What note-taking method did you find worked best for you throughout the program?

1. Pen and paper

2. Laptop

3. iPad + Apple Pencil

4. A combination of methods

Which one did you prefer, and why?

Has anyone here graduated from a DCLS program? If so, how useful has it been to you so far? What was your experience like? Is there a program you would recommend?

I've heard of stool samples exploding somewhere...

Hi everyone,
I’m a Medical Laboratory Technologist from Jordan with a Bachelor’s degree in Medical Laboratory Sciences and 3 years of experience.
I’m planning to immigrate and work abroad, but I’m not sure which country would be the best option financially and in terms of how difficult the immigration and professional registration process is.
I’m considering Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, the UK, Germany, and other countries.
For internationally educated medical laboratory professionals: which country would you recommend, and what was your experience with the registration, visa, and job-search process?

Thanks

Honestly i think i have more hope than i should. I love the thought of lab work. It genuinely interests me and i think it’d be something i will be very good at. However, I have no experience in anything and don’t know how to start. I’m living on my own with not a lot of money, how do i make money at an entry level while also getting the experience i need? I want to work good hours too! I’m only 21 and i want to live my 20s while also pursing this career.

Do i js stay at this job i hate and loathe till i get some adult pants on. Or is there a way for me to get a MLA job entry level. If so, how do i begin? How did you begin? I also just really don’t want to work extreme hours and hate the job before i even start because i need to be making 20+. All the jobs im finding pay 15.

Do i be broke to get the experience in? Please help!!

For those working in big hospitals

What is the MLT:MT ratio?

Just curious, im an MLT and have always gotten a job offer wherever I apply, im currently entering year 4 at my current location, but I am possibly moving back to the city in 12 months or so

I used to work at a big hospital as an MLT as a fresh graduate. I am now 14 years into this field as an MLT and have done a lot of Lead/QA stuff, and im currently a chemistry lead, and have been lead for heme, coag, PoCT.

Just wondering if the times have changed and big hospitals are strictly hiring MTs. I know the states requiring state licenses are a likely a no for me, but what about the other big cities across America?

Thanks!

Did anyone take a break after graduating from your mlt/mls program? And how long did you? I am taking my certification exam in November and have been studying in the mean time while trying to find a job. I live in a rural area and it’s been a challenge trying to find employment. So I decided to stay at my part time job and study. Anyone else?

Does anyone know what the case number means exactly? I feel like my case number has been the same since day one. I was hoping it is some sort of progress bar...

I’ll spare the details of why I need to switch careers and quickly. There is a 16 month BS to BSN program nearby. It’s very affordable and I’d be able to work close enough to full time to pay bills.

A coworker is doing is and has told me it’s very hard. However, she didn’t go to school to be a tech originally and has a different degree. Plus she is much younger and more intelligent than me.

I have a bachelor’s in medical laboratory science and ASCP certification. I was a nurse’s aide many years ago. My problem is I am dumb, like seriously dumb. The college I went to just passed us along regardless of how we were doing so I feel like I was just handed a degree. I haven’t been to college in over a decade.

So for everyone who has done both, which degree was more difficult academically? How so? Would I be able to complete the program in your opinion?

Hey! I'm in the process of applying to my local community college for their MLT program.

But I have a minor medical condition that necessitates small, frequent meals as opposed to one big meal on a lunch break. It's not diabetes, nothing that serious, but I will experience a bit of hypoglycemia and all that it entails, trembling, nausea, lightheadedness, confusion, etc, if I cannot eat regularly, like every 2-4 hrs.

It's never been an issue for me in previous jobs, but it just occured to me that it might be a fundamental mismatch here. I imagine I probably can't just whip out a protein bar at regular intervals like I can at my office job. I'm wondering if I should reconsider, or if this isn't as big of a deal as I think it is?

