8 June 2015 (Monday) - Bloodmed Newsletter

I was rather excited by today’s email from bloodmed (dot com) The news section had articles on News paternal age linked to blood cancer risk, an equation describing blood flow and how breast-feeding may prevent leukemia

The articles were quite interesting, but I was rather keen to look at the Trainees and CPD  section as (apparently)  new content had been added.

I clicked – nothing happened….

It says somewhere in the CPD regulations that I’m supposed to try to do CPD – sometimes it’s not successful.

7 June 2015 (Sunday) - On The Night Shift

Last night I had an interesting case; young (ish) lad with sore throat and raised glands. Raised monocytes on the blood count prompted me to make a blood film. Characteristic cells seen under the microscope meant I performed a glandular fever test. Positive.

I felt rather smug with myself as I phoned the Emergency Care Centre with the news. the staff there were also pleased with my findings.

This morning on the Medical Laboratory Science Facebook group I saw that someone else on their night shift had had another case which was instantly identifiable.

Not that I have any choice in the matter, but I'd rather find glandular fever any day (or night) 

 

5 June 2015 (Friday) - HCPC Newsletter

The HCPC “In Focus” newsletter came out today. Previously I’ve been rather scathing about the thing.

I’m afraid I’m going to be so again. There was *very* little of relevance to me. Orthoptists and paramedics subs are due. The Chair of Council is stepping down. The consultation on the revised Standards of conduct, performance and ethics continues. The annual subscription is going up by twelve per cent (which I think is a bit steep!)…. And so it went on. Nothing really noteworthy.

But on the positive side today’s newsletter had a survey about how they might improve future editions. I said I wanted more information directly relevant to me and what I do. 

Is that so much to ask?

2 June 2015 (Tuesday) - e-learning

Today I did e-learning. The annual review of Anti-D, Good Manufacturing Practice and Safe Transfusion Practice.

All valuable refreshers, but (at the risk of appearing negative) revising knowledge is rather dull compared to learning something new…

1 June 2015 (Monday) - Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome

Whilst on a day being a clinical chemist we had a sample with a diagnosis I’ve not seen before.

Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome is a disorder of the electrical systems of the heart and consequently electrolyte balance is of prime importance in such a condition.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolff%E2%80%93Parkinson%E2%80%93White_syndrome

Apparently the famous singer Meat Loaf suffers from it. Usually such an admission would breach all sorts of medical confidences… but I read that on Wiikipedia (so it must be true!)

29 May 2015 (Friday) - IBMS Newsletter

The IBMS newsletter came out… last month I wasn’t impressed. This month it covered various topics including:

Elections to the IBMS council. I’ve voted for one chap purely because he’s on my Facebook

list. Realistically I don’t know one candidate from the next.

Retention & Storage of Records. Not really of direct relevance to me. I don’t set retention policies.

Professional Guidance. Again I don’t set policies for supervision of support staff or for staffing levels

And so it went on…. Whilst there were one or two snippets in there I couldn’t help but feel it was written with the lab manager in mind.

28 May 2015 (Thursday) - Patient Blood Management

Patient Blood Management is a multidisciplinary, evidence-based approach to optimising the care of patients who might need blood transfusion.

http://www.transfusionguidelines.org.uk/uk-transfusion-committees/national-blood-transfusion-committee/patient-blood-management

Today I received their newsletter. I’ll not lie; for all that it was a refresher, it was rather basic. O Neg blood *is* important but they could have gone in to more detail…. I suspect I’m not their target audience…?