Having decided to continue on with my career, post-retirement, as a traveling temporary microbiology fill-in, I am now freezing my tail off in the northernmost city in Alaska. Why, you might ask, am I doing this? Because I can and I'm having the time of my life. So there! During my nonworking hours and because there isn't much else to do around here, I've had plenty of time to think about some of the things that really bug me:
- People who answer the telephone without giving you a name. It wastes time when you have to ask for it.
- Receiving a urine specimen in a biobag where the cap isn't screwed on tight.
- How many labs report out the actual minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) “number” along with the interpretation on susceptibility reports? Such as: 2 = susceptible or 32 = moderately susceptible or 8 = susceptible? And then ask yourself how many times a nurse or provider thought the lowest number meant the best choice?
- High blood culture contamination rates drawn by the ER staff. I know they're trying to help by pulling the first set off when they start the IV, but the site wasn't prepped.
- Peri-rectal abscess cultures! Come on! Fecal flora, anyone?
- A sales rep marinated in cologne.
- Surgeons who send you an amputated toe for culture.
- Referring to a patient by their bed number.
- Managers who cannot give praise.
- Supervisors who ask you to do a parasite exam on their dog's poop.
- Working as a temporary and having to do a blatantly wrong procedure and being told that I have no choice because it's the policy.
- I think the one that tops them all is the lab that actually bragged about being one of the first to find a vancomycin-resistant, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Then I found out that they routinely identify and report out, with susceptibilities no less, all Staphylococcus aureus isolates from throat cultures. Shame of them!
Okay, now that I got all that off my chest, I can go back to spotting for polar bears outside my bedroom window. Barrow is an awesome place, by the way.
—By Colleen K. Gannon, MT(AMT) HEW, Un-retired,
the “Nancy Grace” for labs
