Nurses don't know the lab

Nurses General Nursing

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It is extremely frustrating as a lab tech to hear nurses talk about the lab like we just press buttons. In fact it is appalling, especially when we go through many of the same, and many more, college courses.

They even go so far as to refer to our profession as one where you don't have to think. Wow. I couldn't imagine someone not thinking when they are identifying antibodies your patient has, then trying to type the corresponding antigen negative blood so your patient doesn't have a transfusion reaction. Or when we are performing a differential that lets the doctor know the patient has CLL.

Not to mention that we have to look at previous labs and document why there has been a significant change. Or worse yet, figure out that the results are not consistent, and the nurse or CNA has mislabeled specimens.

We bust our butts, and when we are not actively testing specimens, we are calibrating, running QC, and doing maintenance on the machines.

All while getting paid much less for being just as essential and having just as much education.

Also, we do not cause your specimens to be hemolyzed. We are not shaking them up, I assure you. They cannot become that way from sitting around, even though specimens don't sit around in the lab when tests are ordered. On that note, clots occur from not inverting the tubes once they are drawn. Also not us, generally the phlebotomist is drawing the specimen, but the only clotted tubes we get are from nurses and CNAs. We don't want to give you the bad news either.

We need to be recognized as essential medical professionals as well as nurses. We know plenty that nurses don't, and vice versa. It's just hard to listen to people on their pedestals with no respect or understanding about the profession they bash.

I wouldn't even call this a rant, because it is only addressing the misconceptions that I hear repeatedly.

Specializes in Med Surg.

Feel better?

1 Votes
Specializes in ICU.

I would say lab doesn't know the nurses either.

I have worked with places with good lab staff and bad lab staff. Not all labs are created equal.

I respect lab techs, when they do their job. Not so much when they feel we are on the same professional level. Sounds like a communication problem. Call me anytime.. we can work it out.

I highly doubt the only hemolyzed specimens you get are from nurses and CNAs. Get a grip.

Specializes in Medical Oncology, ER.

maybe the lab and nursing staff at your facility should have a joint meeting to go over these issues, it would solve the problems rather than stating your complaints here. no matter where you go you are going to deal with people of different attitudes towards other people; same job title or not.

We are on the same professional level. You know your stuff, I know mine. Same amount of education. And both necessary, to each other and to the doctors. Acting like we are below you is incorrect. But there are a lot more nurses out there to disagree with me, I'm at a disadvantage from the start.

I appreciate you.

In my days as an emergency room nurse working at night when the lab folks were not here, WE ran many of the labs. I was grateful when they started having an on-call lab person who stayed the night in the hospital.

And not all nurses are created equal, as with any profession. And this isn't solely about where I work, it is just misconceptions everywhere.

And van, yeah it's true, but understandable because they are usually the people drawing non stable patients, unlike phlebs, who only have to focus on getting the blood.

I don't for a second act like nurses do nothing because I don't see them though. That's what we get.

Thank you spidey, but do understand, you would only be trained in the least complex tests. You wouldn't be found doing qc or maintenance either. And we learned plenty in school you didn't, and vice versa, like I've said. I'm not bashing nurses, I just wish they wouldn't assume we do nothing because they are not there to see us.

Specializes in Med/Surg, Ortho, ASC.

1) I'm not sure why you came to a nursing forum to air your rant (and yes, it fully qualifies as a rant). To the best of my knowledge, no one here has acted offensively to you. I would never go to a lab tech forum and yell at the members (all strangers) just because I had a negative experience with a lab tech at my place of business.

2) It has been my experience that when someone (anyone, in any walk of life) tells me that they "know as much" as I do or that "my education was the same as yours," usually the opposite is true. Those who are truly well educated do not feel the need to tell others. They let their conversation and their demeanor and their competency illustrate their knowledge.

1 Votes
Specializes in Critical Care, Education.
1)

2) It has been my experience that when someone (anyone, in any walk of life) tells me that they "know as much" as I do or that "my education was the same as yours," usually the opposite is true. Those who are truly well educated do not usually feel the need to tell others. They let their conversation and their demeanor and their competency illustrate their knowledge.

TRUE DAT ^^^^^^ ;)

1 Votes
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