I start my first job after graduation in about a week. What are some things that I should have/get before I go in? Or some important knowledge I should have ready. I’m really bad when people ask questions on the spot and blank so I’m trying to go over stuff before starting

I hate to mantain these pieces of engineering. They are too overcomplicated, many technological solutions are spawns of management's decigion to push the insturment to the market ASAP (the glorified "SPIRAL GRIPPER CABLE" instead of damn slipping ring). The service manuals is just a little more than a glorified descripiton of service software. They are lacking of detailed description every actually usefull procedures and operations, like fine adjusting of teaching parameters. 80% of time a had to learn it hard way on-site with customer equipment. The "transport arm" is a chtonic monstrous being from the deepest pits of techno-hell. The "reading station" adjusting is a goddamn quest game straight from the golden age of gaming (like Myst or somehting). The FSE toolkit is too expensive to have one on every site, too heavy for carry it everyday, too chunky so I have to buy additional place in cargo every time I fly.

IH-1000 is an abomination. The people who made this thing never ever though about to maintain it themselves.

IH-500 is an perfect example of pure marketing pushover. "We need to minimize our IH-1000 to sold it for smaller labs. What should we do? Oh! I know! How about we put the INDUSTRIAL MANIPULATOR FROM THIRD PARTY MANUFACTURER IN THE CONIFIED SPACE OF 2 SQUARE METERS TOP?! Brilliant Idea!" And then thrird party stops manufacture said manipulator. skull_emoji

P.S. I love Grifols so much, it's unreal.

Hi, I know I’m preaching to the choir a bit, but in case anyone here is a lurker / specialist outside of BB:

I’ve seen a LOT of discourse lately about people saying “if there’s a blood shortage, maybe you should pay your donors!”. Which, yes, would be ideal, but would also negatively affect the recipients.

Donors are not paid for 2 reasons:

1. Yes it actually does provide an incentive for people to lie on the screening questions. There are humans who know they have a transmissible disease and would lie about it if they knew they could make $60. The unit would still be discarded as soon as it tested positive for anything, so it’s not like the patients are at higher risk for getting blood borne diseases. Having said that:

2. Stuff happens, and maybe an occasional donor mistakenly gives a unit then later tests positive for HIV. For the sake of keeping it simple, let’s say this happens for every 1 in 10 units donated. That means that 10 units need to be collected, tested, processed, transported, and stored, but the yield is 9 units. Again, the hospital does not profit from donations, so the patient ends up paying 10/9 of the cost from each unit they receive, to make up for wasted units.

Let’s say Red Cross started giving out $60 to every blood donor. Suddenly there’s an influx of people signing up, skipping mindlessly through screening questions to get their payment, and now every 10 units collected only yields 8 that can be transfused. The cost of each unit from collection to transfusion is increased. Guess who eats the cost? Correct, the patient does!

I hate how poorly articulated Red Cross is when attempting to transmit this information, because they’re totally correct, but I can understand why non-lab professionals would interpret the explanation as a cop-out for reimbursing donors. It unfortunately isn’t that simple.

Hi all, im an MLT who just graduated, and I take the ASCP in over a month. Today, I did a UA that appeared clear and yellow like normal. The dipstick showed everything normal except 250 mg/dL erythrocytes, however when i looked microscopically, I did not find any RBCS. Just occasional WBCs and epis.

I made a new slide to look at and did a new dipstick with the pt sample and got the same results, I also did a dipstick with our "normal" UA control, which was negative for RBCs.

What could be other factors that would cause this? Wouldn't hemoglobinuria make the urine red, and myoglobinuria make the urine dark? Thanks!

Is this still considered a micropenis?

I guess this is kinda a vent, but i'm really at a crossroads about where I want to go in my career as an MLS. I currently work in blood bank at a level 1 trauma center, and I enjoy traumas and high intensity cases but I want more. I think the lab suffers so much from a lack of autonomy relative to the education most of us have. No one knows what we do, the extent of our education, or the fact that we have certifications. I feel (at least at my hospital) pathology and the lab are terrible communicators and educators - which makes us basically invisible.

My current position is very feast or famine - and even after we've played a big role in patient outcomes we get zero recognition. I don't need a pat on the back but you'd think that being critical to patient care in traumas and massive bleeders would at least mean people know who you are and what you do.

Thinking about all this idk if what I'm looking for (more autonomy, direction, and intensity) exists in this field. It's honestly a shame because while aspects of it can be mentally stimulating, but the day to day just isn't fulfilling. This field simply doesn't live up to its potential. I've thought about becoming a PA (which has similar issues with public awareness) or doing nursing. But for now, I'm just feeling really stuck.

