[Histonet] Pathology Ladder System

[Barry Rittman via Histonet]

A well defined career ladder has often been a missing factor in salaries
for histotechs.

I believe that part of this is due to the change in the Med Lab Tech
training System.
Originally this system used to incoporate histology in the training.
I believe in the early 70s the histology section was removed from the
training and histopatholgy was on its own.
This, in  effect resulted in Med lab techs getting a degree and often being
placed in charge of labs including histology/pathology labs without realy
having much if any experience in these areas.
I trained in England where histology was one of the six areas in med lab
tech training in the entire country. Following this training it was
possible to specialise in one of the fields such as histopathology.
This provided  a direct career path as everyone working in a lab all had
the basic training and knew what to do to advance in their career.
During my career, while I worked in histology (and this is still my first
love), I was able to draw on my training in the other fields to help with
my histopathology.

I think that in effect the system of often having med lab techs in charge
of histopatholgy have artifically kept salaries for histopathogists
artificially low.

I personally would prefer the med lab tech training (including histology)
with a direct career path for all but am not holding my breath that this
will occur
Barry.
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Re: [Histonet] Air Bubbles

[Barry Rittman via Histonet]

There might be air in the mounting media that gives rise to bubbles when
drying starts to occur. One method to try is to use an ultrasonic bath  to
remove the air from the bottle containing the mounting media  before using.
We used to do this with aqueous mounting media.
Barry

On Fri, Jun 10, 2016 at 9:15 AM, Karen Pfaff via Histonet <
histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu> wrote:

>
>
>
> There might not be enough mounting media placed on slide. So when slide is
> wet, there are no air bubble but after a couple of days the xylene or
> xylene substitute will evaporate and leave you with patchy areas. Has there
> been someone new coverslipping? I have been one of those people that put
> less mounting media on because the stage of the microscope stays cleaner,
> however, I discovered that I get air bubbles after it dries. Try putting a
> line of mounting media down the entire slide not just 2 or 3 drops. Might
> help.Karen PfaffLead HT Skin Cancer CenterMohs lab
>
> Sent from my U.S. Cellular® Smartphone
>
>  Original message 
> From: Charles Riley via Histonet 
> Date: 06/10/2016  9:00 AM  (GMT-06:00)
> To: histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu
> Subject: [Histonet] Air Bubbles
>
> Hello everyone,
>
> Recently we have been having an issue with a majority of our slides having
> air bubbles under the coverslips. When they are originally coverslipped
> there are no bubbles and any present are pushed out and the sides are all
> wiped dry. We have not changed any reagent or processes in over two years.
> Can anyone offer suggestions as to why this might be occurring or tips to
> fix the issue?
>
> --
>
> Charles Riley HT(ASCP)CM
>
> Histopathology Coordinator/ Mohs
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Re: [Histonet] Clearance Angle on Microtome Blade

[Barry Rittman via Histonet]

Rene thank you.
There is an excellent book on the section cutting that will give you any
theory you need.
Section Cutting in Microscopy. by H.F. Steedman. 1960. Blackwell Scientific
Publications. Oxford.
Also an American Optical Booklet on the Effective Use and Proper Care of
the Microtome.
Barry

On Sat, Jan 30, 2016 at 7:37 AM, Rene J Buesa via Histonet <
histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu> wrote:

> The type of tissue, the speed of sectioning, the knife bevel and the type
> of paraffin (melting point) influence the clearance angle.Anywhere from 5
> to 10º (preferable 5-6º) are the most used.René
>
> On Friday, January 29, 2016 3:17 PM, Kelli Goodkowsky via Histonet <
> histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu> wrote:
>
>
>  Good afternoon,
> Can someone touch base with me regarding the clearance angle of the
> microtome blade?  How would you describe a blade clearance angle that is
> too great or too slight, and what microtomy problems are you likely to see
> with each?  There seems to be conflicting information out there (or at
> least varying perspectives).
>
> Thank you!
> Kelli
>
> Kelli Goodkowsky, M.Ed., HT (ASCP)
> Director Clinical Education
> Histologic Science
> Goodwin College
> (860) 727-6917
> kgoodkow...@goodwin.edu
> http://www.goodwin.edu/
>
>
>
>
>
>
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>
>
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Re: [Histonet] are you desperate to hire a BS.c graduate

