The final trip on RapidPenang bus to go back home marks the end of my industrial training (Latihan Industri, or LI in short) for 6 weeks as required in my course. I couldn’t help but to feel relieve that everything went well after days of waking up early, traveling, running tests and finally to return home for report typing.
The part which is the most exhausting is the report writing part. After nights (especially this week, in a roll) of reading, report-typing, flow chart-constructing, re-reading and editing, finally the completed report was printed and bound. This process wouldn’t be so exhausting if the printer in my house AND in Seberang Jaya Hospital didn’t break down at the same time.
I went to submit my report at Seberang Jaya Hospital and Bukit Mertajam Hospital this morning. Thanks to RapidPengang bus, I managed to finish all these in 3 hours time. Well, I always hear a lot of Penangite passengers still aren’t satisfied with the public transport here, which includes RapidPenang. Not that I want to defend RapidPenang because those bad experiences the former faced might be true. It’s just that I have never encountered them myself, not that I can remember. OK, except the time I went to Queensbay Mall in Penang Island. Maybe due to lack of demand, there is very limited number of bus going there directly.
OK, let’s go back to the industrial training experience. Honestly, I think HBM has a friendlier working environment than HSJ. Maybe because the latter has more work loads, that’s why they don’t have the time to sit around and do some team-bonding stuff. However, all the personnels working in both labs are nice and pleasant people. I have definitely learnt a lot in Microbiology Lab in HSJ, but not much in Histopathology Lab because we only receive specimens and directly refer all out to Penang General Hospital. Nonetheless, I think it’s good for me because I need time to complete my report and hand in to HSJ, HBM and UKM as requested. Heck, some of my friends don’t have to hand in report to so many parties, and definitely not immediately on the last day of LI.
I’ve re-learnt a lot of principles and tests, manned a number of machines (I’m a technophobe, by the way), and have my share of record-keeping experience. Oh, I’ve been suspecting that HSJ purposely leave a lot of records for 2 months to be keyed in by the attachment students there. Not that I don’t like to do this record typing work. I just don’t like to do the work which is supposed to be done ages ago. If it’s things we do when the time is here, like preparing culture media and stains when it’s running low, photostating request forms, dispatching results, or even keeping records for that very day, I don’t mind to do all these. Dealing with other people’s mess isn’t what I happy to do. Well, maybe this might happen in future, too, eh?
I’ve also seen some work place politics and hope that I can live with it when I’m working in the future. I’ve met people who are annoying though with good intention, people who love to compare work loads, people who have nothing better to do than to gossip about other people behind, people who’d leave their job behind and go for activities that interest them, people (actually it’s the USM Microbiology female attachment students) who knows nothing about basic laboratory rules, not even the tie-up-your-hair-and-no-open-toe-sandals-are allowed-in-lab rules. Sometimes Tay even wears open-toe high heels in lab! Puh-lease! *eyes rolling* You know what, this bunch of people expect to be C41 Pegawai Science (something like a manager in lab, hold a higher post than the normal lab personnels – the MLTs, who run the tests) whose job scope includes quality control, ordering stocks and validating the tests results.
Oh, not to mention for up to two years of microbiology study, the USM student who were also attached in Pathology Department (the labs) have never seen blood agar, TSI (Triple Sugar Iron, one of the media to identify bacterial species via their biochemical reaction), or maybe every test in the lab. Although it’s their own field and they should know it better than I do, I can’t blame the students because it’s not them who decide on the subjects to study. But please, as you’ve come for LI in hospital lab and known that there are still many things to learn, please be more humble and don’t have too high an expectation. Even if you are lucky to get the post (albeit immediately) after you graduated, that doesn’t mean you are sure ready for the job. You will only be respected because of the real knowledge you have, not the piece of paper you call Degree certificate.
This LI as a whole keeps reminding me of UKM. The things thought by our lecturers, especially. I don’t feel so nervous when I know I’ve learnt about something on the tests. Hence I only need to read further to know them better, that’s all. I’ve also remember how the lecturers in UKM want us to be humble, especially when working at the same bench with the MLTs. Because we actually learnt the same thing, and no doubt that they may know something a lot more in-depth than we do. With years of experience reading and interpreting the tests results, the MLTs definitely deserve our respect. It’s us who should work hard to earn ours from them.
I think that’s all I wanted to say. I’m going back KL tomorrow because I need to meet my thesis supervisor on Monday. I think I better read something before I meet her up. I was too busy (too tired after every day in the lab, actually) with the LI for the past 6 weeks. This LI has strengthened me somehow, to meet with more challenging tasks in future. Hope this experience can help me through my thesis year =)
Showing posts with label industrial training. Show all posts
Showing posts with label industrial training. Show all posts
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Friday, June 20, 2008
Sometimes you had have too many things to share because of the long duration you haven't been blogging, you don't know how to talk about them all anymore!
