Fourth Week

Week four in Oregon (and a little of week five, sorry for the late posting this week) is over, and I've begun working at PeaceHealth as a lab assistant. It's not exactly the job I had in mind when I majored in English, minored in Writing, but it actually uses a lot of the same skills as the editing job I was prepared for. It just uses those skills in a different way.

Work in the specimen management lab can be rather hectic and very complicated. On my first day, the supervisor was going through some paperwork with me and explaining that the training process will be long and involved. It'll be a couple of months at least before I've been shown how to do each of the different types of work that the lab assistants do.

So far, I've been primarily working on the main task of the lab assistant, which is referred to as tubeval, which stands for Tube Validation. Essentially, this consists of receiving a requisition form along with a specimen, or specimens, from a patient. I scan in or enter the number on the form, verify that all of the information and specimen(s) match, print labels, and if necessary, pour out the specimen(s) into tubes.

It's usually a fairly straight-forward process, though a bit tricky to get the hang of. But problems can and do arise, with missing or incorrect specimens, wrong tests ordered, mismatched information, etc. And in these cases a certain amount of detective work can be necessary to figure out how to resolve the issue. These problems can be irritating, but they also add another interesting dimension to the work.

Beginning on my third day, which was Friday, I've been told to have a sheet at the desk with me to help keep track of how much work I'm able to get done during the shift. My trainer told me that I'm already keeping pace with people who've worked in the lab for nine months, so I guess that's a sign that I'm doing well. Actually, I think my experience working with the computer system at Fleet Services was pretty good preparation, since the system at PeaceHealth works in a similar way.

My shifts are from 4 pm to 12:30 am. I get two 15-minute breaks, one in each half of the shift, and a 30-minute "lunch" break at 8. The people I work with in the lab have all been nice and friendly, but it's hard for me to keep track of who everyone is, especially because most of the people working around me are either on a more standard 9-5 schedule or an overnight, graveyard schedule. That, and I'm really not very good with new names and faces. But I'm sure I'll learn them all eventually.

I didn't put any pictures in my last post, and maybe it seems like I'm giving whoever's reading these less of a chore if I add pictures. So I'll end this post with a Google Earth shot of the building I work in to give you an idea of how big it is.

The main entrance is on the north side of the building, but I usually park in the second lot and enter through the side, since it's closer to the specimen management lab.