Off the Bench

Much ado about Point of Care

Host Galina Dronova sits down with Tori Nemitz and Dean Derhaag to talk about the crucial role and "a day in the life" of Point of Care specialists as the extroverted faces of the lab. Learn about wins, challenges, and their thoughts on nurses performing complex lab testing. 

Through the Looking Glass: A Conversation of Two Labs

Join host Sophia Chandrasekar and guest Danielle Adank, MS, graduate student at Vanderbilt University, as they discuss the differences and similarities of a medical research laboratory vs a medical/clinical laboratory. The two also discuss the importance of seeing women and women-identifying people in STEM on social media, especially in traditionally male dominated scientific spaces. Follow Danielle on Instagram at @femme_in_stem.

Legislative Updates for Medical Laboratory Professionals with Jim Flanigan, ASCLS EVP

Hosts Galina Dronova and Sophia Chandrasekar talk with ASCLS Executive Vice President Jim Flanigan about one of the most action-packed years for medical laboratory advocacy (aka, Labvocacy). Recent activities they discuss are:
The Verifying Accurate Leading-edge IVCT Development (VALID) Act
CMS proposed regulation to allow individuals with a bachelor’s degree in nursing as a qualifying degree for high complexity testing personnel without additional training or experience
CMS proposed rule interpretation making a Doctor of Clinical Laboratory Science (DCLS) eligible for high complexity laboratory director
The new Saving Access to Laboratory Services (SALSA) Act, which would fix the worst elements of PAMA that led to disastrous cuts to laboratory reimbursements
This episode encourages you to get engaged and #Labvocate! You have the power and ability to make your voice heard. https://ascls.org/

A Conversation with Laboratory Story Teller: Dr. Alan H.B. Wu, Part 2

Join host Sophia Chandrasekar as she explores Dr. Alan H.B. Wu's mind to find out about his speculative science fiction lab novel, Mind Portal, and learn about speculative fiction, the creative process for the book, preparing it for a movie, and just talking about the impact that the lab had, and has. Dr. Wu is a professor of laboratory medicine at the University of California at San Francisco.

A Conversation with Laboratory Story Teller: Dr. Alan H.B. Wu, Part 1

Join hosts Galina Dronova and Sophia Chandrasekar as they speak with Dr. Alan H.B. Wu, chief of the clinical chemistry and toxicology laboratories at San Francisco General Hospital, regarding his efforts of bringing the clinical laboratory to the public spotlight using books, television series, and a movie. 
Read the books: Alanhbwu.com
Find out more about the TV series: LAB DIRECTOR AND AUTHOR TO CREATE TV SERIES HIGHLIGHTING THE ‘UNSUNG HEROES’ OF THE MEDICAL FIELD

Networking with Homework

To prepare for the 2022 ASCLS, AGT & SAFMLS Joint Annual Meeting, which is taking place June 26-30 in Grand Rapids, MI, host Sophia Chandrasekar and fellow medical laboratory professional Mackenzie Edwards talk about networking, including tips for introverts.

Rethinking Laboratory Medicine Education

Have you ever sat in a lecture and tried your best to hide that you're gently dosing off? Do you shudder at the thought of having to remember to coagulation cascade? In this episode, hosts Galina Dronova and Justin Hanenberg discuss how we can transform laboratory medicine education, whether in the classroom or on the bench, from procedural knowledge to conceptual. With our guest experts, Dr. Justin Kreuter and Theresa Malin, MEd, MLS(ASCP)CM, we flip the script from creating short term memory retention to a story of meaning.
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References
Brown, P., Roediger, H. McDaniel, M. (2014) Make it stick. The science of successful learning. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Cutrer, W. B., Miller, B., Pusic, M. V., Mejicano, G., Mangrulkar, R. S., Gruppen, L. D., Hawkins, R. E., Skochelak, S. E., & Moore, D. E. (2017). Fostering the development of master adaptive learners: A conceptual model to guide skill acquisition in medical education. Academic Medicine, 92(1), 70-75. DOI: 10.1097/ACM.0000000000001323
Cutrer, W. B., Atkinson, H. G., Friedman, E., Deiorio, N., Gruppen, L. D., Dekhtyar, M., Pusic. M. (2018). Exploring the characteristics and context that allow Master Adaptive Learners to thrive. Medical Teacher, 40(8), 791-796. DOI: 10.1080/0142159X.2018.1484560
Six Strategies for Effective Learning. The Learning Scientists. https://www.learningscientists.org/downloadable-materials

Back to the Lab!

To celebrate Medical Laboratory Professionals Week, Off the Bench hosts Galina, Justin, and Sophia speak to Pat Jones, recently retired medical laboratory professional, and reflect on written responses from additional new retirees Janice Conway-Klassesen, Deb Rodahl, and Charlie Weinzierl. They take a journey through the lab of yesteryears, as well as what the lab might look like in the future. All four sages give advice to all future and upcoming laboratorians included in the description below:
Janice Conway-Klassesen
Keep your eyes open for opportunities. Many laboratory practitioners are down on the profession due to the lack of recognition. But I believe that if you do not feel valued where you are, it is up to you to change that. You can work the bench for your whole career and feel very valued and fulfilled if you are in the right place. Or you can seize those little opportunities that present themselves and choose a different professional path. Like any other degree, you can use your laboratory education in a variety of different careers. Make your own career.
Pat Jones
Keep in mind that there is a person represented by the test you are performing. This provides motivation for consistent, high-quality work.
Keep learning. Scientific knowledge is always expanding, and learning new things keeps you interested and interesting. Being current facilitates pertinent conversations within the broader medical community.
Think outside the box. Laboratory medicine gives you great skills that are transferable to quality assurance, pharmaceuticals, biotech, management, etc.
Deb Rodahl
I always loved the laboratory because it represented a combination of science and technology. I think for the upcoming generations the same will be true, but as with anything, you get out of your career what you put into it.
Be active in a professional organization and understand that is how you will continue to learn and grow – you never know where this path will take you!
Don’t isolate yourself in the laboratory, you need to interact with all the other healthcare team members.
Remember your team is the entire health care team – you are all working to improve the lives of the patients we serve.
Speak up and provide input – don’t wait for others to do it for you.
Look for things to improve.
Don’t be the person who wants things to “stay the same”; the world is continually changing/evolving and we need keep up or initiate the change.
Charlie Weinzierl
Hospital labs comprised half of my career. Reference laboratories another quarter. And the final quarter was in a Fortune 500 company that manufacturers and sells products to clinical laboratories. If you want to eventually move from the bench into supervision or management, you may want to volunteer for special projects as they come along. Better yet, make it known to your superiors that you welcome a challenge. Identifying problems in your workplace is helpful to enlightened leaders, and they love it when you have carefully thought of some possible avenues where solutions may be found.

Recalibration - Lab Personality Quizzes

In this silly and fun recalibration episode, hosts Sophia Chandrasekar, Galina Dronova, and Justin Hanenberg take lab-related personality quizzes. Find out their results, and take the tests for yourself:
Which Piece of Lab Equipment Are You? https://www.scinote.net/piece-lab-equipment-hilarious-quiz/
Which Immune Cell Are You? https://www.stemcell.com/virtual-conference-exhibition/immunology/immune-cell-quiz
Pick Seven Random Things And We'll Guess Your Blood Type https://www.buzzfeed.com/bananabunny/can-we-guess-your-blood-type-based-on-your-prefere-315qx 

Signing Out of 2021

Hosts Sophia Chandrasekar and Galina Dronova end the year with a re-cap of the best of the 2021 and a look forward to what's coming in early 2022.