How a Histotechnologist Does a Gram Stain
The following video shows a histotechnologist doing a gram stain. This is just one type of slide preparation that a histotechnologist may use.
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All About Being a Histotechnologist – Part One
Histology is the study of examining the microscopic anatomy of cells within a slide under a light microscope or an electron microscope. The tissue in the slides is much easier for to examine when it is stained with histological stains. Histotechnologists prepare slides and stain them so the cells within can be more easily seen. There are many different ways that a slide can be prepared, but some of the main steps are usually the same.
There are several steps that must be completed before a tissue sample can be stained. First, a histotechnologist must use fixatives to keep the tissue from degrading and to maintain the cell structures and their organelles. The most used fixative a histotechnologist uses for light microscopy is 10% neutral buffered formalin, which is formaldehyde in saline. For electron microscopy the most common fixative a histotechnologist uses is glutaraldehyde. These fixatives work by cross linking proteins in the cells.
Tissue must be supported in a hard matrix by a histotechnologist so that thin section can be cut out of it. The first step a histotechnologist must follow is to remove the water from the tissue. A histotechnologist does this by bathing the tissue in ethanol. Next, the alcohol must be removed using xylene. Then, paraffin wax is used to replace the xylene. However, paraffin wax isn’t hard enough to allow for the cutting of thin slices with electron microscopy, so resins are used in those cases.
Check back soon for part two of this blog.
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Reasons that Cytotechnologists Enjoy the Field
This video features cytotechnologists talking about why they enjoy cytotechnology and what drew them into the field in the first place.
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Pap Smear Test that a Cytotechnologist Would Perform
Here is an interesting video showing how a cytotechnologist would analyze a pap smear.
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Pros and Cons of being a Cytotechnologist – Part Two
This blog is continued from the previous blog.
Continuing on from the previous blog these are more positive aspects to being a cytotechnologist. A job as a cytotechnologist can help many to feel that they are making a difference in the lives of others. Cytotechnologists are part of the healthcare system, and can help improve healthcare for others. A cytotechnologist can have input into the way they do their jobs, something that certainly many employees of other fields do that feel that they have.
There are also several cons to being a cytotechnologist, as there are to any profession. Cytotechnologists often feel that they are not respected by the physicians who rely on the tests that the cytotechnologists perform. Cytotechnologists also don’t get much recognition from patients, the physicians are the ones interacting with the patients and getting most of the respect. On the other hand, when patients are unhappy with their health care, physicians are the ones who often get blamed, so cytotechnologists can enjoy their relative anonymity in those circumstances. Many cytotechnologists do not feel that they are paid enough relative to what others in the health care profession are paid. Being a cytotechnologist can sometimes be stressful when too high of a work load is placed on the shoulders of one person. When a cytotechnologist has too much work to do, they often aren’t able to complete each test with the amount of care that they would like.
All in all, being a cytotechnologist can be a rewarding career for many, although, like with any profession, those who choose to go into the field should research it adequately so they know what they are getting into.
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Pros and Cons of being a Cytotechnologist – Part One
There are good and bad things about any job, cytotechnologist included. This blog will focus on these good and bad points of a job as a cytotechnologist. It can be helpful to reconsider the pros and cons if you are a practicing cytotechnologist, to help you realize why you went into the career of cytotechnologist in the first place. It can be helpful to consider the plusses and minuses also if you are considering a career as a cytotechnologist and are gathering information.
The main reasons that people seem to choose to become a cytotechnologist are part of the pros of the job. Cytotechnologists usually are people who like to help other people. A cytotechnologist is often one who has a natural ability in and affinity for biology and chemistry. The fact that healthcare generally offers stable employment is another thing that might draw one to be a cytotechnologist. Sometimes someone might become a cytotechnologist as an alternative to becoming a physician, pharmacist, or physical therapist if they can’t get into those programs. Those who enjoy working with their hands may find the profession of a cytotechnologist to be appealing. Sometimes the job of cytotechnologist is recommended to people by those who love it for the above reasons or those reasons to come later in this blog. Being a cytotechnologist can also be appealing for those who want to be in the medical field, but who don’t want to work directly with patients.
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An Overview of the Medical Technologist Profession
This video is a quick overview of the medical technologist profession.
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Medical Technologists in Action
Here is another video that shows what medical technologists do each day.
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About being a Medical Laboratory Technician
This is a video that talks about being a medical laboratory technician. I thought it might be nice to actually see a few medical laboratory technicians in action instead of just reading my writing about them.
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The Benefits a Medical Laboratory Technician May See from Automated Urinalysis
Urinalysis can be quite time consuming for medical laboratory technicians. Although some labs have begun automating urinalysis, many medical laboratory technicians are still doing confirmatory tests and microscopy by hand. Those medical laboratory technologists know how much time doing urinalysis by hand can take and how it can swamp a whole laboratory.
Many laboratories don’t have enough resources to have one medial laboratory technician on staff solely for doing urinalysis. As a result, medical laboratory technicians doing other things would be forced to put those tasks on hold to finish the urinalyses.
Automating urinalysis allows a laboratory to keep on the same number of medical laboratory technicians while being able to perform even more urinalysis. Urinalysis technology can be pricey, but medical laboratory technicians are seeing that the technology has gotten much better and cheaper in recent years. Automated urinalysis is also better quality than manual urinalysis done by medical laboratory technicians. Not because medical laboratory technicians don’t do a great job, but because the urinalysis machines are able to take 500 photos of each specimen, compared to the 10-15 that medical laboratory technicians are able to take when manually doing the urinalysis. Another benefit to automation is that results can actually be reported without the involvement of a medical laboratory technician. This can be done if a medical laboratory technician enters a few parameters into the machine before the specimen in analyzed.
The benefits seem clear to automating urinalysis. Once the hurdle of the high cost of a machine can be cleared, a medical laboratory technician should see the lab they work for prosper as a result of automation.
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Atwell, Jim (January 28, 2008) Knocking Down Inefficiency With Automated Urinalysis. Advance for Medical Laboratory Professionals, page 33-35.