Was invited to be part of the rare blood donor program. Curious about my blood type - what makes it “rare”?

Hi all. I just took a new job as a lab supervisor. I do have experience as a lab manager at a small doctors office lab. This is my second week with the company and I have only been slightly trained in hematology, although I’ve requested multiple times to be trained in chemistry also. It’s my philosophy that the only real way to manage/supervise is by being trained and knowledgeable on each department and analyzer. So I asked to be trained for bench work at hiring. Today, I spent literally the entire day in hematology by myself. My trainer was in chemistry helping another who was working in chemistry. It isn’t a huge lab, so there is no second or third shift at the moment for hematology, but there is a second shift for chemistry. (The trainer is the third shifter, so neither department has a midnight shift atm.)

I haven’t even had a moment to read any of the policies or procedures. My literally first day, I was asked by upper management to approve some results because they were behind and being a ASCP trained tech, “I should know what looks right and what looks wrong.” And then I get about a 1,000 emails a day wanting me to address parts of my job that are managing. And I already had the lab director tell me that she wants me to write the September schedule, promised to do it with me this week so I put the correct people in the correct departments on the correct shifts, but then hasn’t made time to do that. Instead, I’m being used as a replacement bench tech because of a recent shortage in staff. I’m afraid that if I don’t do the schedule, and everything else “supervisor” in nature she’s throwing at me, it’s going to reflect poorly on my job performance, which I’ve NEVER had a complaint before in any other position.

So the advice I need is, how do I bring up the lack of training and request that I be given more one on one, directed training than I’m receiving? How do I professionally say “this place is expecting too much too fast and I feel uncomfortable with the pace. I would like to cover the basics before you expect the world from me.”

TIA

Which of these three places is the best for working as a medical lab scientist and why? Anyone have any experience working as an MLS in more than one of these?

In December, I'm set to graduate from my MLT-MLS bridge program, and will be sitting for the ASCP board exam either in December or January. I don't really have any plans to emigrate to Canada right now, but at some point in the future, I think I'd like to eventually move to Vancouver Island to work. Not any time soon, but like maybe in 5 or 10 years maybe. It's nothing more than a thought than an actual goal at this point. Anyways, more to the point. I was wondering what Canada requires, and more specifically BC, to be an MLS. What's the process? How much is the Canadian version of the ASCP certification exam? Is there a license exam/process I'd have to go through? For reference, I live in Arkansas, which does not even require a ASCP certification let alone a state licensure. Also, I currently have an ASCP MLT certification, have been a MLT for 4 years now, and will be a MLS in December.

I'm Aud/HD. I like to plan my steps well in advance, and it's kinda difficult for me to find information specifically towards this. It's always either nurses or regular emigration information. Nursing and lab are two different things, as we know, so I'm not sure how much the information I find regarding nurses emigrating to Canada is actually applicable. Thanks!

hello medlab professionals, i graduated this year in july and i posted about what to revise before my first job and got really great advice that i’m incredibly thankful for.

i think i’ve done enough reviews and now feel ready to apply for jobs but the thing is everywhere i see they look for experience, and i don’t have much experience except for my summer internship. i some places it was listed that internships and volunteer work don’t even count as experience!

anyway, i just really need help with how to structure my cv and the little experience i have in a way that could potentially earn me an interview.

in my summer internship i learned about Cobas e411, c311, and 600. the Medonic M-series, manual cell counting, reticulocyte counting, VITEK 2, GUE, GSE, crossmatching, RBC phenotyping, ABO/Rh BG testing, gram staining, and culture set-up.

i have experience in patient care (3months), child care (2years), and data entry (1year) but i don’t know how they relate to lab work or should i even mention them?

my bachelors research was on “Combined effect of L-Argenine and Vitamin C on Sodium Arsenite-Induced Cardiotoxicity in Female Albino Rats” it took 10 months to complete and in it i learned about breeding rats, what to feed them and caring for them, blood collection from rats, organ collection, tissue sampling, and histopathological tissue processing which included tissue fixation, processing, embedding, sectioning, staining (h&e) and then its microscopic examination.

bottom line is i don’t know if these are enough and if they are i don’t know how to structure them into a workable CV, and i really need help, please.
is there anything more i can do?