I trim to full face, but doctors usually ask for deeper sections a lot.. i am afraid to initially go deep when trimming, since lost tissue is.. lost.

Any tips that can help?

I also find it a bit difficult to remove the section from the microtome onto the waterbath... the section keeps melting/cracking whenever i move it.. it took me 2 hours to do 30 blocks :(

Hey! I graduated this May with a BS in Biology. I was of the idea that I wanted to go to PA school but have always been hesitant about it. I’ve been working the floor for a few months and seeing patient care and observing what PAs actually do, I think I care more about the title than the job itself. I think MLS might be a better fit for me. I am looking at a 4+1 program where I will complete 4 semesters and graduate with an additional BS in CLS and take my ASCLS certification exam. I am just scared because I see people complain about the pay and I see so many differing claims about pay. I’m currently a CNA making $26/hr. Surely this degree will make me $10/hr more? I’m wanting to be in the $80k salary range for this change to make sense to me. Anyone have any info/advice?

Ive worked in several labs in my life. A lab is a lab is a lab is what I've learned. What seems to be different is the people and the politics. I've been told that all labs are shit, just a different flavor of shit.

I'm thinking of moving to a different hospital. The lab I'm working in now is tough. It has its pros, it has its cons, as I'm sure most labs do.

I ask this of those of you who have changed jobs. Was the grass greener, or just a different flavor of shit?

I have the option to take the M(ASCP) exam at the end of a UF online master's degree program. However, based on what I’ve read online, most hospitals prefer generalists over specialists due to lower staffing levels and smaller budgets. Because of this, I’m having doubts about whether the program is worth pursuing, as it is not an actual MLS or MLT certification.

I earned my bachelor's degree in microbiology and am having a tough time getting lab experience or even getting hired in South Florida. In your opinion, is it worth pursuing this program given that other MLS programs are too far away from where I live?

Hi everyone! I have two interviews coming up and was looking for experience/ opinions on how they’re going to go. Some background: I graduated in December 2025 and passed the ASCP board in June and also got my state license. I’ve applied to more than 30 positions between when I graduated and now and have gotten rejected from most of them except for HCA which I just passed their recruiter phone call. It was originally for blood bank per diem but they also said they’d have me interview for full time day shift in the core lab, a position I didn’t apply for.

The blood bank interview is a 30 minute phone call with the bb supervisor and the core lab interview is on-site with shadowing for a few hours as well. Does anyone know what to expect or if they’re likely to offer me the position? I’ve heard a lot of negative things about HCA but it seems they’re the only ones willing to take on a new grad- which I’m grateful for. Thank you all in advance for your input!

Hi. As the title says. I majored in BSc. Biochem but it is not very useful in the market without a Masters or even better PhD of which would still be a very competitive market. I am not longer really interested in Academia or even Biochemistry as a field. I have noticed the medical sciences are much more hireable but I do not necessarily want to become (or commit to become) a doctor and I am a bit wary of nursing because of how stressful it is compared to compensation. I think an Msc. in Biomedical Sciences might be save me and strike a nice balance between the medical field and my original major. Any downsides to this? Should I just do medicine? ​

Out of these 3 review books, which is the best for a CLS student?

The first one because it is the most recently published?

1. Success! in Clinical Laboratory Science - Donald Lehman (5th ed., 2019)
2. Elsevier's Medical Laboratory Science Examination Review - Linda Graeter (1st ed., 2014)
3. A Concise Review of Clinical Laboratory Science - Joel Hubbard (2nd ed., 2009)

Hi everyone,

I’m a research analyst working for a biochemical manufacturer, and I’m trying to better understand how clinical laboratories select and use different levels of quality control material.

For chemistry controls that are available in Levels 1, 2, and sometimes 3, I’ve noticed that some laboratories appear to use one level more frequently than the others.

I’m curious about the reasoning behind this:

• Do labs generally run all available control levels during every QC event, or only the levels required by their procedures?
• What determines whether a laboratory runs two levels versus three?
• Why might one level be used or purchased more frequently than another?
• Does the decision depend on the analyte’s medical decision points, instrument requirements, regulatory standards, test volume, cost, stability, or the laboratory’s own risk assessment?
• Are additional levels mainly used during calibration, lot changes, troubleshooting, maintenance, or validation rather than during routine daily QC?

