Today is the end of National Medical Laboratory week and I miss the celebrations we used to have! There was always food and appreciation for the unsung heroes in the lab. Most folks assume we are nurses. Well, we almost are. I knew that I wanted to go into clinical medicine early on and was called to work behind the scenes in the lab for 40 years. I attended DSCC for 2 years to get pre-requisite courses and finished that up with a year at Memphis State. After that was a grueling year at UTCHS to earn a BS in Medical Technology. Blood bank was my least favorite course, yet I ended up as the blood bank supervisor here for most of my tenure. Plan B was to get a degree in chemistry ( in case I wasn't accepted at UT ) and that required 2 semesters of German. OMG. I got out of the first semester with a D and decided Plan B wouldn't happen. At the same time I was taking parasitology, organic chemistry, quantitative analysis and some other hard stuff. I did okay but the course load was heavy. Fortunately I got accepted to Med Tech school and the rest is history. I did very well there and actually made the highest score of the class on the comprehensive exam which shocked even me!
Working in the lab of a small rural hospital allowed me to use all of my skills rather than sit in one room all day turning out diffs or identifying bacteria. I would have withered in a setting like that. Another saving grace of the small hospital setting is that I was in constant contact with patients which never happens in the urban setting. I became very interested in end-of-life care because of that experience. In most places, phlebotomists are the face of the lab to patients. In the small hospital setting, techs are involved when there is an extremely hard draw and we had many. I learned a lot about dignity in a healthcare setting, especially when death is imminent.
If I'm not mistaken next week is nursing week so let's all clap hands for them too! My friends joke that "You're almost a nurse!" and I reckon I am. Y'all be faithful and blessed. And always, remember who you are ^j^
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