Was the teacher wrong, or were we?

[UKnowWho121]

I am in my last semester of pre-reqs and one of my courses this semester is Microbiology. Last night in class, we had to inject some Kovacs reagent in to a medium to see the reaction. We were each given a sterile syringe (still wrapped). My lab partner started filling the syringe right out of the bottle of Kovac's Reagant and our teacher threw a fit! She said we had to take some out w/ the eye dropper and put it in a separate test tube b/c we were contaminating the Kovac's reagant. How were we contaminating it if the syringe was brand new??? Does she have a point, or was my lab partner ok for putting it in there. I would've put it in the bottle too b/c it was brand new.

[~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN]

So the bottle was the kind with the top having a dropper? At any rate, your teacher is correct, One) because it is her rules, 2) just because the syringe was sterile doesn't mean it will stay that way, you can accidentally touch the outside of the bottle, or set it down or if you needed to re-dip that would contaminate and so on, so to practice a safe aseptic technique you should be in the habit of doing it the way she said. Did your lab packet have step by step instructions?? The only time we ever put objects into the "source" was when we were getting bacteria in a liquid media and we had to use aseptic technique on that as well, (flaming the loop, flaming the tube etc.).

I would trust that the Micro Teacher would know more when it comes to contamination than the students, so if it were me, I would trust what she said and learn from it.

[truern]

Once he took that sterile syringe out of the wrapper it's no longer sterile...he touched the syringe, right??

[UKnowWho121]

Thanks "mi vida loca!" "Truern" she touched just the top (not the needle), but I see what you mean b/c the air has many contaminants in it too. It's all just a big learning experience!

Thanks for replying and making me realize what I didn't understand at the moment! :wink2:

[~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN]

Thanks "mi vida loca!" "Truern" she touched just the top (not the needle), but I see what you mean b/c the air has many contaminants in it too. It's all just a big learning experience!

Thanks for replying and making me realize what I didn't understand at the moment! :wink2:

You get the hang of it and some stuff that doesn't always make sense now, will make sense later :)