Thanks to our Introduction to Medical Technology subject, we were able to see whats inside of Velez College Hospital Laboratory, where all the 3rd Years and Interns were having their practice hands-on but not all, since only the Licensed Medtech were allowed to do the procedures.
The environment was suffocating at first. Especially, a total of 46 students bulged in excitedly. And the place was really small. I say 'small' for a normal Medtech Fields Laboratory. And it smells too. I can also see frustrated, tired, no-sleep faces and the like on the students there.
The 3rd years & Interns welcomed us. They even served as our tour-guide. I was amazed cause they can really memorized everything there, from test tubes to complex-automated machine. But unlike other modern laboratory, like chong-hua in cebu, Velez Laboratory was not fully automated. I mean they haven't had more modernized expensive machinery.
Of all the many Med-tech Field I
visited, Clinical Chemistry Department got my attention. Not only that all
laboratories were fully air-conditioned but also the head of that department
scared me to death. The latter was a true story. I think she was irritated to
have us roaming around the lab. And when she somewhat got angry, the intern
helped us and we started the tour distant away from the department head wearing
a familiar look that we somewhat understood immediately.
But nevertheless, what really got
my attention in Clinical Chemistry department was when the intern started to
showed us everything. From test tubes to centrifuge to refrigerator to
state-of-the-art instrumentation. She first showed us that big machinery near
the department head; it was a BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIG Centrifuge machine. And unlike
the centrifuge we are using in the lab, it has different sizes and shapes which
also holds types of small-diameter test tube with cover. But we are not able to
look at it closely since the head was using it. Next, she showed us another
kind of centrifuge. She said that the big centrifuge needs to rest, or in other
words it needs to be shutdown during evening. So they will be using a different
machine at night-time and it is the old-fashioned kind of centrifuge which is
very sensitive according to her.
We moved on to another machine,
this time its small-oven-toaster-like. There’s also this small machine that you
just need to insert or slide the test tube or sample in a slide and after a few
seconds you can immediately see the results. Awesome. It’s an automatic
analyzer, which she showed us two kinds, first was only the number of (ex. Glucose)
can be analyzed, and second was a multi-interpreter. They also have another means
when they are not sure of the results and this time by the procedure and not
automated.
Lastly, as far as I could
remember she also showed us a refrigerator with all the samples and/or results
in the test tube and in small-diameter test tube with cover frozen inside. And
what really stuck on my mind was the urine stored in the refrigerator, it’s a
patients’ urine for 24 hours in a plastic bag. Cool.
Clinical chemistry analyzers are
automated instruments used for measuring concentrations of the various chemical
constituents of blood or other body fluids. In clinical chemistry when for
example you made a mistake, you still can get samples from the patient, unlike in
some of the other laboratories, which deal with tissue and/or organs of human
body. Maybe I liked this department for
now since, I am currently enjoying my college-life during laboratory and it
also belongs to the same discipline as Physical, General, Organic, Inorganic,
Quantitative, Qualitative Chemistry and now Clinical Chemistry 3 Biochemistry which
I am struggling to survive as of the moment.