[Barry Rittman via Histonet]

Jose brings up some good points.
It seems to me that we often spend too much time  talking about employing
people who have a narrow field of expertise, even though such expertise is
necessary to get the job done. I would suggest that we instead look at the
bigger picture.
Experience  outside your current field of work  can be very useful. In
looking at the histology fields, many of the great advances have not always
been made by people who have several years or decades of experience but
often by individual who had very limited histology experience but had
expertise in other fields such as biochemistry and physics. I do not
believe that any experience no matter how far removed from the current
workplace is wasted.  While a bachelors degree may not prepare individuals
adequately for jumping right into the field of histology, it has at the
very least  given them a different outlook on many things that they would
not have without that degree.  Fresh outlook on our work allows us to
improve the work we are doing and be creative instead of automatons. I
think that the field of histotechnology is always improved by having
individuals of different back grounds bringing  different perspectives.
The most important thing is to let individuals explore  any new ideas they
have.
I would say a lot more but my wife is just serving up a beef pie.
Barry

On Thu, Aug 13, 2015 at 2:47 PM, deGuzman, Jose R via Histonet 
histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu wrote:

 Please correct me if I'm wrong but this has been my experience so far.

 I came from a research Histology background where I learned many skills
 that I was able to developed in the clinical side. I spent 3 years
 preparing for the exam because my manager in research and a co-workers
 failed on their first attempt- they scared me. Now, I supervise the same
 clinical lab that took a chance at me and perform the hiring process. I
 have hired both certified and
 not-yet-certified-but-qualified-to-take-the-BOR-exam-for-certification-within-1-year.

 Histology is a field where you will find a wide range of experience and
 skill sets. You will find individuals with years of experience with a
 narrow skill set and an individual with little months/years of experience
 but have a wide range of skill set and troubleshooting experience to boot.
 These variations are the direct result of what the laboratory exposed us
 to- large, high volume versus small volume, specialized labs. If you find
 someone with years of experience and wide range of skills, they probably
 work with you already because we don't let them go.

 As a supervisor, I look at the following: qualifications (must meet the
 minimum requirements to sit for the exam), experience, skill sets, ability
 to learn and adapt and fit. The first, will eliminate anybody who I cannot
 hire due to our hiring policy. Once you meet that first criteria,
 everything else is a sliding scale. Fit will out-weigh experience because
 you can build experience but if you can't get along with my team, there is
 no team. I will work with anybody to develop their skills as long as they
 are able to learn and adapt. I'm in an area where there's strong
 competition for qualified individuals and I know of only 1 school with a
 Histology program that's over 50 miles away. It's not easy to fill
 positions. So for the research Histologists out there, yes it's very
 different. It's very routine, not much if any variation from day to day,
 month to month. We have to crank the cases out and some of us get
 pigeonholed to just embedding or just cutting for 8-12 hours. Can we make
 the transition? Yes, I know because I did it.

 Different organizations have different hiring policies. Full package
 candidates (certified, experienced, skilled) are rare but it makes the
 on-boarding and the first 90 days so much easier. Especially in a very busy
 lab, bringing someone in who can contribute at the same output as the
 established team is a dream come true. Incomplete packages need time to
 develop. And what I've experienced is research histologists may know a lot
 more than I do and are exposed to other aspects of the lab but when it
 comes to getting the work done, there is a lag that requires me to step-in
 because the work is taking longer to complete. The learning curve is steep,
 it doesn't take long. It's just easier to bring in a complete package.

 Jose



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