I phone interviewed with a company that does molecular genetics (where my heart and soul is- I did this in research for 7 years before going back to school for MLS) and I felt like the interviewer (not a lab person) and I really got along and she told me she'd push to have me come in and interview. She told me she'd let me hear by the end of this week if they wanted to move to an in person interview but ended up emailing me Friday around 430pm asking for my availability in the next 2 weeks. I emailed her back 10 minutes later, but still haven't heard back to confirm an in person interview.

I'm really hopeful to get this position. My lab is in the process of imploding and I miss feeling interested in what I do for a living like I did when I was doing genetics research. I'm not sure if I should send another follow up email and if I should, how do I word it without sounding pushy?

I am going to write CSMLS MLT General exam in this October 2024. I am internationally graduated. I have purchased 3 Practice test package form CSMLS. I wrote one of them and I failed, I got only 48%. I am stressed and depressed now!

Please suggest me some tips!

I'm a student and work in a hospital and my finger touched part of a piece of green surgical linen in the disposal container. The linen itself didn't have any blood on it but there was blood on other things further down in the container. I immediately washed my hands with soap and warm water for about 2 minutes and have been applying hand sanitizer frequently for the past half hour. The finger that touched it doesn't have any cuts or wounds and I've been careful not to touch my eyes or mouth since then. Should I contact Employee Health about this or am I overreacting about exposure?

My weakness is in grading urinalysis. I do not know how to properly grade the cells,etc that is seen in the urine. For example, I viewed 10 fields: Squamous Epithelial cell Field 1. 0 Field 2. 0 Field 3. 0 Field 4. 0 Field 5. 1 Field 6. 4 Field 7. 0 Field 8. 0 Field 9 6 Field 10 0

What would be the grading for squamous epithelial cell?

And how do I choose the 10 fields that ill be basing the microscopy from?

Will I just skip a field and not include it in the 10 fields, if I can't see any cell there?

I have quite a few gaps on my employment ranging from 6 month periods to a year. I was a single mom of 3 kids and didn’t get much help from my ex and I had to step out a few times. Will this bar me from employment further? I have 28 years experience in the field. Generalist mostly.

Has anyone ever ordered a book from ASCP.org?

I know that they usually have a long wait time with emails/exam issues but what’s usually the wait time for a book to ship?

What system do you use in your lab to document QC? I’m so sick of manually documenting QC, I want to document electronically, but I work with dinosaurs!!!

Hello All,

Does anyone have experience of putting together their own albumin (Bromocresol Green) assay kit please?

For my Ph.D laboratory project, I'm recreating the BCG Albumin kit/protocol offered by Sigma Aldrich (MAK124), as ~£400 for 250 samples seems a bit steep, even after VAT exceptions for Uni institutes and especially when its significantly cheaper purchasing its content individually.

I've seen several protocols use Human Serum Albumin or Bovine Serum Albumin and varying concentrations (or lack of stating) of BCG solution for them as well, so a bit confused on the best approach to take for this.

Any advice would be appreciated, many thanks.

(P.S. Unsure if this goes against the rules, but its technically not medical advice or interpretation?)

Does anyone know when the new CAP checklists are supposed to come out?

Someone help me understand this ASCP Certification. So, I hear you can challenge the boards even if you don’t have a BA in medical lab technology.

So I have ten year general lab experience and I have a BA in something very unrelated to the program. (community health).

I am thinking of pursuing an MLT program because my state only offers the medical lab scientist program as a MA and not a BA.

I hear oftentimes that you can take a certain route as in become a certified MLT and as long as you have a BA , you can possibly sit for the MT Certification. Is this true or how does it work?

Doing a manual differential and as soon as I hit the feathered edge saw it sitting there. The instrument originally flagged it for monocytic blasts that required a manual diff to be done

I have a Bachelor's in Biology and have already passed the AAB in Micro, blood bank, and molecular. I also worked as a lab assistant in Micro and blood bank. However, the state only gave me my license in molecular. They said my experience in Micro and blood bank isn't considered "pertinent laboratory experience"

Does anyone know a way for me to get this experience without joining a clinical program for 1-2 years (specially if I'm already certified)

Thank you

I’m looking for feedback on the T-Spot IGRA TB assay. (This is the newest version incorporating magnetic beds separation.)

This is for a low volume lab (<10 per run). Sending out is not an option due to location outside the US.

It’s complicated but does not seem unreasonable for someone familiar with cell counting and manual immunoassay tests.

I’m specifically looking for feedback on problematic assay issues, reagent stock outs etc.

TIA

Curious if anyone here is familiar with Euroimmun products for diagnostics (molecular, infectious disease, some automation instruments). My friend was applying for a job with them to leave the bench, asked my thoughts (I am with a different clin dx company) and I'd never heard of it before. Any thoughts?

Was having a convo with one of our pathologists the other day and he said he thought i should get my phd in clinical lab science and that he’s helped a few people get the degree and he would be happy to help and be a resource for me. He claimed that all the folks he’d helped get the degree were making mid to high 200k per year right out of school managing big commercial labs. Anyone here ever heard of anyone doing this? I worked with a few techs that had their masters years ago and they were still just regular ol bench techs like me. I’d find it hard to believe that the phd is automatically a pay bump that high but maybe I’m wrong?

Hey guys, just was curious how one gets into this field if they don’t have a bachelors in a science (I studied cs so there’s basically zero overlap)

Would getting a phlebotomy license/job be the best start? That you can get from community college, right? Then work my way up (CLT, CLS?)

Anyone else transition from an unrelated field?

Thanks

Male 14yo WBC 6.487/mm3 RBC nd HGB low (2.80 - 8.15) PLT 87

Hi everyone I officially received my score and it is 500. I didn’t celebrated until today, I needed to make sure because that exam was so so hard! When I finished and saw the PASS, I felt so overwhelmed and couldn’t believe my eyes 👀 hahaha I kept reading it, Pass,Pass,Pass then P A S S? Pass is pass right? Hahahaha and then called my TA, omg I knew I could do it because of my faith, hard work and all the good resources u guys post here and your support! Thanks for that! But anyways the thought/ possibility of failing is there. Now I am in the process of my State License and getting ready for all the next steps.

I want to ask, 500 is a good score, or it’s bad? Can I get my score breakdown?

Halloween came early

Hi!

Just recently lost our supervisor and have been abruptly thrown into figuring out new lot adjustments in hematology and coagulation.

It's my understanding the manufacturer ranges are wide. When I load my new QC lot in Heme, should I shrink the SD immediately or collect some data with the wide range first?

Slightly different question for coag...using the IL ACL Elite...I'm given vendor ranges for a new lot of QC. Those are also wide I presume, so should I set my vendor range to span 3 SD or 2 for accumulating data? Hope this makes sense. Thank you for any and all help and tips you have!

And no-there is no SOP, haha.

What company do you buy your QC from to run on Cepheid? My the micro lab at my hospital has been using ZeptoMatrix, but today I noticed it says on the box "Not for diagnostic procedures. For research purposes only."

When y’all do the rbc morphology, how in depth do you report out results? Because I feel you could spend forever looking for different morphologies. Just curious.

Then why did you try to submit it?

I was a phleb. If I got something like this, I would return it as Unable to Draw. Bad collection = bad results.