SEVEN TIPS TO HELP YOU THRIVE IN LAB POSTINGS

Training programs for medical laboratory science graduate degrees requires that students learn a great deal of medical theory. But it also requires that they spend time in a clinical laboratory (usually of an attached university training hospital) gaining experience and developing hands-on skill for many of the tests conducted in that laboratory.

Experience in the laboratory however varies from one student to the other. For some, it’s a tolerable, rewarding learning experience with a little tinge of distress. For others it’s an experience filled with many difficulties—personal, interpersonal, academic, operational and formal difficulties. Still for some, time in the lab is a burning hell. Irrespective of what it could be, laboratory experience is never just an effortless pass time you cruise through without some friction, so much so that students think of their time in the lab as something to strive through at best, and at worst, something to survive.

However, if the following cues are taken, students will not just strive or survive as the case may be, he/she would thrive during their time in the lab.

1. Learn the theory.

Every clinical test is based on some principle on which and within which the test is valid. Learn these principles. Whether it’s why Gram organisms retain pink/purple colouration, or it’s why capillary blood clots when calcium-rabbit-brain-thromboplastin is added to it, learn it. If/when you do, it becomes easier for you to understand why the tests are conducted, why they are done in the way they are and probably how else they could or should be done, what to expect from a valid test result and even what the results imply. Scientists often stress that anyone, even illiterates, can learn to conduct the tests, but that knowledge of the test’s principles is what distinguishes a scientist from a non.

Moreover, students who know the principles will be better poised to answer impromptu questions from scientists or at least have an idea. And such students are usually offered more favours. So again, learn the theory.

To learn the theory, you would have to listen well in class and study what is taught well. Monica Cheesbrough’s District Laboratory Practice in Tropical Countries may also come in handy as an accompanying tool to help you understand better, the principles behind many of the tests conducted in the lab. Get it if you can manage.

2. Develop a good work ethic.

Be punctual to the lab; arrive before or exactly by resumption time, or at least arrive before the scientists do (whenever that may be). Be regular and present in the lab when you should, or at least ensure you are present when you are needed or asked after. Tender apologies when you cannot (or don’t want to) attend labs. And even when your reason for doing so is not justified, still leave a message. Do what is asked of you as well and as promptly as you can. Take the lab sessions seriously or at least pretend that you are. Never come off as nonchalant. Dress appropriately and do look good and presentable. Clean your work station before and after you’re done.

All of these help with creating a good reputation within and even outside the lab. Do all these, but take caution on being too agreeable to tasks given. You should be accorded tasks that are within your physical capacity, competency, and durational limitation as a student. Anything more than that may constitute an abuse. Do not bite off more than you can chew unless you enjoy wallowing in the valley of stress and you have nothing else you need to preserve your strength and sanity for (which obviously is not the case). Some scientists have a penchant for loaning too much work to particular students they consider reliable. If you don’t learn to say no (not bluntly of course; in a respectable manner), you will burn out. The other extreme is also possible. Some scientists never allow students they consider incompetent to work with them, even under supervision. If you find yourself in such a situation, you need to keep pushing for you to be allowed to do things even if you’re going to make mistakes. You must find your footing between these two extremes.

3. Develop a good relationship with scientists and seniors.

If you’re going to spend time with people in doing whatever activity, then you had better get well acquainted with them. In the lab, this becomes even more peculiar. Scientists and seniors are the ones who will guide you through your learning process, so building a relationship with them is something that cannot be overemphasized. S yes do so. Build a relationship of mutual respect and understanding. Give honour to them without losing your own self-respect. Do a couple of favours for them, even without being asked. Rapport and relate openly with them, but do so with some level of humility and caution.

I believe they on their part are ready to help you through your experience. Scientists for one owe it to you as a duty to help you in any reasonable way possible. They took an oath to that cause and are even paid to do so. But beyond the call of duty, if you develop a good relationship with them, they will be more than willing to assist you accordingly.

