[Histonet] Should I leave histology world

Tue Jun 3 17:46:50 CDT 2014

Bill very well put and I agree with you. 

Sent from my iPhone

> On Jun 3, 2014, at 4:07 PM, WILLIAM DESALVO <wdesalvo.cac <@t> outlook.com> wrote:
> 
> Do not give up and try not to blame a process or someone else for your lack of developed skill at microtomy, but dedicate yourself to personal improvement. You have 6+ years invested in a career, and if your reasons for embarking on that career remain, then bear down and find a way to improve your microtomy technique. Work w/ a mentor, ask for help, demand helpful criticism, cut extra blocks after your scheduled work period and find a way to improve. If consistent and quality microtomy was as easy as it sounds, we would not have the shortage of technicians that exist. 
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> I look at your problem from another perspective, lack of training and competency standards. From your description, I do not think this is about quantity over quality, but one of functionality and commitment to excellence. I often hear from newly graduated students, I teach in a Histotechnology program, that they consider themselves trained and ready Histotechnologists and often expect to be highly paid without always being highly skilled. Unfortunately, new graduates are only beginners, or apprentices if you will, and must, as Felton states, work on their craftsmanship. Histotechnology has two sides, educational and functional, and the individual technicians must take responsibility for the functional side. The lab/company your work at to develop your skill is responsible for training and support. 
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> It is counter productive to resist metrics, they are hear to stay and they can be very useful. When metrics are properly used, quality and quantity are married together to develop the acceptable productivity level. Always remember that the ultimate judge of the slide quality is the person creating the slide. A pathologist may have a wide scale of acceptance, but only through a skilled technician can patient care be directly affected and the quality improved. The best path to process improvement in the Histology lab is through a trained, competent and skilled technologist/technician. Graduating from a NAACLS program is a start not the finish.     
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> Sent from Windows Mail
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> From: Nails, Felton
> Sent: ‎Tuesday‎, ‎June‎ ‎3‎, ‎2014 ‎2‎:‎00‎ ‎PM
> To: Alpha Histotech, histonet
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> I always tell my students if you can cut, you can get a job. It appears that you school did not properly prepare you for the demands of an average histology job.
> You need to take every opportunity to work on your craft and the major focus of histology is cutting. With 6 to 7 years of experience you are expected to know the basics and cutting is basic.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: histonet-bounces <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu [mailto:histonet-bounces <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu] On Behalf Of Alpha Histotech
> Sent: Tuesday, June 03, 2014 3:35 PM
> To: histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu
> Subject: [Histonet] Should I leave histology world
> 
> Hi everyone,
> 
> I wouldn't give too much detail information as the histology world is very small and everyone knows everyone.
> 
> I am in a dilemma. I have been a histotech (ASCP HT) for almost 6-7 yrs. I went to a NAACLS school and have a Associate in Science in Histology. In the 6-7 yrs I have changed jobs 3 times. All the jobs were graveyard shifts. The first place I worked for was Quest Diagnostics and I did a good 3 yrs. The other 2 places I won't mention and I currently still have a histology job. My problem is all the places I worked were factory style lab work and they all did derm work. In my career I really only embedded most of the time. I did occasional other stuff like special stains both by hand and using Dako Artisan and other things like cytology cytospin. But I never got to develop in cutting. My first job in quest..I maybe cutted one time for 2 or 3 weeks before they yanked me and put me back to embed. My 2nd job put me to cut the last 2 months (full 8hrs) I was working there. My current job I have been cutting since April 2014 ( but only 2-3hrs in the day and then I embed, I have been here now 1 yr, I was embedding most of the time before th cutting started). I was told by my director I need to speed up in cutting because corporate is asking why I am not increasing in speed. And if I don't speed up eventually then they will have to demote me to a lab aid and give me a pay cut. (where I work and the state I work in they have lab aids doing alot of stuff without being certified, it wasn't like that in the other state I am original from as you have to be state licensed and ascp) I sometimes laugh inside my head because before my director hired me I told him I don't have alot experience in cutting. 
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> Now everywhere I have gone...speed is the name of the game. They say they care about quality but in the end if you can't put up then you will be put out!  So I am just thinking I should just get out of histology world all together. Every where I have worked unfortunately have management who believe quantity over quality. OR Do you guys think I need more time cutting to develop speed? Beforehand I did need a little learning curve to cut and I have gotten through that now. It's just the speed that is killing me. And I also see if anyone at my work detours me for any reason like for example data entry person from front desk ask for missing gross dictation, then that lost time is very hard to recover as I am not soooo fast to recover. I feel I may have to become very rude(not help) with everyone I work around in order to stay glued to my seat when I am cutting my blocks. One thing I want to say also...until this day I never been written up for quality issues and I never lost any tissue while embedding. Embedding I am fast as most histotech (1 block a min or most times 30-45 secs 1 block) with proper embedding techniques demonstrated (tissue on same plane, tissue embedded with proper orientation and follow any other necessary embedding instructions. ) I just feel I haven't done my time in cutting as I did in embedding to become a fast cutter. I don't know if its because of working in a derm lab that management won't wait too long for you to develop like maybe a hospital lab may do. I was also thinking to find another histo job but not mention any of my experience so expectation won't be so high and I can get more time to develop. All of this also causes alot of stress and anxiety as it gets hard to coop with.  What do you guys think and how I should go about with this. I am also not limited to histology. I have expertise in 2 other major fields that I wont mention because I don't want to be identified.  I am also in my late 20's. Thanks for reading my post and I await your opinions as some of you all are veterans in the field of histology.
> 
> Thank you
> Alpha Histotech (ASCP HT)
> 
> 
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