Hey guys! I’m three weeks deep in Level 3 and heading into week four. So what does the program look like from Level 3?
Well the first week back was hectic, just getting back into the swing of things. But now that I’ve settled in, it seems like more of a level-down than a level-up.
The biggest change in our schedule is that we have more labs, which means less lecture hours per week. This is good. Very good. It means we have more time to study the lecture material. And besides, labs are way more fun! We also have a few more free spots that we’ll be able to fit some studying into. It’s all adding up to a gentler semester.
Perhaps you’re wondering what’s new and different in our labs this semester? The short answer is. . . lots!
In Microbiology, we are now being introduced to the whole process of working up specimens – from receiving the specimen to reporting — which is fantastic. Last semester was spent focusing on how to identify several common isolates in the lab, but now we’re learning more about what bugs infect specific body sites, which informs how to set up the specimen when it arrives in the lab. We are also learning more about antimicrobial susceptibility testing. Labs feel much more complete, and although they are super fast-paced, it’s no big deal because we were well prepared in Level 2. Now it’s just putting together all the pieces!
In Transfusion Science, we now have four-hour labs because we’re learning more about how to identify special antibodies, which takes f-o-r-e-v-e-r. Last semester we learned the basics of testing blood for antigens and antibodies, but we were only introduced briefly to identifying less common antibodies. It’s a lot of fun though! We’ve learned a method of how to exclude antibodies, so there’s a new level of problem solving added to the mix.
Hematology is getting more interesting too. Last semester was devoted to learning what normal looks like, with a few non-malignant disorders thrown in. This semester we’ve been covering anemias so far, and soon we’ll be covering malignancies. Anemias are challenging, because we must now distinguish between cells that are normal sized and either large or small (just a small part of it, but the most difficult for me). It’s easy to lose sense of the scale of the cells.
Chemistry has been mostly the same as last semester, with a few new things thrown in; we’ve learned procedures for STATs and critical values. Soon we will get started on urinalysis, which I think will be super interesting.
The newest class we have this year is Histology. Last semester we had a class called Microanatomy that prepared us for Histology by teaching us to identify tissues microscopically. The labs did not include much in terms of hands-on work. Histology is much more practical, and super fun so far.
In the last few weeks in Histology we’ve learned tissue grossing (which must be named such because its – well – gross), which involved describing, measuring and cutting tissues. Then we learned how to embed them in wax and cut sections to be placed on slides (called microtomy). Microtomy is a whole new animal. It took me a while to get the hang of the motion, but once I did it was so satisfying to get a section onto the slides. Soon we’ll be learning about the special stains used to demonstrate certain components of tissues, which I’m probably most excited about.
We haven’t had a Molecular lab yet, so not much to say there. But this semester will be all dry labs, so that will be much different. What I know so far is that we will be focusing on how molecular diagnostics are used to diagnose some inherited diseases such as hemochromatosis and thalassemia.
In the next few weeks I’ll be taking a closer look at each class, so stay tuned!