Also pay attention to the individual personalities of both seniors and scientists. Some are easier to approach than others, some are stricter, some keep more to themselves, and so on. Pay attention also to their style of teaching. Some would have you observe many operations before allowing you hands-on. Some others like to load students with lots of questions and assignments. Some prefer still to have lectures with students in the lab. Now, I say this because there’s a misconception that some scientists are “wicked”. I think not. You just have to study them well and work along the lines of your observations to be able to flow along well with them.

4. Stay curious

Curiosity is the wick to the candle of learning, someone says. And so if you wish to learn much in the lab, you have to stay curious. Ask intelligent and timely questions. Intelligent because you probably shouldn’t ask what you are expected to know before coming into the lab. Nevertheless, do not be afraid to ask questions, no matter how stupid they may seem at the moment. If every ‘stupid’ question were left unasked we all probably would still be in the Stone Age. Science has evolved precisely because of stupid questions. If we weren’t stupid enough we’d still hold the assumption that the sun moves round the earth, or more peculiarly that diseases were caused by an imbalance of body fluids which namely were blood, black bile, yellow bile and phlegm. Timely because you have to ask at the right time and situation. You probably shouldn’t ask the chemical pathologist what the range of glucose is in newborns when he is trying to dispense some milliliters of TCA into a CSF sample that is barely even enough for a protein check. After he just returns from lunch may be the better time to do so.

And ask questions because some scientists will not reveal some things unless you ask. Some do this deliberately as their style of teaching, but most times it’s because they didn’t remember to tell you or because they feel it may be too much information for you at once. So asking serves as a primer to accessing certain information.

Complete tasks and assignments given to you. Doing so helps to deepen and seal your knowledge on the particular topics assigned. Not all assignments/tasks are or should be taken as punishments. And even if they are, do them and do them well. After all, you’re the one who loses if you don’t, not the scientists/seniors.

Keep a lab note/journal where you record all that you learn in and in connection with the lab. Apart from the fact this this will help you put your learning together in a place were you can easily access when you need to retrieve certain pieces of information, it would serve as a useful resource for preparing for laboratory assessment, and practical and professional exams. You may even find it useful when you will be doing your internship and even when you start practicing professionally.

5. Allow yourself to be taught.

Students often make this mistake. It is one thing to be curious and so seek information, whereas it is entirely another thing to be properly disposed to accept/receive the information sought. It is one thing to ask a question, and another thing to listen to the answer given. The latter requires a lot of humility and openness. It requires one to be disposed to learn, unlearn and relearn, to assimilate new information or to accommodate them to previous data. It is not uncommon to find two scientist who are in the same unit, use different methodologies in conducting their test. Hence, you must be able to reconcile two seemingly disparate data or at least hold both as equally valid depending on whom you’re working with or in what situation you find yourself. Countering what scientist A says today with what Scientist B said yesterday may land you into trouble—scientist A may induce from that that you think she’s incompetent. Even if you have to, do so with a preamble and an ending clause that expresses your openness to new information, although I think its better not to at all.

Learn silence too. Even when you seem to know something, it is advisable that you only offer the information only when asked. And even when asked, resist the temptation to “lecture” the scientist/senior—keep your answers proportionate to the questions asked.

6. Stay safe

Carry out required laboratory precautions like using PPEs, maintaining good hand hygiene, following waste disposal procedures etc. And get vaccinated before entering the lab for the first time, especially against the viruses. This would prevent you from catching an infection. Your learning would be useless if you cannot put what you’ve learnt into practice as a professional because of some disease you acquired in from the lab.

7. Stay positive

It is true that laboratory time can be laborious, but it goes without saying that how we experience it to be depends to a good extent on what lenses we choose to look at it. “Is the cup half full or half empty?” goes that famous question. You can either choose to see a task as an effort to unnecessarily stress you out or as a test to prove your tenacity. In the same vein, you can choose to view your experience in the lab as something positive that helps you to become the successful professional you wish to be, or as a strife preventing you from making the best use of your time and effort. The happiest intern/senior I know of seemed to be always drowned with one thing or another to do in the lab, yet I never knew her to complain about wanting to quit them. She always seemed happy (she may not truly have been) about doing them all. What could be viewed as a punishment to one, to another, may be a challenge.