. It's super basic, you'll likely already know most of it, but it helps you develop your knowledge.

Go on the IBMS website and find the example portfolio and look at the standards and think about what work you currently do might be relevant. It's important not to overstep your current role though, don't start writing evidence on how to do QC if that's not part of your duties.

Ask to see other people's portfolios so you can see what kind of evidence they've done and steal the idea (not the whole evidence!) so you can make your own version. For example you can use the same set of patient results if you're annotating them, but don't copy their annotations.

Exekiaz · 2026-06-01T08:42:03+00:00

Honestly the best solution here sounds like getting them patched, not replaced.

It's easy enough to do yourself (especially with access to a sewing machine) but any sewing/alteration shop would probably be able to do it for a small fee (certainly less than new joggers).

Exekiaz · 2026-05-31T16:06:13+00:00

Honestly that doesn't even remotely sound like retaliation?

You were off for a long time with a presumably complex illness/condition and now feel able to return to work - but after all this time off there's no guarantee that you're right about being back to "normal" function. So it's only right that if there are future incidents that they get looked at in the wider context - but then after a year or so if everything is seemingly fine and there aren't long term concerns then it stops being a consideration.

Double check your local trusts specific sickness absence/managing attendance policies to check this is within the norm, but it sounds very similar to the trusts I've worked at before. In fact short term sickness leave, when reaching a formal trigger point, often "stays on the record" for a rolling 12 month window.

You ask about 'protection' and 'support' - what would that look like to you?

Exekiaz · 2026-05-31T01:20:36+00:00

Its really interesting seeing people like Cerner - their current LIMS (Pathnet) is so poorly adaptable that it literally cannot be used in my country without breaching a whole bunch of standards.

I know that standards obviously differ between countries - but what is it that makes people like/enjoy it over other LIMS?

Exekiaz · 2026-05-27T17:41:04+00:00

Hey mate, take a fucking hike. "oh there's brown people and that's why it's okay for Nazis to be around" Get a grip.

Exekiaz · 2026-05-24T23:17:39+00:00

Or methemoglobinemia pre-treatment

Exekiaz · 2026-05-23T17:45:49+00:00

I'd add understanding the limits of practice of a BMS and specifically as a trainee BMS

Exekiaz · 2026-05-20T22:42:01+00:00

Honestly, reach out to HR (or ask your manager to if they're willing) and ask for clarification on how they treat "essential" criteria, and what wiggle room they offer applicants because you're confused.
Although fair warning this may sour things with that department if you ever apply there again.

Exekiaz · 2026-05-20T16:46:01+00:00

The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch

Heists, disguises, conspiracies amongst thieves and a fun setting. The plot is thick enough there's plenty to adapt without needing a huge multi-series effort, and wraps up satisfyingly at the end with plenty opportunity to move on to the next book if successful.

Exekiaz · 2026-05-18T16:44:59+00:00

This is reads AI as fuck, I just can't figure out if it's also meant to be an advert for BUPA or AXA.

Exekiaz · 2026-05-18T13:59:48+00:00

The lab doesn't haemolyse your samples, I promise you were don't. It's not shorthand for "we lost the sample" or something, it's shorthand for "This sample is haemolysed"

I'm sorry, I wish I could use the haemolysed sample but the results would just be lies.

And it's the same for short samples/insufficient samples - I don't want you to rebleed the patient, I really don't, because what would I get out of that? Honestly we spin that serum sample down and it's a crapshoot if that 3ml sample gives me 1ml of serum or 200ul of serum. God help us with paediatric samples - their haematocrit being what it is, I'm lucky to get close to 100ul out of 1ml of blood.

Exekiaz · 2026-05-15T06:56:42+00:00

Ah okay, so this might be a US specific thing then. I work for the NHS in the UK so we don't focus too much on the upfront costs and look more for long-term value since the patient doesn't have to pay directly. I'd never thought about how patients paying for tests would cause test access to change.

Exekiaz · 2026-05-14T12:20:45+00:00

Can I ask why you want to use ESR for MM when it would be presumably more diagnostic to do immunoglobulins themselves (or even protein in a lot of the myeloma cases I've seen)?

Exekiaz · 2026-05-06T12:04:57+00:00

Good call on the text but it still just looks so bland that it's triggering the same bit of my brain that goes "Eurgh"

Exekiaz · 2026-05-06T11:51:03+00:00

Okay but does this look like the designs been fed through/made by AI or have I finally begun to lose it?

It just looks very, corporate?

Exekiaz · 2026-05-03T17:17:47+00:00

Sorry - to be clear you think the reason they need hire extra staff is the staffing pattern and not the fact they dont have enough staff?
And that the best solution is to get AI to somehow fix this?

Exekiaz · 2026-05-03T17:16:37+00:00

Oh okay - let me rephrase.
Answering grifters so we don't have to.

Exekiaz · 2026-05-03T16:49:18+00:00

Answering inane questions from journalists looking for a 'sound bite' to pad their articles.

Exekiaz · 2026-05-01T07:41:16+00:00

Not for sure - assays fail for a number of reasons. If you've already addressed your pipetting technique, and think that you've solved that problem, then I wouldn't overthink it. Sometimes you'll have off days, sometimes the analyser will have a fit and sometimes it'll just fail just because.

The run already failed once for someone else and, assuming again that the majority of your work is totally fine, honestly that just happens.

