World Wide Lab

In the past I haven’t particularly enjoyed working in a lab. In retrospect I think it’s because I always felt rushed to get out of lab early for practice so I needed to do everything as fast as possible. James from World Wide Laboratories spent the week with us to train us on the lab equipment that has been put in place as a stepping stone to the hospital. This group travels the world setting up labs for the advancement of medicine. Not only was James extremely patient and an excellent teacher, but he had multiple stories of his travels that kept us entertained. We are grateful for this opportunity and know that having a lab will definitely be a benefit for our patients.

The first day my brain was on overload as I tried to soak in everything that he had to say. The most intimidating part to me is the fact that if a machine breaks, we don’t have an IT person who can fix it easily. Many of the machines are outdated in some of the labs in the states, but are built to last through the wear and tear of third world countries. I was surprised at how they have managed to make the system as foolproof as possible and eliminate as much user error as possible.

After a day of training, I needed to pass on the things I learned to Flor, Manuela and Katie that will also be working in the lab. Truthfully I was quite nervous because I was afraid that I would forget something important and we would be doing tests wrong for years, but James was a true professional and great teacher. It was obvious from the get go that this was not his first time doing this! He listened to everything I taught and then asked if I missed anything. It’s always best to have to figure out the mistakes that you make. I was stressed as I had to figure out the errors made in each test, but in the end, I’m hoping that it cemented the procedures into my mind! No better way to learn than to teach others – and teaching is something that I enjoy the most!!! We can only hope. Take a look at how things went!

The lab in boxes..