What is going on with this cell? And what is it? I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many uniform vacuoles before. This was the only one that I saw on the slide, as well as the only cell I have ever seen like this (so far). Is this some sort of apoptotic process making it look so funky?

Update: a Mott cell! How cool (: immunoglobulins for everyone

Hey everyone,

I am currently a research assistant for an implementation study of molecular point of care testing systems for infectious diseases within primary care. (in New Zealand) and plan to continue with my masters within this field.

I have been reading up on POCCs and have found myself doing exactly the tasks expected of a POCC. While I enjoy a lot of what this job has to offer I still yearn for the lab environment that I came to love in undergrad Chem/Biology. I severely underestimated the amount of time I'd be sitting in an office and am now thinking of my future.

I still love the space so I would love to hear maybe the opportunities that could come of this position or any other general advice you have to offer.

Hi everyone,

Could anyone please recommend resources i can use to get prepped for the exam? I heard the exam is difficult and i wouldn’t mind if anyone could share their tips or advice on how to go about the exam.

How accurate is labce with the ascp exam in terms of adaptive difficulty? In the picture i really didn't know the answer to 30 cause it wasn't in my reviewer but 31, though it was in it it seems like a basic question but had a fairly high difficulty, usually i get basic question with around 3 - 4 difficulty.

Im just hoping it's the same set up for the actual exam. Cause I've heard high difficulty questions yield higher scores. I've read that 10-easy;25- hard scoring system. Is that true?

What difficulty level usually equates to higher scores? Cause i would be thankful if they ask like the average rbc life span on a high difficulty level. 😭

Sorry for asking this. Im pretty buned out from studying and my anxiety has reached max levels, my exam is in 2 fucking weeks, im just finding ways to actually ease up my mind regarding this.

And i fucking hate microbiology so much. 😭

I’m curious what other people would do in this situation because I’m honestly not sure how to approach it.
I applied for a position and spoke with the recruiter, who told me something along the lines of, “I see here you don’t have your license yet, but when it comes in, call me and we can schedule an interview.” So I waited for my license to come in.
For context, I had already submitted my license application about a month in advance. Once my license came in, I left the recruiter a voicemail like they told me to. I haven’t heard anything back yet.
The thing is, I recently found out that they interviewed another candidate around the same time as (or after) I left my voicemail. I’m a woman, and the other candidate is a man. He had only submitted his license application very recently, so his license was also still pending when they interviewed him. From what I understand, they ended up hiring him, with the understanding that he can sign his contract once his license comes in.
The recruiter doesn’t know that I know any of this.
I’m not upset that they chose someone else because I never even got the chance to interview, and obviously they can hire whoever they think is the best fit. What bothers me is that I was specifically told that my pending license was the reason we couldn’t move forward with an interview, and that I should call once it came in. I followed those instructions, but it seems like they were willing to interview and hire someone else whose license was also pending — and who had only recently applied for theirs, while mine had already been in the process for about a month.
I’m not sure if I’m overthinking this, but the situation feels pretty strange to me.
Would you guys just wait and see if the recruiter gets back to me, or would you reach out again and ask what happened? And would you mention that you know they interviewed/hired someone else, or keep that to yourself for now?
I’d really appreciate some outside opinions on how you’d handle this.

Clarification because I think I may have worded something poorly in my original post:
I personally know the other candidate involved in this situation. We applied for the same position, and we have the same recruiter.
So when I say I know that he was interviewed and selected, I’m not referring to something I found online or making an assumption based on a job posting. I know the person personally and know that we were dealing with the same recruiter.
The recruiter does not know that I know about his interview or that he was selected.
That’s an important part of why I’m questioning the situation. I was told directly that once my license came in, I should call the recruiter and we could schedule an interview. I did exactly that and left a voicemail once my license came in, but I haven’t received a response.
I’m not claiming I was guaranteed an interview or the job, and I understand that they can choose whichever candidate they want. I’m just trying to understand why I was told to wait for my license before an interview could be scheduled when another candidate was able to interview and ultimately be selected during the same hiring process.
Just wanted to clarify that point because I think some people misunderstood how I know what happened with the other candidate.

