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.
Lol. Same amount of education????? As if. You in lab only have to know that the k is 2.1. I on the other hand have to know why the k is so low, the intervention, the appropriate follow up, oh and how to treat the patients heart that is now in vtach from said k level. No indeed, we are NOT on the same level.
Specializes in UR/PA, Hematology/Oncology, Med Surg, Psych.
Hmm, maybe I'm an elitist. But I'll be perfectly honest and say that nurses are THE backbone of a health institution. I do not feel superior to anyone else or their position, but as a nurse I am responsible for anything and everything regarding my patients. The lab is only responsible for the labs, respiratory is only responsible for respiratory, housekeeping only for housekeeping, PT only for PT, dietary only for dietary, and radiology is only responsible for radiology. Nurses are responsible for ALL of it and making sure that the patient receives the appropriate services at the right time from all the other departments. Nurses are the core of the patients care. And I for one am tired of other nurses allowing other people to downplay our roles, responsibilities, and importance. Yes, everyone no matter their position at the hospital is important, but nurses are the managers of patients care, and I'm proud of it. Nurses need to claim the respect they are entitled to.
I wish I was more knowledgeable about other day-to-day responsibilities of other disciplines. Many years ago, a smart manager made us shadow in pharmacy or PT on occasion. I am always jealous of my daughter on "bring your kid to work day."
I wonder if OP was rejected from nursing school and now has a chip on his shoulder...
And yes, I have a four-year degree *gasps*. And no, lab techs and their education are NOT on equal footing with nursing education. The amount of liability isn't equal and the sheer amount of responsibility and standards nurses are held to is incredibly high.
Do I value lab? Sure. But make no mistake: as a nurse, I am hold accountable for the outcomes of lab results and the lab doing their job...it doesn't work the other way around.
I can agree with a few points- most importantly that lab technologists are just as educated as nurses, in their field, and are essential to healthcare.
My grandmother was a "lab tech" when they still injected bunnies to confirm pregnancy and sucked blood through pipettes. She had very little formal education, almost exclusively on the job training. Now "lab tech" requires a college degree (associates or bachelors) and way more formal clinical education/training. It's a specialized field with specific degrees and education.
Truly, you are an educated professional. I get that. I think part of the problem is that there are still nursing staff around who remember when the job title didn't require that intense of an education. Obviously that has changed, but since lab is their own bubble, those outside may not realize it.
Many nurses do not know the difference between a phlebotomist and a medical laboratory technologist. When I talk to "lab" I never know if I am talking to a tech or to a phlebotomist.
Mutual respect is essential. Hospital departments rarely understand each other and that leads to miscommunication and bad relations. It's easier if we all just acknowledge that we have our own area and responsibilities and try to make the best of working together. The main focus is always the patient, who we are ALL here for. None of us would have a job if it weren't for that.
I can't control another nurses actions, I can only control my own. When lab calls me in a huff and acts rudely, I can control how I respond and I take that interaction with a grain of salt. One rude lab tech doesn't speak for them all. I still respect the department and everyone in it. I hope you understand that there are many, many more nurses than lab technicians and phlebotomists combined and that we aren't all the same.
Also, and I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but know that nurses are accountable and responsible for everything. We are the only ones who care for that patient for twelve hours straight. We are their advocate. We catch grief from physicians, RT, PT/OT, dietary, EVS, social workers, family members, and of course from the patients themselves. We constantly have to make sure that not only we are doing our jobs, but that everyone else is doing their as well. And if another department isn't, then we are additionally burdened to fix that. We do that for every patient we are assigned.
It would be helpful if each department were required to shadow each other. That will never happen though. So the best thing that I can do is try to put myself in the other persons shoes, realize the patient is the goal, and so the best that I can. I can't control anyone but myself.
3) Lab tech have to make those annoying calls just to verify that this is indeed that patient's blood. Unfortunately we've heard of mislabeled specimens.
I always wondered why those phone calls were made. I used to work in an ICU and would get regular phone calls from lab stating that the patients hemoglobin had jumped since yesterday and they always seemed very concerned.....
"Well the patient has gotten a transfusion", I would tell them!
It always seemed strange that they were so concerned about an improvement in hemoglobin level :)
Thanks for explaining, it helps to know whats happening on the other side of that phone call!
I always wondered why those phone calls were made. I used to work in an ICU and would get regular phone calls from lab stating that the patients hemoglobin had jumped since yesterday and they always seemed very concerned.....
