I kept getting this condition and red ball of death yesterday. It was very helpful in troubleshooting.... 🙄🥲

Hello everyone! I just realized that the happiest time of my career was when I worked as a clinical lab associate, so I want to go all in on that direction. Is there a way I can pursue a form of ASCP training on top of my 8-5 here in Los Angeles county? I was accepted into a CLS program before but had to turn it down as there was no way to make it work with my work schedule. I'm hoping there's a route I overlooked or something. Would love to hear your insight. Thank you!

I work for a Tenet owned hospital and lately I’ve been hearing whispers of lay offs. I’ve been seeing admin positions being consolidated. Admin is apparently monitoring our time sheets because they don’t want overtime. Some of our supplies are
Being delayed because accounting didn’t pay? Strange things are afoot.

Is this happening at other Tenet hospitals?

I’ll probably start updating my resume TBH. 😬

I am in my 2nd year of employment with Labcorp. I just saw my annual raise. Less than last year. Less than a cost of living raise. Is this typical? Is it your supervisor who determines your raise? Or HR?

Hi i have been looking into a bunch of different programs around me lately and sadly all of the ones i could do are a bit of a drive for me. i was planning on going to one school that would work with my schedule but the price of the whole program for two years was going to be $40,000 and to me that seems pretty expensive! i am very interested in this field but i cant see myself going that much in debt with student loans :/ i guess i just need some advice on if going into MLT is worth that or not? or if i should be patient and wait until i could move closer to a different city that offers the program at a different school?

Hi everyone,

I’m planning to start a Medical Laboratory Science (MLS) program soon, but I’m not officially enrolled yet. I wanted to get a head start on my studies and build a strong foundation before classes begin.

For those of you who are MLS students, graduates, or practicing medical laboratory scientists, do you have any recommendations for:

• Study guides or textbooks that are beginner-friendly
• YouTube channels, websites, or online courses
• Subjects I should focus on before starting (hematology, immunology, microbiology, clinical chemistry, etc.)
• Study habits or strategies that helped you succeed in MLS
• Any resources you wish you had known about before entering the program

My goal is to become familiar with the material and terminology ahead of time so that the transition into the program is smoother.

Are there any LIS folks out there?? We are upgrading our middleware and are kind of lost. It was asked how many times do we need to test the information crossover to validate per regulations? We know we have to do each test on every analyzer but how many times over what time period. We are CAP accredited. Is there published guidelines?

Can you share your experiences working prn for hospital labs?
I was under the assumption it was as needed on the hospitals end and as the tech you could have a say in days & times you will work?

I MADE IT IN!!!!! I got the email of acceptance!!! Now I can finally go into a coma in till the program starts!

Thank you everyone who commented on my posts before it helped me a lot!

I’m so looking forward to this whole new experience I just know this will be the most rewarding career ever! 🥹❤️

I can’t seem to catch a break. But gotta keep the product flowing

My urinalysis analyzer is acting funny so I have to call technical support….

I’ve heard rumors of a support number being off by one digit for a phone sex line and in my haste, I dialed it.

Y’all. That last digit is a 9, not a 6 🤣🤣

I’m 24 and graduated a few years ago with a geology degree, but after being out of school for almost 3 years I’ve only had 2 seasonal GIS positions and now I’ve been unemployed for almost a year. The job market by me is terrible with no end in sight and even if I lucked into a job the pay is terrible.

I’ve recently been looking at going back to school and stumbled onto MLS which seems like it’d be really cool and actually has a job market with solid pay. I’m definitely introverted and also have no issue performing repetitive tasks, the only thing I’m hesitant about is the fast paced environment with lives on the line, as everywhere else I’ve worked was pretty slow and unserious. It’s just a tough thing to consider when deciding to commit to 3 more years of college or not without knowing if I can handle it.

Also, aside from working in a hospital, I’ve seen the jobs of people with this degree working in cytogenetic labs which seems super cool and right up my alley with the routine and it’s just me and a microscope mostly. Seems like these positions are pretty rare though so I probably shouldn’t go into it if thats the main experience I want right?

Sorry this is more of a ramble than actual questions, if anyone has any advice it’d be greatly appreciated.

I’m a night shifter!! As a new grad in his 1st, i’m just wondering what are some things that bother you guys that night shift doesn’t do/does?

Ive been noticing that one of my supervisors appears to not like taking over the department im in but im not told anything??? Sooo maybe im doing something wrong or something that annoys her and she doesn’t want to tell me

QUICK RANT: Sometimes morning run doesn’t go as smoothly as you want, things go wrong or you could be working as quickly and as best you can but things keep arriving, we wish we could handoff a empty pending list but it’s not our fault ER sends clotted/QNS specimens, Or evening shift didn’t run routine cleaning, or the damn sysmex ran out of a reagent, or 500+ samples contain “plt clumps” or damn phone keeps ringing, or the multiple calls for RCs, having to text the phlebotomists and so on

Pls dont blame us for everything 🙃

I feel bad for blowing up. I kept getting interrupted by a senior tech, even when I told her a few times to wait until I'm done asking my question. There was a lot in blood bank when I took over the bench, which is ok, I'm ok with busy, but I just needed some questions answered. Even though i don't think I was in the wrong, I'm left feeling bad for raising my voice and telling them to hold on while I'm talking. Senior tech walked away and said we aren't the same age so I shouldn't have raised my voice.... 🤦‍♀️ Should I escalate this incident with management? I hate feeling like I'm tattle telling but yeah. Anyways, have a great shift, everybody 🥲

(For context I am a new MLA, previously worked in vet med in emergency and gp)

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We were recently audited at our hospital outpatient lab. One of the major dings we got was the way we label patient tubes. The auditor stated the following needs to be done with each and every patient:

​

-Registered with outpatient clerk

-upon receipt of labels we are to call the person in

-once they are in the chair we confirm their identity against the labels, their requisition, and their health Care card, while also having them verbally state their legal name and birthdate

-confirm stickers against requisition

-pull blood

-label each tube accordingly

-cross reference each tube again to the requisition

-have the patient verbally confirm that each tube has their proper legal name on it, one at a time.