Hello everyone!!

I graduated university last August with a BS in Chemistry. A year into the future, I have lab experience and want to apply for 4+1 ASCP certified MLS programs. However, the biggest problem that I am encountering is that I didn’t receive some credits that these applications require (microbiology & immunology). I am more than willing to sit in classes again to receive these credits as a non-degree seeking student to better my future, but I’m unsure how viable it is currently. Is this pathway more possible than I believe, or do I need to plan a different approach?

Hi girls and guys,

Is there a sub for discussions regarding bio-rad QC? Any issues faced? New targets etc?
Just thought it would be pretty helpful if we could share our experience and knowledge around the 3rd party QC we mostly all use*

Example - sometime in the 2000s a BHB was reported out as a false "<" result. Ever since then we've been required to dilute all < BHBs x2 to confirm no hook effect/substrate depletion.

Anyone knows how to delete these outdated orders from my sample status list(without shutting down the analyzer)?
Can’t delete them from the order window neither.

hello, im a new nurse but i am thinking about going into this MLS / MLT field! i am a recent nurse grad but im starting to figure out now that i dont like nursing and that this is not what i wanna do. anyone here a nurse or was a nurse and changed into MLS? and what do you like about your job vs being an RN? thank you!

I would like to express how much I currently hate coag. I want to light our crappy instruments on fire and tell them to go cal themselves if they are not going to allow me to get a good calibration after I've sweet-talked them with probe cleaning and enhanced cleaning and completely fresh everything. Current lot is fine. New lot cal'd - QC way too high. Recal'd - now it's too low. FML.

Any advice that won't get me fired is welcome.

Notes: Patient is a 36 year old male complaining of intermittent diarrhea and constipation. The organism measures 180-380 x 15-20 µm, no eggs were observed. Stool was examined 10 minutes after collection.

Hello! I have an MPH and am currently taking prerecs for an MLT program because the MPH job market sucks and it seems impossible to do anything without also having clinical experience (also bc I'm interested in lab work!). I am wondering if MLT + MPH could eventually get me into lab management/regulatory type roles, or if there are licensure requirements and I would need an MLS. I am in Georgia.

Also, the program I am going for is a very standardized program with no electives- I want to make sure I get good experience in micro because I want to go into infection prevention. Aside from trying to find entry level jobs in micro labs when I graduate, are there other ways to specialize in micro?

Thanks!

Dear Redditors/HR/Med Techs of the World,

This is my first time writing in for help so I don't know where to start other than, Hi, I'm a medical technologist working in a hospital setting and I am in need of some guidance. I have been a MT for over 10 years in a company that unfortunately owns most of healthcare in my state (I am a more rural state so opportunity is more limited here). As usual it's a company that believes in cutting staff, resources and corners to save a penny and line upper management pockets.  It's the same story in medical everywhere. I have been working in a second oncology lab that is attached to this hospital campus which is pertinent to this issue.

For the last couple years I have been training to take over as a lead for the small oncology site in lieu of the old lead tech retiring (I was a lead at the main hospital for a while before they removed the department specialty and changed the position to supervisor without the pay). This site has had minimal to no oversight in years and the chief pathologist responsible for monthly site visits and lab supervision makes visits maybe once a year for approximately 10 minutes total to scribble his name on all the CAP surveys. With the tools we have been given we have still maintained CAP and CLIA compliance over the years with few to no citations.  I have slowly been taking over all the things that require regular checking such as inventory, QC, analyzer maintenance, comparisons, etc. I am a full-time position and only work on the small lab campus 1-2 times a week. There's more but I am just going to start here.

Recently this small oncology lab has been changed from our payroll to another region of our company. The job I have been working diligently towards for years was offloaded as well forcing me to re-apply to attempt to keep the position and become a full-time tech at this oncology site. The oncology site is outpatient centered but the work is very much advanced hematology, something I specialize in. By the time the position was posted I was the last remaining trained tech for the site. The site takeover was slated to occur while I was on vacation for two weeks. I was forced to quickly train someone to just barely cover me and they pulled in a past worker from 1.5 hours away to help cover while I was gone. The expectation was that I would be instated upon my return.

