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.
A good parasitology reference is:
ReplyDeleteAtlas of Human Parasitology, 2nd Edition
by Lawrence R. Ash and Thomas C. Orihel
A good Fungi reference book is:
Medically Important Fungi, A Guide to Identification, 4 th Edition
by Davise H. Larone
These are the reference books that a microbiologist recommended. I am not sure if there are newer editions.
Hope this helps
Here is the answer to one of your questions. I received this answer from a microbiologist.
ReplyDeleteWhy is the bacteria Bacteroides fragilis catalase positive if it is an anaerobe? Can't is just break down the oxidizing agents (i.e peroxide)?
Catalase is an enzyme that decomposes hydrogen peroxide into oxygen and water.
Excluding the Streptococci, most aerobic and facultative anaerobic bacteria possess catalytic activity. Facultative anaerobes can grow both aerobically and anaerobically.
The catalase test for anaerobic bacteria, however, uses a higher concentration of hydrogen peroxide (15 percent instead of 3 percent).
Anaerobic micro-organisms need defense systems to enable them to survive transient exposure to aerobic conditions or various pollutants in the environment.
Catalase catalyses the conversion of 2 H2O2 to O2 and H2O by using H2O2 as the electron donor.
Anaerobes that can endure only short-term contact with O2 do not need an obligatory catalase activity, unlike aerobic organisms, because H2O2 can be decomposed spontaneously or by non-enzymatic mechanisms of defense.
At the bench in the dept. we use a Kanamycin / Vancomycin plate for anaerobic cultures. That plate will recover Bacteroides species and therefore, they will not see techs performing a catalase test on a possible Bacteroides species.
You can read more at: "Do anerobic bacteria require catalase? Why?" | Answerbag http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/798441#ixzz1dmKYjiq5