After 6 months of my medical technology program, I think I have figured out which departments I would rather work in. By far, my first choice is the tissue typing or HLA lab. I spent a day there during symposium week at Strong Hospital, and it was fascinating. In the HLA lab, specialist medical technologists work to identify the human leukocyte antigens (HLA) present in a patient. These antigens are what determines what tissue type they have, which is they type they can receive for an organ transplant. The other end of their work involves typing possible donors, usually near death, to determine who can receive their organs. As specialists, they have much more autonomy and can interpret results to surgeons, the organ procurement teams, and other individuals. The lab is staffed during the day 5 days a week and on an on-call basis, with one tech being on call at any given time. Many donors are individuals who are on life support and whose families have decided to take them off. The next steps are to type the individual and to work out a time for the organs to be removed from the donor. This is decided by the surgeons and organ procurement team and is usually done at night as that is when operating rooms are available. Organs must be transplanted shortly after removal, so this means that when a tech is called in, it is usually at night and they must work quickly and efficiently. I feel that this work would be massively rewarding as what you do would have a massive impact on the lives of many, many people; it would also be very intellectually stimulating. The only stumbling block is the lack of open positions; it is unlikely that one will be available when I am looking to apply for jobs since not many hospitals have this department; strong is the only local one with it. Nevertheless, I hope to be able to work in an HLA lab in the future.
I think my next choice for where to work would be blood bank, again at Strong. In blood bank, techs type patients and then test units of blood products to ensure that the patient can receive that unit safely. There is a lot of immunology and complex interactions that go into this, which makes the work interesting and investigative in nature. The work is far more involved than it appears on the surface and, like the HLA lab, the work has an immediate impact on many people. The issue with blood bank is the fact that new techs start out on the night shift, and then move to the evening shift, and finally the day shift, meaning that it would be at least several years till I was working at a "normal" time.
Roughly in order of preference, the other sections of the lab that I might end up working in in the Rochester area (at either Rochester General or Strong) are microbiology, advanced coagulation, hematology,
histology, and chemistry. To be honest, I probably would not enjoy the last two very much, but it is highly unlikely that I would have to work there.
Another option that I am considering is working as a generalist at a smaller community hospital, like Clifton Springs. The variety of the work would be interesting and there certainly is appeal to working in a small hospital where you get to know everyone, but there are drawbacks as well. One is that there aren't specialty areas; the only sections at smaller hospitals are usually chemistry, hematology, microbiology, and blood bank. The other - and possibly more important - one is financial concerns, both in terms of pay and the long-term stability of the hospital as many small hospitals are facing very uncertain futures.
If I could pick any department to work in, it would be the HLA lab, but I would enjoy working in many of the other departments as well. Only time will tell what is available and what will happen, but I'm hoping to be able to get into an HLA lab as soon as I can.
