The Nurse as Laboratory Technician

Abstract

WHAT are the duties of a technician? .What training is required? Is this a field which would be interesting to a trained nurse? Would it bring to her new opportunities for advancement? All nurses have had some experience with a pathological laboratory. Sometimes this contact is scarcely more than carrying specimens to the laboratory and writing the subsequent reports on the patients' charts. Sometimes training is given in the more routine laboratory technic. On the whole, however, the laboratory remains an unknown land. When a nurse does decide to enter this field it often happens that she does not fully understand the type of work the laboratory offers her, nor what advantages or disadvantages it presents, nor what training she should have to undertake the work. Today, in this period of economic depression, it is more than ever necessary that before entering a new field the land be well spied out, that necessary training be had, that the results to be achieved be understood, and be considered worth the effort involved. Before considering the training required and the practical as well as the intangible rewards offered by work in this field it would be well to consider what tasks a technician has. The size of the laboratory determines the duties. The interest of the