I am very busy with me industrial training lately, and every evening as I drag my tired body back home, all I wanted to do is bath, dinner and Friends (Scrubs, if I got the chance), check mails then sleep. And I do just that. Reports will be done when I'm not THAT tired, like, during weekends.
Industrial training in Seberang Jaya Hospital is alright, in fact, quite fun, because I've got to know a couple of other attachment students from PTPL. Thanks for the good memories, friends (Yes, I'm talking to Leen, Ain, Suraya, and last but not least, dear Non!). Not to be forgotten is Sharon who's kind enough to give me a ride to and fro hospital =) You're the angel God sends to save me, you know ;-)
All right, till here this time. I'm really exhausted, but contented at the same time :-)
I am very busy with me industrial training lately, and every evening as I drag my tired body back home, all I wanted to do is bath, dinner and Friends (Scrubs, if I got the chance), check mails then sleep. And I do just that. Reports will be done when I'm not THAT tired, like, during weekends.
Industrial training in Seberang Jaya Hospital is alright, in fact, quite fun, because I've got to know a couple of other attachment students from PTPL. Thanks for the good memories, friends (Yes, I'm talking to Leen, Ain, Suraya, and last but not least, dear Non!). Not to be forgotten is Sharon who's kind enough to give me a ride to and fro hospital =) You're the angel God sends to save me, you know ;-)
All right, till here this time. I'm really exhausted, but contented at the same time :-)
Friday, June 06, 2008
Urine Pregnancy Test – POSITIVE!
*Gasp*
Gosh! If this happened to me currently, I’ll get myself killed by my mum in no time. But it’s equally complicated when this happened to a 40-year-old woman.
The Indian woman read the result word by word, then stared at it blankly for a moment, then walked out without an outrageous facial expression.
I observed her response behind the window in the lab I’m now posted – Biochemistry lab. I don’t know what’s going on inside her mind, but it is definitely nothing to be happy about for whatever reason, for she didn’t show any positive response.
With oil prices hiking and everything which hence follows, I guess I can understand how life can be more difficult when one has another child to raise.
***
“How is it? Is the level normalized now? Has it decreased?”
An anxious father asked without reading the result for serum bilirubin level of his newborn. Well, the digits on the thin sheet of paper don’t make any sense to him anyway. Yet I can feel his anxiety for his jaundiced, one-week-old baby.
The serum bilirubin level had been fluctuating since few days ago. Some of the time I even run the test twice to double check the result I obtained. I’m not suppose to explain to the patients of the condition or give any form of consultation. Patients should refer back to their respective doctors for these.
However, every time when I see the fathers’ faces receiving the report from me and anxiously reading it like reading their academic result slips, I felt empathy for them. They could be a first-time father, or maybe a husband to a 40-year-old woman who has just given birth to an underweight baby. From them, I can feel the whole family’s emotion for the baby’s health condition – concern.
As a father, they wish their baby to be healthy. They wish what doctor say about newborn-having-jaundice-for-the-first-few-days-of-life-is-normal is true, and that very day should be the last day of the “few days”. Some of them saw the level was dropping and mumbled “Ah, it’s getting better…”. I could only smile politely at them, because I know very well that having a 205 μmol/L of serum bilirubin is way too much from the normal level which is 17 μmol/L.
It reminds me of how our parents love us so much that they always wish we have the best things – the best education, the best piano teacher, the best baseball bat, and most importantly, the pinkest stage of health. When parents get older, we should always still wish them the same – the best doctors, the best nurses, the best medication and treatment (if we can afford it), and most importantly, the best attitude and greatest love from us as their children.
Gosh! If this happened to me currently, I’ll get myself killed by my mum in no time. But it’s equally complicated when this happened to a 40-year-old woman.
The Indian woman read the result word by word, then stared at it blankly for a moment, then walked out without an outrageous facial expression.
I observed her response behind the window in the lab I’m now posted – Biochemistry lab. I don’t know what’s going on inside her mind, but it is definitely nothing to be happy about for whatever reason, for she didn’t show any positive response.
With oil prices hiking and everything which hence follows, I guess I can understand how life can be more difficult when one has another child to raise.
***
“How is it? Is the level normalized now? Has it decreased?”
An anxious father asked without reading the result for serum bilirubin level of his newborn. Well, the digits on the thin sheet of paper don’t make any sense to him anyway. Yet I can feel his anxiety for his jaundiced, one-week-old baby.
