LisaM

Thanks and I look forward to educating myself! And I'm not shy at all--LOL. I'm a well seasoned poster over at nin.com, hence my avatar, where I go for mindless fun and laughs in the forums there, but this place will be very good for me to use as a resource as I'd like to eventually consider the possiblility of doing Blood Bank exclusively. Sometimes you just need a change of scenery to keep your job interesting and remind you that you really do still love what you do. I've felt for a few years now that some changes would be coming along for my future, but couldn't pinpoint what exactly, but as time unfolds, I see a little more, and it looks like Blood Bank may be playing a major role in where I'll end up for the next phase of my life. So I'm going to run with that thought and see where I end up and in the meantime, it can't hurt to refresh my memory! Here I am over at nin: http://member.nin.com/profile/view?user_id=172733

We use a combination of gel and tube testing where I work, and we're also in the process of training new-hires as well as retraining exsisting techs, and the procedure manuals need a good overhaul, so there's a lot of work to be done. I've volunteered to work on the manuals because I'm good at writing procedures and that will help me tremendously to get more comfortable in the Blood Bank, by actually writing them in a dummy-approach, step by step, me being the "dummy" LOL! Maybe once that occurs, I'll stop referring to the Blood Bank doorway as the "Portal to Hell", and the coat closet as "Lisa's Cry Room" !! LOL LOL! Seriously, though, I do know that it takes time and practice, but I also feel that you almost need a dedicated staff in the Blood Bank as your institution takes on more work--"floaters" and Per Diems who don't get in there on a regular basis are harder to sufficiently train, and that's what I'm finding with myself--I have many other responsibilities in the lab that I must attend to along with Blood Bank and I'm a good multitasker, but I just need to find a way to re-balance my job responsibilities. So for now, I study Blood Bank reading material during the day in between the rest of life, while my daughter is in school, and I work at night!

Thanks, Donna! I'm getting there, slowly but surely. I've been getting training here and there over the past year and a half, by basically just going into the department and doing the work, but it's difficult where I work second shift and must rotate around the lab. I have picked up knowledge as I go along, and I'm the type where I learn best by actually writing a procedure for how to do something--that way I can research it and make a step-by-step that "clicks" in my mind. We're taking on more blood bank samples where I work, to the point of it almost being like a mini-reference lab, and some of the patients we have now are very tough cases. I'm comfortable with the straightforward, basic stuff, but what I need most is knowledge on those hard cases that present with multiple antibodies and things that are difficult to resolve. --Actually, it's almost laughable that those sorts of cases haunt me a bit, and I swear those particular patients sneak in and check the schedule to see when I'm working so they can plan their emergency blood needs for when I'm there--LOL!

^^Thanks Malcom and Adie! The book I have is Denise Harmening's, which is also the updated version of the one I had in college back in the late 1980's. I'll definately check out the info on this site, too. I did find another site, about a year ago: www.bbguy.org which has some quizzes on it and other good info, but I really need to crack down at this point in my career and re-gain all the knowledge that I haven't used in years!

Hello everyone, I'm new to this forum and I'll take all the advice you may have to offer! LOL Basically, I've been refreshing my Blood Bank knowledge by on-the-job training, after not having worked in that department for nearly 20 years--aka--"flying by the seat of my pants". I've been primarily a Chemistry/Lab Safety Tech for most of my career, but as times change, so do job requirements, hence my Blood Bank rotation. I used to be very good in Blood Bank, but I need to dust off the brain cells a bit, and I even bought a textbook to do some reading, so if you have any suggestions, advice, good things for me to read, etc.--feel free to pass them my way! Thanks and in advance, nice to meet all of you!