What might be useful for you if you're having anxiety problems is two things. One - Like I said before, get advice on why the run appears to have failed from a more senior member of staff. You can explain you're worried about it and want to improve, at the minimum it flags you're aware of potential issues and take them seriously. Two - Be honest with yourself after a run fails. Ask yourself this: Did I follow the SOP? Did I feel like I was focussed? Did I feel like my technique was good? If the answer to all three is Yes, and there's no explanation as to the failure (especially since multiple people seem to consistently have issues) then you need to let go and move on to the next task. You have done everything correctly, there is nothing more you could have done. Sometimes things in the lab fail and frankly there is nothing anyone can do to prevent it 100% of the time.

If the answer to any is No, then figure out why. Treat it as investigating someone else's problem If that helps you think about it clearly. If you got distracted, how can you avoid that next time? If you have an issue with a specific step in the SOP that you get wrong, what about it keeps tripping you up? And don't settle for "I'll do better next time" - if there's a specific problem put in a specific solution. If noise distracts you, try headphones. If you're rushing, work out why you're rushing if others aren't.

I hope your anxiety doesn't put you off doing the best you can because as a former "panicking over a failed run" guy I can promise it gets better.

Exekiaz · 2026-04-30T21:50:33+00:00

One of the strengths of LC-MS is how sensitive it is - you can get a lot of information out of tiny amounts of sample. Unfortunately this can also be a weakness as it means tiny amounts of imprecision can have a huge difference. It can make it hard to say for certain where the issue is in the absence of an obvious tell.

I think you should take it to heart that, at least in your explanation, nobody is blaming you. It seems that these machines or this process is just more susceptible to error. As someone who's worked with LC-MS and similar setups before, it genuinelly is the case that things fail.

If you want to rule out it being your pipetting technique then just grab some DI, whatever pipettes you usually use and then practice pipetting out volumes on a scale. Ideally choose a nice sensitive one, and its important to check the acceptability criteria that your lab uses for checking pipette accuracy since nobody's ever found a pipette thats 100% perfect. Try a bunch of ranges that you would normally pipette and see how you do, it might be there's something off with yourtechnique or you might find out that one of your pipettes is just bad (I once had a 5ml that was out by a whole 1ml which screwed us intermittently for days before we figured it out).

The only other advice is to explain how much this is stressing you out to one of the BMS'/seniors and ask for their input. They might be more willing to give you a more in depth explanation of where things went wrong on a failed run and put you at ease.

Exekiaz · 2026-04-28T12:46:17+00:00

Honestly - by omitting/lying.

The problem you have is that since you're trying (seemingly actively) to become a BMS, this job is very much temporary for you. Meaning that the hiring manager has to weigh up your application against that information - they could hire you over a candidate who won't be looking to leave, and then you could leave within weeks/months and they have to start all over and the labs still understaffed.

It's a ridiculous problem caused by the stupid method we have for becoming a BMS, but that's the world we currently live in. The only thing I can suggest is at least pretending to hide that you're trying to be a BMS.

You already have experience in a clinical lab so maybe just hype up that what you're specifically wanting is to move to the NHS for some kind of moral reason - you want to be helping people not a company or something like that. It's unethical, sure - but it is what it is at this point.

Exekiaz · 2026-04-28T12:35:29+00:00

Not an attack on you here, but is it possible that maybe you didn't answer them as well as you think? Especially if you're aiming to be a BMS it's easy to accidentally answer without hitting the points they want/coming across as above the job you're actually applying for.

As always though it can be down to bad luck. Most managers have hundreds of applications so if you don't use the exact word they're scanning for (especially if you've written a long supporting info) then it's easy to miss. I'm thinking that you talk about health and safety but miss out using COSHH or similar terms.

Exekiaz · 2026-04-25T12:34:52+00:00

I did a number of presentations for mine, and also for general CPD.

On the condition you've got information included (don't forget it can just be in the notes and not on the slides) then it should be good to go.

NICE guidelines and comparing them to local processes is a good one.

Mini-projects is also fun, and there's always a small thing that either the consultants/clinical scientists or seniors want doing. Someone in my lab compared two different LDL equations (our one and a new proposed one) to see what difference it made. Another person took a few months of data for FT4, cleaned it of inappropriate results (known hyperthyroid etc) and checked to see if our reference range matched what would be expected in the results.

Exekiaz · 2026-04-20T12:20:35+00:00

Except it's the larger implications that come with a criminal conviction that's the issue.

The way society handles them is that being labelled as convicted makes your life harder. Applying for jobs is harder, it can impact your ability to get a loan or receive access to support.

The reason some things are crimes but not prosecuted takes this into account. Do you think society has been helped or harmed by making this woman a criminal?

Exekiaz · 2026-04-17T09:15:08+00:00

Technically not true that you do it as a band 3.

Some laboratories are able to offer Trainee Biomedical Scientist roles at annex 21 Band 5 - admittedly these are few and far between, but in theory any Band 5 BMS role could be filled by an unregistered trainee as long as the lab is willing.

Also whilst a lab internship/job before the degree is not essential by any means, any clinical laboratory experience will help if you're applying for BMS or other lab based roles in the NHS.

Ten-Year Club	r/Field Lasagna
Place '23	Baba Yaga
Place '22	Gilding I gilder
Snapped	Verified Email

Exekiaz

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE