ryan5014

Some background info: So I am not a nurse, but I was working on my BSN before I was hired as a lab tech at a big hospital in Cleveland, OH. I worked in a blood bank/ hematology lab. I prefer lab work. I have a bs in biology. I quit my job at the hospital to take a 3 month seasonal research position, but the job ended i.e my contract and I was left with no job! I thought it would lead to more opportunities full time, but it did not. I was offered my job back at the hospital, but I hate Cleveland! I have submitted tons and tons of applications for research/ lab tech jobs and finally landed an interview after a 2 month search doing bone marrow transplants in Denver, CO. So here is my question. I went for an in person interview, they liked my blood bank/ hematology experience, I feel they did not hear exactly what they wanted to hear at the interview, but either way, I followed up with thank you emails etc. The interview went for almost 2 hours and I got a tour of the lab (yes I drove out to Denver for this interview to meet the people and see exactly it was I would be doing). A few days later, I got a follow up email asking for my transcripts, so I sent them in. My GPA was not the greatest, so I was worried about that. I was told I would hear back after the first week in January. So I also decide to send an email about how they thought the interview went, they responded with "we thought it went well and you are certainly still a candidate for the position", this was after the interview at the end of December. Well, the first week comes and goes with no response. So the following week, I send a follow up email, they email me back saying some people had to leave town abruptly and they apologized for the delay (mind this was 1.5 weeks ago) and they tell me I will hear back for sure by the following (last week). Well, last week came and went, and I didn't hear anything back. So Monday of this week (yesterday) I send another follow up email (it was kind of sloppy, I caught a spelling error it it), but I got a one line response saying they still have not yet made a decision. So my question, I have been job hunting now for almost 4 months, this has been my only lead (good job as well with a well paid salary), its been a month since the interview with no final decision (they had a few interviews after me), what do you think my chances are of getting this job and is it worth even going after anymore? I have no other leads and a BS degree in biology limits me as to what I can apply for. If this job does not work, I have to consider graduate school, but my overall GPA is not great. I am already is serious debt and dont know if its worth going back to school, point being, I feel lost and have no idea what to do, any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

I wanted to thank everyone for their comments and also provide an update. Thus far, the individual has not made any more serious errors. Lately though, I have found myself very annoyed with her. She seems to zone out a lot. She also asks many questions, I mean she will ask the same question three times in a row. I told her she should go back over some of the SOP's so she can better understand what she is doing independently. She also complained to our supervisor I was being too hard on her. She informed them I was making her very nervous. As I heard, I guess I almost made her quit because one night she asked me the same question 4 times about giving O pos blood to a BMT patient who was changing types after a bone marrow and the patient information was not clear. Well I lost it and told her to find another job. I did feel bad about that so I talked with her afterwards and she said it was ok, she was just trying to make the right decision. I used to like the individual, but now, I find myself annoyed with her ever since she went to supervision about me. I guess I am a bit hard on her, but now, when she asks me questions, I give her real short answers and she has been asking other people. People seem to like her, I guess its just a personal thing for me.

we do have risk management. this issue has happened in the past. I do not believe writing it up will solve anything honestly, it was just an oops, now if she had decided to not ask anyone and go ahead and override the error and than discover it i would have written it up, but she took the proper precaution by asking her fellow techs.

Hi all, I am not a nurse but I work closely with nurses at a large hospital in a blood bank. I am a medical technologist. I had an issue a few weeks ago and I am looking for advice. We have a relativiely new tech (shes been here about 6 months). She is a good worker, friendly person and does an overall good job. She does not make many errors. She is fairly new to issueing blood products out to patients and sometimes we get completely slammed. She was filling an order for a person who was AB, plasma, who can only get AB plasma. She was in a rush and accidently grabbed type B plasma and tried issueing it to the patient. She was working on 3 different orders at once. Another patient she had was type B. She was trying to issue the type B plasma to the AB person. The computer flagged her and her and another technologist couldnt figure out why the computer was flagging them and they called me over and thats when I realized she was trying to give the wrong type. She flipped out when I pointed out the blood type in the header to her and realized why the computer was falgging her. Needles to say she felt horrible for doing what she did. It was caught very early and it would have not left the lab either way. I could have written her up for that, but after talking with her i realized we have all made mistakes. Its just a reminder how careful you have to be. That is one of the biggest mistakes you can make in blood bank aka give the wrong blood type. I spoke with her about it and she told me she thought she was working on the patient that was type B. I told her she needed to be really careful next time and only do one order at a time. I was just wondering what any one of you would have done? If I did write her up, it could cost her the job. But as of now, I have decided to let it slide. I dont think she will ever do that again and thank god for computer flagging, I have seen this error before.