The lab techs that are teaching in the clinical lab will often have patient work to complete while they are teaching. Therefore, they need your attention in order to effectively teach you and complete their work. When I talk about lab etiquette, I am mainly talking about cell phone use. Med. Tech. students should not be using their cell phones in the lab. First, it is impolite to text while someone is teaching you and you cannot concentrate on two things at once. While you are working on instruments your full attention is needed and you cannot be distracted by a cell phone. Even if you are not working on an instrument, you still need your full attention on your training. This year is the hardest and most intense year of your education and it is the most comprehensive preparation for the registry. Once you start working, you will not use your theory nearly as much as you do during your clinical rotation. The lab techs will take into consideration the fact that you might be waiting to hear for a job offer. You just need to mention it to them and they won’t mind if you take a call. This should be a rare occurrence, though.
Dress Codes
There is a dress code in the laboratory. The female employees are required to wear scrubs and the male employees wear dress pants, a dress shirt, and a tie. The students are required to wear dress pants and the Med. Tech. student polo shirts. Your shoes should impervious to fluids and have a back on them. Cloth shoes should not be worn because of the chance of spilling blood or body fluids on them. You would not want to get blood or body fluids on your feet. This is the dress code for our laboratory; it may be different at other laboratories. If you find a different dress code please share it with us in the comment section.
There is a dress code in the laboratory. The female employees are required to wear scrubs and the male employees wear dress pants, a dress shirt, and a tie. The students are required to wear dress pants and the Med. Tech. student polo shirts. Your shoes should impervious to fluids and have a back on them. Cloth shoes should not be worn because of the chance of spilling blood or body fluids on them. You would not want to get blood or body fluids on your feet. This is the dress code for our laboratory; it may be different at other laboratories. If you find a different dress code please share it with us in the comment section.
Lab Safety
In the laboratory we work with a lot of potentially infectious samples and all samples are treated as such. All lab techs are required to wear disposable lab coats. Technologists are also required to wear gloves when handling potentially infectious specimens. When you are wearing your gloves you should not be touching your face, your hair, or your cell phone, because once you have touched specimens you do not know what is on your gloves. I would consider most every surface in a laboratory to be dirty. Think of it this way; would you want to set your lunch box on a counter in the laboratory and then set it on your kitchen table where you eat? I sometimes see students chewing on a pen. That is definitely something that you should avoid. Also, food and drink are prohibited in the laboratory work areas. You are only allowed to have food and drink in designated areas, such as the staff lounge.
Years ago, before there was information available about the hazards of handling specimens, the practices were very different. Techs did not wear gloves and mouth pipetting was a common practice. Then with the discovery of the transmission mode of AIDS and HIV and other infectious diseases, a lot of the regulations changed. Techs were then required to wear gloves and other personal protective equipment. This was hard for some of the older techs and I still occasionally see a few handling specimens without gloves on. The laboratory is a safe place to work as long as you wear your personal protective equipment and take the proper precautions.