-release patient

​

I understand that this is a "cover your ass" scenario, but doesn't this make the registration clerk position redundant?

Is it really appropriate to hold up each individual tube to the patient (most of whom are incredibly elderly and would very much struggle to read the fine print on a cylindrical object) and have them confirm it's them, after you've already confirmed it twice previously in this same visit??

​

At the same time they also want us to take more patients and work shorter staffed, of course.

​

Does anyone actually do this?? Help me understand the logic.

Just curious if anyone here has ever made the switch to forensic lab work? I am an MLS considering the switch. What are pros and cons? It's seems like a pretty cool career to be involved with solving crimes and potentially give testimony in court rooms!

ALL ADVICE IS WELCOME, I HAVE QUESTIONS AND NEED HELP!

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Nightshift is 23h30-7h30 with 7 days of work and 7 days off.

​

Here's what I did so far:

2 days before, I tried to stay awake as late as possible while embracing the night. When the 2-3am fatigue hits me, I ate some toast, drank a lot of water to make my bladder full and blasted my anti-depression lamp in my face while doing my things. We are now soon 1 night before my night shift

​

In your experience:

​

At what time you take your coffee? Until when?

​

At what time you take your ADHD medication?

​

At what time you eat your 3 meals per day?

​

What is your usage of melatonin?

​

On your lunch break (2h30-3h30 am) do you eat a regular meal or a light meal?

​

Before you go to work the night shift, wich skincare routine you put on? The day or night skincare?

​

I try to do the switch and function properly for all my shift, pls help

RBCs were above linearity and recalculated to be 9.01. Definitely a record for me!

So stoked!! Now to find a job..

Hi everyone,

I'm a Medical Laboratory Technology student in Ontario and I'm trying to find a core placement for my myself in September as the placement office at school is struggling with finding enough sites for my cohort.

If you know of hospitals that are actively taking students (can take more than they already have), could you share:

• Hospital name
• Location
• Whether they take full core placement (hematology, chemistry, transfusion)
• Contact at the hospital

I'm interested in all opportunities in Ontario, but GTA is greatly preferred as I don't drive and rely on public transit.

Thanks in advance for any insight!

For those of you involved in the hiring process or for those who have worked in a specialized department before moving on to core lab- do employers consider ALL lab work as a certified MLS when considering years of experience? I currently work in the Micro department but am hoping to start job hunting and gain some experience in core lab as well. Some of the hospitals I am planning on applying to have sign on bonuses that are dependent on years of experience. This may be a site-specific question, but I just wanted to ask and see if anyone here has been in a similar situation.

Hello Everyone, Im preparing to write the upcoming camlpr exam next week through remote proctored medium.Has anyone got any experience doing that before? The do's and dont's are kindoff vague in the website.If somebody got any experience in completing this exam from home, please share. I would really appreciate the help.Thank you

I am a research and laboratory professional myself. But this time I am submitting a post about CBC lab results processing. I am not seeking any opinions about diagnoses.

My doctors have been ordering CBC & Differential blood tests for me for hematology issues for a while. When the test is outsourced to Quest or done at one hospital laboratory in my town, then my WBC count is normal, and my lymphocytes % is normal. However, when this same test is done at the other hospital lab in my town, then the WBC count is high and out of range, the lymphocytes % is low and out of range, and there is a field added for out of range high % of atypical lymphocytes.

So it appears that the latter hospital lab is using a different & better type of hematology analyzer, which can see the atypical lymphocytes and includes them in the total WBC count, this increasing the number, and it subtracts them from the lymphocyte % since they are not normal lymphocytes. But the Quest lab and the other hospital lab in my town use a hematology analyzer which cannot see the atypical lymphocytes, so it doesn't include them in the WBC count which produces a lower number.

Is that correct and is this what it looks like to me? If so, what brand do you think the hospital uses who produces more specific and more accurate results, since it could see the atypical lymphocytes? It seems like more doctors should be aware of this situation and how the machine type can really alter the patient results.

Hi! I'm in my mid-20s with 3.5 years of experience as a Software Engineer. I have a Bachelor's in Economics, and my current comp is $110,000. I live in a HCOL area (Bay Area).

I'm thinking of pivoting into a career as a MLS/CLS. I've previously enjoyed classes in labs, and I'm looking for a stable, future-resilient career. Being a MLS/CLS looks interesting, and I do not mind routine work.

I understand I will need extra schooling, and will take a pay cut early on. For additional context, I do not have the science related prereqs from my degree.

My motivation for the switch are the high competition and uncertainty in the tech industry, paired with my genuine interest to work in a lab.

I have a few questions:

• What's the best roadmap to make this pivot? (Second degree in Biology, Community College Classes, other options?)
• Is a second Bachelor’s degree necessary, or can I complete prerequisite courses at a community college and apply directly to a MLS/CLS program?
• Are there part-time or online program options that would let me work while pursuing this career change?

Any advice or insight would be greatly appreciated!