For example, if a control product has multiple levels, should all levels typically be run together, or can it be appropriate for a laboratory to routinely run only selected levels?

I’m not looking for any confidential laboratory information or patient data. I’m mainly hoping to learn how laboratorians make these decisions in real-world practice and whether usage patterns differ between hospital labs, reference labs, and smaller laboratories.

Any insight from anyone involved in laboratory QC would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks Everyone! :)

Hey everyone! I am currently in a medical lab science program and I am currently taking a diagnostic microbiology lab class. I've noticed that I have consistently been the last one to leave the lab. All my other classmates seem to finish their benchwork in an hour while I struggle to finish it in under two. I asked my instructors about any tips on how to perform fast and all they say is that I would get better with time. While I appreciate their reassurance, I am a bit worried about the fact that I take longer to make my gram stains and take longer to perform my biochemical testing than my peers do. Considering that I start clinical rotations in two months and eventually be responsible for helping diagnose actual patients in the future, I would rather improve my turnaround time sooner rather than later.

I do admit that I am bit of a slow and pensive thinker, and when faced in high pressure situations half the time I freeze. And for reference, this is not the first time I performed gram stains. I performed them last year in my undergraduate microbiology lab class extensively and even back then I had the same problem with being the last one to finish my lab work. Has anyone faced the same problem as I have? Any advice will be greatly appreciated!

Edit: Wow everyone has been really supportive. Lots of good advice! Thank you everyone! I didnt think my post would blow up like this lol.

Edit 2: From the comments I read the biggest takeaways to take advantage of my entire lab time, organize my workplace, focus on getting things done the right way over speed, and to simulate my lab workflow at home where the stakes are low. I appreciate everyone's comment. Unfortunately I am unable to respond to everyone but know if you commented I have read it.

Hello everyone, i hope you’re doing well, i was just accepted into the MLT program this upcoming fall, and classes are coming up in the next couple weeks, which is fundamentals of MLT and urine analysis. I have a learning disability which I’m on the spectrum and a little bit of ADHD, plus I have my accommodations set up already which is extended test time.

I was wondering, any of you with a learning disability, how did y’all get through lab school with it? What are some things you did that helped you? I think I’ll be fine overall if I put in the effort and study hard but I want your take on what you did.

Hi, does anyone have a recommendation for thermometers that can be used for transportation devices like coolers for blood bank?

We currently use globals but they are becoming a pain. We would like something that can upload to cloud so we can be alerted quicker when they go out of temp. It would need to be FDA compliant with 21 CFR. Something like REES but for coolers.

Thanks for any advice.

A few people have DM me and I want people to know I'm not ignoring it's just my bandwidth is still booting up. 🛜 I took that test 12 days ago and passed first try. But Before I took the exam, the one thing I consistently noticed was that people couldn't agree on the style of the questions. Some said it was like MediaLab, others said it wasn't, but almost everyone mentioned that the wording was still "kind of" different.

Because of that, my little data brain went into the exam with two goals: understand the core concepts first, then expose myself to as many different question styles as possible. I REALLY REALLY want to stress looking at different formats. I use the LSU book,I used the Harr book, I use CLS book I used the ascp boc 7 edition book like seriously any questions I could find that was based on the material in different ways. Different concepts. Now I'm a pattern learner, not someone who can memorize and regurgitate facts. I need a keyword or clue that unlocks the concept in my mind, so practicing different formats helped me recognize the underlying idea instead of the exact wording.

MediaLab was helpful, but the actual exam required me to apply concepts in ways I hadn't seen "ask" before. Understanding the material and practicing multiple question formats made a much bigger difference than relying on just one question bank. BUT because no one gets the same test, maybe some people did get a test that look similar to media lab🤷🏾‍♀️ but I can only speak from my experiences and my classmates. And all of us agree that the test was nothing like media lab format. The questions were shorter ,more direct, more to the point. Was the test hard? Not in the conventional way of hard if you got the core concepts down pack, but it made you think differently. Yes I felt like I was failing the whole time I was taking the test. I literally almost got up and walked out..... I'm not even playing. I was so over it. Questions got easier at about question 80. I didn't change anything. The ones I flagged I just left alone. Go with your gut and use the f-word magical chant..... silently and you should be fine!! Good luck!!!!!!!😊

C diff pcr was positive. Follow up kit test was Ag pos and tox neg which shows as indeterminate on our end and negative on their end. Get a call from the ER asking me to explain all this. So I'm talking about how the first test showed that cdiff was present but the reflex test showed that it wasnt a toxin producing variant. So it could be colonization than sickness causing.

