Let me start this post by saying that I am operating under the assumption that I finish the program at Rochester General Hospital (RGH) and pass my ASCP certification test, which hopefully isn't too brash an assumption to make. I think that having a clear, definite goal in mind is very helpful when working through things, especially school. For me, the goal is to get a job at the Lipson Cancer Center, a division of RGH. While I think that any sort of work in the medical technology field would be very satisfying to me, I feel that working in a place like that would be particularly so. I feel like the work would be very fulfilling and that it would not get repetitious since treatment and detection methods are developing rapidly and will certainly continue to do so for the foreseeable future. I realize that it will require hard work to get there and that I may not be able to work there straight out of the program, but I hope that one day in the not-too-distant future I can work there. Below, I talk more about the cancer center.
The Lipson Cancer Center is affiliated with the prestigious Roswell Park Cancer Institute which is based out of Buffalo. Roswell is considered one of the top cancer treatment and research institutes in the world. There are two locations for the Lipson Cancer Center, one at the hospital itself, and then another office in a medical campus that is located in the southeastern suburbs of Rochester; it is at the second location that I most hope to work since it is located closer to my home. However, it is a smaller facility and does not deal with determining what type of cancer someone has, they only do treatment. That means that the lab will be smaller there, a possible issue in trying to secure a job. One factor that might play in my favor is they may be interested in training a younger tech there so that I would be able to work at that facility for a long time, as opposed to a more experienced tech who would not be able to work for as many years as I would. Only time will tell though.
I do not know the full nature of the work that would be done at a lab such as that, but I have a few things in mind that I am fairly certain would go on there. First, I am quite sure that hematology tests would be done before a patient receives treatment, in particular a CBC which can be used to determine the state of a person's immune system, among other things. A test like that is very important for someone undergoing chemotherapy as it would be counterproductive to treat a person too much and compromise their immune system to the point which they could not fight off any infections. Other tests that would likely be performed routinely are drug level tests to ensure that proper dosages of the drug are being administered to and received by the patient, metabolic panels to check the functioning of the patient's major systems, and, possibly, coagulation tests to see the effects of treatment on the person's blood. Also, flow cytometry and serology tests would likely be done to monitor specific aspects of their immune systems. Tests in those areas can also be useful in identifying tumors, although those tests would be done at the hospital instead of the satellite location. Hopefully, I will get to find out for myself what tests they do and help patients receiving treatment.
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