The serum bilirubin level had been fluctuating since few days ago. Some of the time I even run the test twice to double check the result I obtained. I’m not suppose to explain to the patients of the condition or give any form of consultation. Patients should refer back to their respective doctors for these.
However, every time when I see the fathers’ faces receiving the report from me and anxiously reading it like reading their academic result slips, I felt empathy for them. They could be a first-time father, or maybe a husband to a 40-year-old woman who has just given birth to an underweight baby. From them, I can feel the whole family’s emotion for the baby’s health condition – concern.
As a father, they wish their baby to be healthy. They wish what doctor say about newborn-having-jaundice-for-the-first-few-days-of-life-is-normal is true, and that very day should be the last day of the “few days”. Some of them saw the level was dropping and mumbled “Ah, it’s getting better…”. I could only smile politely at them, because I know very well that having a 205 μmol/L of serum bilirubin is way too much from the normal level which is 17 μmol/L.
It reminds me of how our parents love us so much that they always wish we have the best things – the best education, the best piano teacher, the best baseball bat, and most importantly, the pinkest stage of health. When parents get older, we should always still wish them the same – the best doctors, the best nurses, the best medication and treatment (if we can afford it), and most importantly, the best attitude and greatest love from us as their children.
Friday, May 23, 2008
It's Friday!
As a student, I always look forward to every Fridays for obvious reason, provided there’s no co-curriculum activity on the next morning. There was once I purposely registered my tuition classes within Monday to Thursday, so that I was free on Friday and during the following weekends!
I have just started my industrial training in Bukit Mertajam Hospital as mentioned earlier. Since Monday was Wesak Day, I only “worked” for four days in the lab I was sent to – the clinical laboratory.
In general, the laboratories in this hospital carry out the basic screening tests, while for other more advanced tests, the samples are sent to either Penang General Hospital or Seberang Jaya Hospital (the first and second largest hospitals in Penang state, respectively, followed by BM Hospital) :
(a) Urine FEME (Full Examination, Microscopic Examination) as in urine pH, sugar and protein levels using conventional test strips, and microscopic observation for the presence of crystals, microorganisms, blood, pus, and epithelial cells. Today we observed a patient’s urine containing loads of crystals. It’s sad to know that yet it really amazed me – our body can produce the kind of crystals which have different facets like diamonds (at pathological state, of course)!
(b) Blood analysis
- Full Blood Count is now carried out by machines. Of course, we’re not going to count the red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets manually, not to mention there are different types of white blood cells present. Even by brief assumption it is also time consuming. It’s like the busiest machine in the whole lab – very often there are blood samples arrived in our lab requested for this test because it provides a general idea on the health condition of an individual. Using machine is definitely more convenient. We only need to key in the patients’ identification data then the machine will run the test and record the results. It is easier for us to trace back the results, too. Sometimes the doctors can’t wait for nurses to send back the report for patients’ condition might be critical so they’ll just call up the lab and ask for results.
- Prothrombin Time and Activated Partial Thromboplastin Time are for detecting coagulation disorders. If the blood doesn’t clot within the expected time frame then it’s considered as abnormal.
- Staining of thin blood smear for detection of malaria cases. It’s kinda rare but we do have a few slides sample of Plasmodium sp. kept by the laboratory personnel. Observing microscopic slides are definitely a fun thing!
- Full Blood Picture: I’m suppose to learn this starting next week but I somehow manage to have a peek at the lab next door and learn the secret methods to produce an all-time 100% smooth thin blood smear and high quality staining result from a very experienced MLT. I’m very glad that he loves to share his knowledge. He spent time to explain to me and patiently watched me do the slides myself. Not only that, he’s also very experienced in reading the morphology (shape and size) of red blood cells under the microscope.
- Retic cell count: The abnormally high number of immature (young) red blood cells may indicate excessive blood loss for whatever reason, or other haematology diseases.
(c) Stool
- FEME: we seldom carry out this examination due to few samples are sent here. Today we did receive one, but there’s nothing abnormal observed.
- Feces Occult Blood: detection for presence on blood in feces. It may indicate gastrointestinal hemorrhage or other related pathology.
- Reducing sugear: The presence of reducing sugar in a baby’s stool may indicate lactose intolerance. Usually when the baby is having diarrhea once the mother starts breastfeeding the baby then we’ll suspect this. Actually I’m quite new to this, now still in the process of reading up on this matter.
(d) Sterility Test using Attest culture. I’m still checking out this test so I’ll keep the updates for future posts.