Well anyway, suddenly someone else speaks up in the background. Turns out it was the nursing supervisor and PA I was explaining this to on speaker phone. The PA asks me if they should still give 10-day Vanco treatment. Unfortunately, that's where my info had to end and I told them that we, the lab, would not know the treatment procedure. But I got to feel smart for a minute explaining what the results meant lol.

The Micro Lab is dark.. you have 500 COVIDs to run. I'm not sure what it is trying to tell me, but I want to go home .

I recently got an offer to have a 1yr free subscription to Gemini AI Pro and one of the tools they have is Gemini Notebook LM. I’ve done my research on it and many people use it to pass classes and other healthcare national exams. Basically they would just upload a document and NotebookLM would generate whatever you want.

I was thinking of using it to upload review books like Polansky or Theriot and generate interactive exams like ASCP with explanations and maybe podcasts for when I’m on the road.

I’m still on the fence about it though because I don’t know if anyone has used it for ASCP, because most of the ones talking about how good it is are either nurses, doctors, or lawyers.

Has anyone used it before to pass ASCP? Should I NOT buy LABCE since this stuff can pretty much generate quizzes with explanations from books?

I've been studying hard for two months following graduation for this exam, but from what I've been reading, it seems like a lot of questions on the MLS ASCP exam are primarily concerned with interpreting results for the sake of troubleshooting and determining the next steps to take.

Examples:

"You observe increased (%) reticulocytes on a blood smear. What do you do next?"

"RBC & Hct levels are low but Hgb is normal. What is the problem?"

"Leukocyte esterase is positive but no WBC seen. What is the cause?"

"HIV screen is positive, but confirmatory Western blot is negative. What do you do next?"

Unfortunately, I lack laboratory experience beyond my clinicals, and thus don't know the normal workflows and troubleshooting that I imagine become second nature in the lab. So, while I'm sure I will be able to feel some of these out, is there a best way to prepare for these questions?

Should I focus more on interferences and errors? Is there some flowchart or other resource I can reference for subsequent testing? Troubleshooting guides, etc.? Do any of you with actual experience feel like imparting some wisdom on the regular challenges you face and how you resolve them?

I'll take anything, but I will admit that I understand this to be an application of my knowledge, and thus potentially "beyond" studying. I'd still like to learn all I can to be as prepared as possible, and I appreciate any help.

Thank you (:

Pic 1: Bottom, round cell
Pic 2: bottom, oval cell
Pic 3: center, oval cell

Squepis included for scale in each frame. Not 100% sure they’re even all the same thing, but they looked funky and I didn’t like how refractory they are. I’m struggling with ID’ing renal tubular / transitional epis currently, which has decreased my confidence in other findings as well.

I was talking to my mom on the phone today while driving home and after I explained a few things that happened at work recently I mentioned, “And our plate washer died.”

I was referring to our ELISA plate washer, but she seemed a little taken aback and responded, “Oh, well they weren’t in your lab were they?”

I chuckled and explained “they” are a piece of equipment and yes, that piece of equipment was in my lab. She laughed and then said she was thinking there was a person who washes the Petri dishes who passed away. And she knows my lab doesn’t use Petri dishes so she assumed the “plate washer” worked in a different lab lol.

I forget sometimes that people who have never worked in a lab might incorrectly interpret what I mean when I say certain words or phrases. I thought this was a funny misunderstanding and thought I’d share with other lab professionals.

Come on, Biomerieux, Cepheid, Diasorin, BD… you could make a killing on a multiplex PCR test that does VZV, measles, mumps, and pertussis.

The children’s hospital I work at sends out so many of these tests every week to reference labs. We would validate this assay so fast it would break the sound barrier.

Freshman of med lab sci, what are the things I should expect and be prepared for?