I'm applying for placements in a hospital lab, but have only previously worked in research labs. What kind of tests do you run in a standard hospital lab, and using what techniques?
I know it'll be a mix of hematology, biochemistry and microbiology but specifically what procedures (PCR, western blotting, IHC, etc)?
Thanks for the input 8)
my mum used to.... if she got the job... you'll be fine!! hope you're looking forward to the sh1t and sperm samples 😆
I work in histology
It's what I live for 😆
I should have said that I wanted to know what kind of thing goes on so I can write my useful skills on my CV. At the moment I use a bunch of complex 'research' techniques that would be useless in a hospital, so tailoring my CV to suit the kind of work that will be going on would be a plus.
I think the answer is 'it depends'. Larger labs have separate departments for each discipline - microbiology, haematology, biochemistry. Sounds like you're in a combined lab. Depends on what machines they've got. My Mrs does metabolic work for a pretty wide catchment area, so more specialised. She'll do a lot different stuff to a general lab. Just tell em how great you are at picking up new SOPs if you haven't got the exact skills.
Cheers stever. I [i]probably do[/i] have the skills, just applied in a different setting. So I do a lot of PCR, but never in a clinical setting (same technique applied to a different problem). I also routinely do a lot of metabolism stuff, but that's pretty general/vague and I don't know exactly what techniques are in use day-to-day in a hospital lab, so how well my skills would transfer.
Basically I could list a million and 1 things I'm good at, but I might as well only put down the things they're going to care about.
Don't *think* they're generally overrun with quality applicants, so if you think you're good...
🙂
I've worked in two different ones, and even though they were relatively small clinical biochem and Haematology (and histology and microbiology for that matter) were all separate.
Expect to do lots of U&Es, LFT, FT4, TSH etc for a fair part of your day, maybe with a fecal fat to liven things up. I was really looking forward to doing proper work at a real hospital when I got a placement, until I realised that the proper work was spinning down blood and putting serum in a machine.
Yay, go me.
At least I managed to make thyroid analysis my own little world that time.
if it's NHS, good luck we currently have 5 vacancies but can't afford to recruit 🙁
Mym mum worked in a hospital lab, they had a big whirlyjig to make blood go into red stuff and see through yellowy stuff. Does that help?
Hi roblerner. If you have PCR experience then you want to apply to Genetics or CytoGenetics lab. I work in these fields. PM and I can send you details.
Nice one, that's the kind of info I was after (and I can use a centrifuge, woop!). How about the hematology side, after spinning down blood samples? Any mounting, staining and analysing blood (and tissue?) samples?willard
tonyg2003
Thanks for the offer tonyg2003. I'm applying for voluntary placements in Africa - part teaching and part lab work. The plan is to go and do a postdoc/fellowship after a couple of years out. We do some mouse genetics in the lab I'm in now (just submitting my PhD thesis) so I'll go back into something similar 8)
Thanks all
maybe with a fecal fat to liven things up
Were you paraphrasing Chaucer with that quote?