During my first day as a medical technology intern in the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center laboratory, I felt anxious and excited simultaneously, as I was going to experience what it was like to work in a laboratory. I kept thinking about the knowledge and experience that I lacked. This was my first affiliate hospital to work as an intern, so I had to do my best.
The sun was not yet risen that day when I woke up. My things were already prepared the night before, so I just cooked something for my lunch that I would bring, and I settled for bread and coffee for breakfast. The hospital is just less than a 20-minute walk from my boarding house. I was so excited that I arrived at the hospital an hour before the scheduled time, but only for a short while; my co-interns were arriving one by one, and 30 minutes before the scheduled time, two of our school's clinical instructors arrived, and introduced the medical technologist who was assigned to assist the interns. We did not have a chance to take a tour around the laboratory; Miss Nam just gave instructions and led the way at each assigned department per group.
My first department was blood banking. As we arrived at the department, the medical technologist on duty immediately introduced each type of machine and equipment they were using. She provided an overview of where the blood units are stored as well as all of the tests being performed. She also gave instructions and an orientation about the flow of what we were going to do from receiving until the release of the blood unit, then she gave each of us a task and we started working. We were so overwhelmed by our task that we forgot that it was already time for lunch. On our way to the locker room, we already imagine how chaotic the room is since all our teammates have been on duty since the first day, but the following days we will have a different duty schedule.
Even though we were already having our OJT, we still needed to find time to study, especially since we have didactics every Friday. There was a time I was on a night shift and brought a study note to my work area, thinking that since it was nighttime, it would not be that busy unlike during the day, but my work proved me wrong. I did not even get a chance to open it because there were lots of emergency releases of blood units and request after request. So, I decided not to bring my notes the following day.
At first, I was still confused by what I was doing and always asked if it was right because I knew even the tiniest details could have great consequences if you did them wrong. As time passed, I was able to adjust and have confidence in doing my task. As a result, my co-interns and MTODs had come to trust and depend on me.
Because of how busy the department is, we sometimes adjust our break time from the scheduled time or extend our duty time out for a few minutes because of a piled-up request or a large number of emergency blood unit releases. I enjoyed doing laboratory tasks, and it also helped me learn about and experience the routine work in the laboratory. I made mistakes on my tasks at times, but the MTODs were always there to guide me, and I learned from them and was able to apply my knowledge to avoid making more mistakes. And it is fun to make friends with other school interns and make memories together along the way.
Thank you, Hivers, for reading this far. Until my next blog!
Tere Jazel is charming, beautiful, and well-balanced. She is a person with extroverted, observant, feeling, and judging personality traits. She is attentive and people-focused and enjoys taking part in their social community. Her achievements are guided by decisive values, and she willingly offers guidance to others.
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