Aura V. @auravulpes@computerfairi.es

Today, I'm working an outpatient clinic instead of a hospital. If there's anything I've learned, it's that I don't think I'm cut out for outpatient. I'll do it, but aaaa is it not for me

Okay, I'm not sure what was better, him or the woman who insisted her mom stick around as long as possible on her discharge day so she could watch a show on a channel she didn't get at home. Those two were just great in general. Neither me nor the nurse in there could hold it together. Training never prepared me for this, and definitely not hearing a patient calling a person on TV a slut.

Yeah, we had a guy who, as we were leaving, told me "I think I know you from somewhere." After spending a minute trying to put it together, he went "I think we was in jail together." I had to hold it together. The last thing I was expecting to hear was that someone knew me from jail. After, the nurses in the hall asked if I'd been to jail. "No. No, I've not." My training never prepared me for this.

Also, yeah. Highlight of the day was definitely the histology guys. Find yourself a job that you get as excited about as they do theirs, because dang. If you aren't excitedly showing off what you do to everyone that comes in, is it really worth doing?

Also, hey, by the way, if you're a nurse sending samples to the lab, please label them correctly. If you don't know how, ask us. We had to trash a urine sample because it had absolutely zero info on it and had to call for extra info on a bunch more. Ugh.

Alright, good first day. Tried to stick two patients. Missed on, but I was close. The vacuum tube system nearly blew up, so that was fun. (It didn't nearly blow up, but it did break in a very noisy way.) Good day.

Highlight of today thus far: going over to the histology lab to say hi and having the histology guys excitedly show us how they do their job. That was really cool, if a bit icky. (One of them showed us a gallbladder.)

I've got orientation today at the hospital I'll be doing clinicals at. Figured I'd take the selfie now instead of at 02:00 tomorrow... (Yeah, 3 AM shift gonna suuuuuck...)

(Image CW: Selfie, eye contact)

If you need me to say more, I do also have an entire blog post on the subject:

https://aurav.neocities.org/blog_posts/blood_dono_psa

I didn't take a picture this time because I was too busy trying to keep the apheresis machine happy, but I gave blood today, so it's time for your periodic reminder that you should also be giving blood if you're able

Hot take: "pi day" and "star wars day" are two of the biggest arguments against the Month/Day/Year date format send toot

So, as part of the whole phlebotomy thing, I've studied a bit about lymphocytes, and I must say, this XKCD about lymphs is absolute 100% accurate 👌​

https://xkcd.com/2749/

My current hobby: harassing a scammer claiming to be a doctor over the fact they've revealed protected health information to me without signed authorization from the patient to do so, a blatant HIPAA violation.

And that doesn't surprise me. If I remember the phlebotomy 1 job openings their only requirements are customer service experience. Makes me wonder how much training they give those who come in with none when they're telling my classmates to forget their training. Seriously, like, that might just be the biggest revelation of this course: most outpatient phlebotomists likely have next to no training. Yikes.

Of course, then again, outpatient labs seem to be more than willing to take less than me. Some of my classmates are working at Labcorp and listening to them talk about their orientation, geez that makes me never want to go to Labcorp again. I'm honestly concerned that my classmates will be the most knowledgeable people at their clinical locations. That's not good.

One semester seemed like an awfully short time 8 weeks ago, and, it kinda is, but it kinda isn't?

Anyways, it's now time for me to head into a hospital and get even better. 8 weeks and they're already trusting me in a hospital. Not alone. I'll still have someone keeping an eye on me. But still. That feels weird, but not?

And, I mean, I'll only get better over the next 8 weeks as I gain more experience not just with doing venipuncture, but doing it on patients harder than my classmates and instructors. All in just 16 weeks. (Actually, probably less. 13 or so, really.) It feels weird knowing that. This seemed like such a complex thing, but...it's not? Like, it is, but it isn't. It's weird.