[Histonet] Switching from hospital histo to Research

[Beckham, Sharon]

Hi Carol,
I made a switch from clinical to research 2 years ago after having
worked in clinical for about 35 years.  There is quite an adjustment.
Emotionally, I was very connected to the patients and putting out the
best work at the best TAT possible (I did all the IHC for a large
hospital system).  There was a lot of stress, but also a large amount of
job satisfaction.  Coming over to the "other side" was very difficult
for me.  In many ways, the stress level is much less in research. And,
for quite a while you really feel like you were not the great tech that
you had always considered yourself to be.  Research ends up being much
more challanging than anything you've ever done before. Even something
as simple as cutting blocks can be overwhelming.  The methods that work
for you one day may not work the next.  Also, immunos can be very
challanging.  Something else you do a lot of is cutting serial sections
on paraffin and cryo sometimes on tiny mouse or chick embryos that you
can't even see with the middle aged eyes. You learn something new
everyday and that can be very rewarding.  Another nice thing is no
weekends and normal working hours and you most likely won't have the
strict dress code that you do in hospital settings.  It's a different
world, but that is not necessarily a bad thing.  I have come to love my
job and hoping that learning something new all the time will help me
stay young and focused.  Hope this helps you out a little.  Good luck to
you.
   Sharon

   

-----Original Message-----
From: histonet-bounces <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu
[mailto:histonet-bounces <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu] On Behalf Of Carol
Wilson
Sent: Monday, May 14, 2007 11:05 AM
To: histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu
Subject: [Histonet] Switching from hospital histo to Research


Hi All,
  I'm contemplating making a switch from a routine hospital histology
department to supervising a pharmaceutical research histology dept.
working with mostly rodent tissue.  Any opinions, suggestions, or
resources anyone would like to contribute would be greatly appreciated.
It seems like a much less stress level than a hospital is at times,.....
so what am I missing or not thinking about as far as the "problems" in
this type of histology?
  Thanks in advance,
  Carol  

       
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