This is (supposed to be) a reflective diary by a (not very) anonymous biomedical scientist who works somewhere in the south of England. One day this diary may well be submitted to the Health Professions Council as evidence of ongoing continual professional development....
I’m not
happy.
I got the
result of NEQAS DM 2005 DF today. When I looked at it some time ago I noted:
Red cells
Anisopoikilocytosis
Polychromasia
Spherocytes
White
cells
Blast
cells with auer rods
Platelets
Thrombocytopenia
This bears no relation to what the software says I saw. I suppose having the software crashing half-way through probably didn’t help. I’m doubly frustrated in that the CPD certificate generator won’t let me add any reflective comment…
I got to do the DAT NEQAS back in September. I got the result today – I got it right.
While I was
pleased about that, why does it take so long to come back? Had I stuffed it up
then clearly I would be doing something wrong and would need to revisit what I do
on a day-to-day basis. And in the meantime I would have possibly made mistakes
on two months’ worth of work on real patients.
I suppose
that is unlikely – IQC would show that up… wouldn’t it?
I got to do the Rh phenotyping NEQAS back in September. I got the result today – I got it right.
Rh
phenotyping in a pain in the glass (as my grandson would say) - for me
the tricky bit is getting the suspensions right. It’s effectively double the
strength of any other suspension we prepare, but we then only use half the
volume that we usually use.
So why not
use the usual amount of a usual preparation?
I’ve had
two failures at BTLP-TACT recently. Firstly I don’t think I understood what
their picture meant, and secondly the wouldn’t show me the screen antigram. So
it was with something of an air of sulking frustration that I had a go at the
BTLP-TACT this morning.
I felt I
had to – overnight the post of yesterday’s failures had been viewed fifteen
times. Fifteen!!! That’s a lot.
I was
presented with just the one case today – a thirty-one year old chap requiring a
pre-op group and save.
The chap
was A Rh(D) Negative with a negative antibody screen.
I pressed the
“select for red cell issue” by mistake… I pressed it again and this seemed to
cancel the mistake, I got the green light. Thank heavens for that.
Much as I
am grateful for the use of this blood bank simulator, I find that when I fail
on it I’m not stuffing up the blood group serology (I should hope not!!),
I am misunderstanding what the software is trying to convey, or having
technical issues.
That’s my
excuse and I am sticking to it.
