As my placement at the clinic comes to an end, so does this very short series of “Placement Diaries”. I apologize for not doing weekly updates, it was tough to keep up with everything I was learning and the day-to-day things we do in the clinic. I managed to write what I learned during my second week, so that’s something!
In this blog post follow me on my journey through my second week of placement as well as my overall experience at the clinic!
Week 2
Day 1: All by myself
Today’s as the first day alone at placement since my classmate finished her hours. Gotta admit I miss having her around since it was really nice talking to her.
Within the first hour of being there I performed four blood draws!!! It was my first time poking someone in months so I was really nervous, but I knew I could do it. I was able to get blood the first time with all four patients! I was really proud of myself.
When I wasn’t doing phlebotomy I centrifuged tubes and got specimens ready to be delivered to the lab. I cleaned some instruments so that they could be autoclave the next day, and I also autoclave some other instruments that had been cleaned the previous day. I also stocked up some areas, screened patients, and disinfected rooms so that they can be ready for the next patient.
Two hours into my shift there were no more patients since the walk-in doctor was only taking phone calls. So it was pretty much dead and I didn’t have much to do besides checking the autoclave. So I ended up leaving three hours early (I’ll be making up for those hours later in the month).
One highlight of this day: the clinic manager asked me if I was thinking of working in a clinic once I’m done my placement. I said that I was open to it since I’m not very picky. She then told me that I was really good and that they’ll be teaching more things around the clinic so that I would be able to be a clinical assistant. Essentially I would be able to take phone calls, triage patients, and know how to operate the computer systems more!
Day 2: Busy busy busy
Oh boi it was pretty busy in the afternoon! I got another six blood draws in. One of which was interesting since the person told us that he gets dizzy sometimes after blood draws. So the nurse had him lay down on one of the beds that we have and I did phlebotomy while he was laying down! Good thing we did have him lay down since he did feel a bit light headed afterwards. That was pretty interesting.
I spent most of the day calling patients into the clinic and disinfecting rooms. I was able to do two rounds of autoclaving, tho I feel bad that I wasn’t there to stop the alarm when it finished (I’m assuming one of the nurses turned it off both times, I did not hear it go off at any point).
Day 3: Kits
Only did one blood draw today which is fine cause I didn’t really feel up to it today (there were two in total during my shift). I learned how to put together the pap kits and the stool collection kits, so that was cool!
I also learned that the fax machine can do more than 50 numbers at once. Before we thought it can do only one at a time, then we thought it could do 10 at once, and then today I just kept going until 50. It can probably do more than 50. We shall see.
Day 4 & 5
Day 4 highlight: went up front to reception area and watched the nurses and receptionists do their jobs. I mostly just watched as they answered phone calls and do tasks on the computer using Accuro EMR.
Day 5 highlight: stayed up front majority of the shift and learned how to file scanned and faxed documents away on Accuro.
Beyond
As the weeks went on, I became more comfortable with the tasks given to me, performing phlebotomy, and learning new skills such as triaging patients. My days usually consist of:
- Autoclaving
- Checking the autoclave room to see if there are any new instruments that need to be sterilize.
- When there are instruments, I prepare them to be sterilized and then autoclave them
- Doing control testing using biological indicators to ensure that the autoclave is in proper working order
- Lab work
- Performing phlebotomy(blood draws) is one of the main things I do at the clinic. The amount of patients varies everyday since the clinic doesn’t have a full lab; some days there would be a lot of blood work to do, while others there are only be two or three. We would centrifuge the tubes (specifically SST tubes) when needed.
- Urine dipsticks is another aspect of lab work I do to check for anything abnormal. We tend to do them for those with suspected UTIs and for those doing physicals.
- Pregnancy tests are done on occasion, but these are not done as much
- Patients
- Screening patients for COVID-19 symptoms and asking additional questions when necessary
- Disinfecting patient rooms and getting them ready for the next patient
- Triaging patients and documenting
- I’m starting to do some of the physicals for the patients. So far I’ve helped the nurses in checking the patients urine, doing their height and weight, and soon enough I’ll be checking blood pressure and using the pulse oximeter.
- Specimen handling
- It’s incredibly important to handle all specimens with care, ensure the correct specimen is with the correct patient and their requisition, and to label and store the specimens correctly.
- In addition to blood work and urine specimens that need to be labeled, there are Pap smear specimens from the family physicians and biopsy specimens from the dermatologist that need to be labelled and stored properly to be sent of the external labs.
- Kit preparations
- When the stock is low, I prepare Pap smear kits and stool kits so that they’re ready to be used for the physicians and the patients.
- Other tasks include
- Placing shipments away
- Faxing documents
- Filing scanned documents away on Accuro (the EMR system we use at the clinic) and helping receptionists
- Helping the two other students at the clinic (both are lab tech students who started two and three weeks after I did)
As of writing this post, I have less than a week left at the clinic, and I have been offered a job as a clinical assistant/ lab tech at this clinic! I’m not sure how long I will be staying at the clinic, but I’m overall so excited to be starting my career and gaining experience surrounded by such amazing people.
I’m incredibly grateful to be placed at a clinic where everyone is so nice and helpful. I’ve learned so much during my time here and have gained confidence in my skills as an MLA/T. I honestly couldn’t have asked for a better clinic to be placed at <3.
Noemi’s Corner 
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