Well the patient has gotten a transfusion, I would tell them!
It always seemed strange that they were so concerned about an improvement in hemoglobin level :)
Thanks for explaining, it helps to know whats happening on the other side of that phone call!
It's still annoying, though. As nurses, we also see lab trends and have the sense to re-draw when something questionable comes back ...and we know what's going on with the patient on the unit (potassium replacement, dialysis, blood transfusion). It seems redundant to have another department with less involvement in the treatment plan call and ask questions that are so obvious to us ...especially when we're busy doing fifty other things and get paged to the station to take the call.
I've been begging to shadow in lab. They have a program at my hospital where nurses can shadow nurses in other departments, but they'll only extend it to other nursing departments. I really want to shadow lab because we do act like we're ENEMIES and we're on the SAME TEAM fighting for the SAME GOALS. I just don't get it. Lab can't wait to write up nursing, often for inane things (tube labelled for 0400, received in lab at 0355, lab won't run because it's "mislabeled,"). Or even when we make a mistake, not working with us for the good of the patient. If we drew one ABG in an emergency on a patient, we know who's specimen that is. Say the patient has a platelet count of 11 and is pretty much hemorhagging from that arterial stick, the patient is all kinds of agitated from hypoxia and being on bipap, and the intensivist is at the bedside waiting on those results to decide to intubate. The nurse in the stress of the moment sent the tube down unlabeled- label in the bag, just not on the tube. Lab won't run it. Really?
Nursing also can't seem to wait to write up lab, "My stat labs took 62 minutes to come back!"
I truly DON'T get sometimes how I'll be waiting, and waiting for lab results. I'll finally call the lab to see what's going on, and lab acts like they're actively working on it, but before I even hang up the phone they're resulted in the computer. I know you say it's not button pushing, but I'm convinced there's a magical button they need to push that actually puts the results in the EMR.
All ranting aside, I really would like to understand the workings of the lab more. Since I'm not allowed to shadow there, can you run is through the typical steps involved with doing common tests, like a CBC or a CMP?
I hand carried a platelet agg 5 floors down to our lab because our process is for them to check it first before it is sent on to the lab that does the actual test. Our lab techs are to then hand carry the sample to the second lab. The lab tech who did the check started to put the sample in the tube system and I stopped him and let him know that it can't be tubed but that I would carry it. He looked at me and said "eff it, I'm not walking this" and proceeded to hit send. Needless to say the sample was ruined, the physician was angry and the patient had to be re-drawn.
So, according to your MO it would be okay for me to go to a lab tech forum and rant that all lab techs are stupid and rude and have no idea what they are doing and then get all butt-hurt when I get some not so nice replies.
FTR, I have an awesome relationship with most of our techs because I work very, very closely with them. I just avoid the above-mentioned idiot and his kind.
My son is a lab tech (MT) which is not the same as a phlebotomist. From comments I've seen, I think some have confused the roles. The phlebotomist draws, the tech processes and eval. Believe me, my son paid for his medical tech bachelors, to have others, especially nurses (I've been a RN, BSN for 15+ years before anyone starts to bash me) treat him like he was an OJT project, or dumber than dead duck. Nurses, therapists, and MDS are not the only professionals who have the education. We all need to be respectful of each other, regardless of education. Be you dietary, housekeeping, on up the line. Disrespect garners disrepect, and respecting others brings respect. Easy concept to forget.
And no, I can't do a MTs job. Looking through the microscope, I couldn't make the determinations as they do. And yes, they call to verify specimens and get answers because they have to document to cover their behinds just like we nurses do.
My son is a lab tech (MT) which is not the same as a phlebotomist. From comments I've seen, I think some have confused the roles. The phlebotomist draws, the tech processes and eval. Believe me, my son paid for his medical tech bachelors, to have others, especially nurses (I've been a RN, BSN for 15+ years before anyone starts to bash me) treat him like he was an OJT project, or dumber than dead duck. Nurses, therapists, and MDS are not the only professionals who have the education. We all need to be respectful of each other, regardless of education.
This was definitely a tech because we don't have phlebotomists and he was the one checking the tubes for clots. But that wasn't the point of my post to begin with.
donsterRN, ASN, BSN
2,558 Posts
Well, that's almost ten minutes of my life I'll never get back.
To the OP: with that chip on your shoulder and your completely inappropriate attitude, I know why you feel inferior. Pity.