[Histonet] Should I leave histology world

[Lee & Peggy Wenk]

You didn't mention what your current cutting speed is, nor what speed they 
want you to be at.

Ask your supervisor to set up goals for you to meet, with time frames. Each 
week, work on getting faster, not fast today, just faster each week.

At the School where I taught, we had goals set up during the time the 
students were learning, and also time when they were doing their histology 
lab rotation. When they were learning in the School, they would microtome 
1-3 times a week for the first 2 months, and nearly daily the last 2 months, 
about 2 hours a day (for total of 120+ hours microtoming before their 
histology rotation). The first couple of months, emphasis was on quality, 
and then it shifted to quantity (speed) and quality. Every 4-6 weeks, they 
were reassessed as to whether they were meeting quality and quantity (speed) 
goals.

When they did their 1 month rotation through histology lab, they were full 
time in the lab, and microtomed about 2-3 hours a day (total about an 
additional 100 hours microtoming). They were expected to keep the quality 
up, and still improve their quantity (speed). When they graduated, no, they 
were not as fast as experienced techs, but they were close.

At any time (school or rotations), if they didn't measure up to the goals, 
they knew they had to repeat the evaluation and/or rotation. If they still 
could not meet the goals, they would be let go from the program. So they had 
to pass the academic part (tests for what they know) as well as psychomotor 
(DOING the sectioning, staining, embedding, etc.), and the affective 
(showing up on time, getting along with people, willing to volunteer, etc.).

This is the same as any histotech job. There are goals (quality and quantity 
(speed)) that everyone must be able to meet. You have been microtoming at 
your second job for 2 months, 8 hours a day, and 2-3 hours a day since April 
(up to 2 months) at your current job. That's about 400 hours of microtoming 
while at jobs. At this point, you should have quality down pat, and should 
be able to concentrate on speed.

So have your supervisor set specific speed goals and dates, and then you use 
those time intervals to keep improving your speed. Have your supervisor 
watch you, and see where you are being slowed down by unnecessary movements. 
And if you are the only histotech responding to the data entry person, then 
explain it to your supervisor, and get that responsibility on a rotating 
basis amongst all of you.

Peggy Wenk HTL (ASCP) SLS


-----Original Message----- 
From: Alpha Histotech
Sent: Tuesday, June 03, 2014 4:34 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.

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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