What actually happened: The tech I quick-trained to cover me spent the two weeks I was gone ripping up the lab for any dirt on me and how the lab was run. Don't forget, we have been maintaining with minimal supervision for years. They found very little but the things they did dig up were also minimal things. One thing was a vial of expired urine QC that other techs had been using for a week past expiration. I had previously ordered inventory including a new unexpired lot of urine QC that was in the fridge ready for changeover. I was not there in the time frame that the QC expired and the other techs rotating in did not pull the new lot. I took the full blame for this despite not being present and not being a true authority yet.

There was another instance, for the first time in the history of this site, where a CAP survey that I completed did not get submitted by the person who was retiring. Our policy is that one tech does the survey and the next tech checks entry and submits. We filled out all the paperwork, cross checked and the retiring tech submitted it same day. Or so we thought- CAP unfortunately stated that they were unable to investigate and prove communication malfunction so if the results didn't fully submit then that was that. The chain of emails that were sent to every manager/regional manager/overseeing doctor from CAP stating that the survey would be overdue was missed by everyone including the people taking over that lab. Cut to a few months later and I am attempting to print our results for review and signing only to find that the submission didn't go through. I did the leg work in contacting CAP, checking our work, referencing ranges, calculating SD's, etc. to prove that we were compliant. CAP was not worried by all this and management reviewed and accepted my leg work for this as well. This was also used against me.

So I contacted the lab manager who conducted my interview. In a nutshell he let slip that I was taking the fall for the bad work of the people before me, including the two things stated above. I was told I was a risky hire and that the person they were placing there was a "senior tech" (no such thing our company) who has "memorized policy" and would need minimal supervision working this lab. This person was buddy-buddy with the woman who spent my vacation weeks digging and reporting on me. I had previously several years prior trained this tech taking the position who was per diem at the time, and she continuously was frazzled, unreliable and put out iffy patient results that put patients at risk (example, a patient in blast crisis had lymphs called on the differential instead of the blasts that they were). I have worked hard to make the campus reliable, have good rapport with the staff and oncologists and put out good careful work for the results/treatment of these patients who are end of life/suffering.

Not once did the team doing the deliberating reach out and ask me for clarity. They took the word of someone who has been a tech barely a year and what they dug up on the lab as law and chose her friend to take the position instead. I have 13 years of experience on them. While I understand that sometimes a fresh set of eyes is needed, there also needs to be investigation into the truth and not assumption that someone wouldn't attempt to sabotage someone to the benefit of another.

Sorry for the jumble of information, hopefully you all can make sense of this. What I am looking for ultimately is a good way to word a letter to HR talking about the work place bias I have been experiencing and how blaming one person for the mishaps of the people/management mistakes is inappropriate. This is not the first time I have been tasked with to do things with the goal of taking a position only to have someone say something in the background and then find out I was passed over because of a hearsay. (For example, same company, I was training in the past to become a special hematology tech at an old  hospital campus and they passed me over because they heard I might be interested in working in another lab and they couldn't "risk" that. I told them I would have stayed if they had given me the position that I trained so diligently for and they denied all of it).

On a personal note: I am utterly at a loss. I have been diligently working to become a full time tech at this site and have spent years building relationships, learning the ropes and maintaining tasks that were ignored by the people who needed to be managing the lab. When it came time to fill the position there was no one else who would have been a better fit. It was going to be a life changing position for me and everyone knew I would/should have been the pick. I am a new mom looking to get out of the hospital system and work a regular schedule and have more than done my time covering/supporting the main hospital lab. Before I seek employment elsewhere I would like to write something HR cannot ignore and perhaps also shed light on how inappropriate the conduct is in this situation. My mental health is so poor at this point I don't know where to start and feel that I may not state things clearly or professionally. I am usually a good writer but I feel like I know nothing at this point 14 years into my career.

Any help is welcome and if I am wrong, a gentle explanation of reality will suffice. Please be kind, I am burnt out and at an utter loss.