These are the test carried out by the lab I was in for the past four weekdays. Next week I’ll be attending TB and Haematology Lab, followed by Biochemistry Lab and Blood Bank, then if I’m lucky enough to be accepted by Seberang Jaya Hospital, I’ll be spending my last two weeks there to learn Histopathology (human tissue slides processing and reading) and Microbiology techniques there. My supervisor is kind enough to do the arrangement for me.
Overall, my industrial training thus far has been fruitful for I’m learning a lot from the people there and we get along pretty well, too. Thank God =)
Edited: Actually I'm not suppose to touch any specimen before the lab perosnels examine them. Hence I'm only allowed to repeat the procedures using the remaining samples after their tests, if there's any. Most of the time, urine will be abundant, but not once for blood samples. So I only watch them process it using machines. Yet it is still fine, for I am allowed to read the results and the stained slides =)
I have just started my industrial training in Bukit Mertajam Hospital as mentioned earlier. Since Monday was Wesak Day, I only “worked” for four days in the lab I was sent to – the clinical laboratory.
In general, the laboratories in this hospital carry out the basic screening tests, while for other more advanced tests, the samples are sent to either Penang General Hospital or Seberang Jaya Hospital (the first and second largest hospitals in Penang state, respectively, followed by BM Hospital) :
(a) Urine FEME (Full Examination, Microscopic Examination) as in urine pH, sugar and protein levels using conventional test strips, and microscopic observation for the presence of crystals, microorganisms, blood, pus, and epithelial cells. Today we observed a patient’s urine containing loads of crystals. It’s sad to know that yet it really amazed me – our body can produce the kind of crystals which have different facets like diamonds (at pathological state, of course)!
(b) Blood analysis
- Full Blood Count is now carried out by machines. Of course, we’re not going to count the red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets manually, not to mention there are different types of white blood cells present. Even by brief assumption it is also time consuming. It’s like the busiest machine in the whole lab – very often there are blood samples arrived in our lab requested for this test because it provides a general idea on the health condition of an individual. Using machine is definitely more convenient. We only need to key in the patients’ identification data then the machine will run the test and record the results. It is easier for us to trace back the results, too. Sometimes the doctors can’t wait for nurses to send back the report for patients’ condition might be critical so they’ll just call up the lab and ask for results.
- Prothrombin Time and Activated Partial Thromboplastin Time are for detecting coagulation disorders. If the blood doesn’t clot within the expected time frame then it’s considered as abnormal.
- Staining of thin blood smear for detection of malaria cases. It’s kinda rare but we do have a few slides sample of Plasmodium sp. kept by the laboratory personnel. Observing microscopic slides are definitely a fun thing!
- Full Blood Picture: I’m suppose to learn this starting next week but I somehow manage to have a peek at the lab next door and learn the secret methods to produce an all-time 100% smooth thin blood smear and high quality staining result from a very experienced MLT. I’m very glad that he loves to share his knowledge. He spent time to explain to me and patiently watched me do the slides myself. Not only that, he’s also very experienced in reading the morphology (shape and size) of red blood cells under the microscope.
- Retic cell count: The abnormally high number of immature (young) red blood cells may indicate excessive blood loss for whatever reason, or other haematology diseases.
(c) Stool
- FEME: we seldom carry out this examination due to few samples are sent here. Today we did receive one, but there’s nothing abnormal observed.
- Feces Occult Blood: detection for presence on blood in feces. It may indicate gastrointestinal hemorrhage or other related pathology.
- Reducing sugear: The presence of reducing sugar in a baby’s stool may indicate lactose intolerance. Usually when the baby is having diarrhea once the mother starts breastfeeding the baby then we’ll suspect this. Actually I’m quite new to this, now still in the process of reading up on this matter.
(d) Sterility Test using Attest culture. I’m still checking out this test so I’ll keep the updates for future posts.
These are the test carried out by the lab I was in for the past four weekdays. Next week I’ll be attending TB and Haematology Lab, followed by Biochemistry Lab and Blood Bank, then if I’m lucky enough to be accepted by Seberang Jaya Hospital, I’ll be spending my last two weeks there to learn Histopathology (human tissue slides processing and reading) and Microbiology techniques there. My supervisor is kind enough to do the arrangement for me.
Overall, my industrial training thus far has been fruitful for I’m learning a lot from the people there and we get along pretty well, too. Thank God =)
Edited: Actually I'm not suppose to touch any specimen before the lab perosnels examine them. Hence I'm only allowed to repeat the procedures using the remaining samples after their tests, if there's any. Most of the time, urine will be abundant, but not once for blood samples. So I only watch them process it using machines. Yet it is still fine, for I am allowed to read the results and the stained slides =)
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