Exploring a new career path in Medical Laboratory Science! I recently met a UConn MLS grad in Boston who gave me some real insight into the program's oversight and academic timelines. I was told that the class of 2025 waited a year for their grades that was taught by director and couldn't apply for ASCP exam. She seem frustrated.

To anyone in the MLS field: how crucial was program transparency for you when choosing where to complete your certificate?

I am considering leaving federal service after 12 years to go to a remote job in the private sector. The biggest weights in this decision are: keep building my pension for guaranteed money for retirement, or go completely remote and improve my quality of life? Thoughts?

Pardon me if this is a dumb question… I am a new tech and having trouble distinguishing between renals and transitionals in newborn catheterized urine samples, especially these round ones. I usually see a lot of cells similar to this working with babies, sometimes with larger nuclei and a flat edge when they clump together. They’re not granular which makes me question. Sometimes the nuclei are much larger and eccentric, yet they don’t have the granular appearance. I wish I had a picture of this but I’m sure you professionals know what I’m talking about.
I’ve always been told that if it’s a baby, its just transitionals. But I’m scared I’m underreporting renals due to this thinking.

Does anyone have pictures of renals that might be easily confused for squamous or transitionals? Is it common to see renals along with transitionals in newborn/infant catheterized urines?

Blasts obviously. Probably? But both places I've worked have had different criteria regarding blasts.

The first place I worked at required a path review for the presence of any blasts in any patient if blasts hadn't been reported in the past 7 days or it was the first instance of a blast count >20%. They also required path review for:

• Any promyelocytes (9 times out of 10 the pathologist would call them myelos anyway)
• Absolute lymphocytosis >10.0K without history
• Plasma cells >5%
• Blood parasites (we had to make the thick and thin smears, do the Giemsa stain, and read them (even had to calculate parasitemia if positive), but they didn't trust us to actually report it)
• Any suspected bone marrow contamination in a lumbar puncture (never actually sent one, but you know, in theory)

The second place I worked at required a path review for the presence of any blasts in any patient with several exceptions. If the blast count was <5% and the patient was <40 weeks PMA OR if the patient had received GCS-F in the past 5 days AND the slide had features of leukemoid reaction, we were allowed to report it with appropriate canned comments with senior tech (not pathologist) approval. Other than that, we had to send all blasts for path review if blasts hadn't been reported within 5 days. We also had to send:

• Megakaryocytes
• Prekeratocytes
• Any pathologic crystals in urine (cysteine, leucine, cholesterol, etc.)
• Any crystals found in synovial fluids
• Any CSF lining cells

First job totally trusted me to report joint crystals and megakaryocytes, but not promyelocytes or malaria. Second job didn't trust me with blister cells or gout crystals, but allowed me to report baby blasts and blood parasites if present (2 techs had to read the smears).

I've only had two jobs where I worked in heme, but the wide disparity between just two facilities in what I can be trusted to identify is sort of fascinating, and I'm sure it's rooted in some kind of historical incident where someone either reported (or didn't report) something and a patient was harmed.

But it got me curious about what other people were dealing with.

I'm looking to do a career transition in the next 3-5years. I love being an MLS but I feel like at this point, after 11years of working in the lab, I want to explore.

To those who pursued this path, how did you transition? Did you take additional schooling or subjects? I'm trying to see if I can apply as a trainee under our State but they don't have much openings lately. And the pay is lower than what I earn.

Thanks!

I work for micro, and we have a policy to call all blood culture sets as criticals regardless of history, previous sets, in-patient/out-patients.

Well its 3am and I thought I was getting pretty decent at my new job, but I totally just fumbled calling a outpatient provider. I sounded so... unprofessional. I just panic when I know I'm waking someone up, and then I panic if I should even be calling this doctor or the other 7 in their chart.

And this doctor wasn't rude, but he was just like, this seems like something we shouldn't be calling waking people up for.

So now I'm taking my break. Knowing I'm gonna go home a writhe about it when I get off. I know I'm just doing my job. But dang, this has got to be the worst part for me.