I heart work
As of monday I can officially say that I am an employed scientist at Cryolife Inc. (NYSE: CRY). My job consists of testing human heart and vein tissue samples for microbial infection. Of course I'm still training in the methods of doing this and they've said it will take about two years before I am able to do everything in the department. For now I'm going to be working in a clean room (booties, hairnet, gown, scrubs, goggles, sterile gloves, etc.) for about six months until I can get my clinical laboratory scientist certification (which they pay for and train me to take). The pay is pretty good and gets better fast, and the benefits are very excellent.
It's certainly an interesting job and I'm glad to be doing it, but the first part of this week has been a little slow and frustrating. The first day was a pretty standard corporate orientation. The next couple of days was all waiting to get my hepatitis test and drug screen back from the lab. In the meantime I was doing pretty much nothing but watching old ass safety videos and reading standard operating procedures manuals which are extremely boring and practically useless without the equipment in front of you. I was kind of sweating a little bit waiting for these results to get back, particularly since they told me twice that I had passed my drug test only to come back a short time later and say that they had still not received it. I am actually somewhat suspicious that I did not in fact pass the test and the HR ladies fudged me into it in order to not get in trouble for hiring me and paying me for two days without first having passed the test.
Today however, I got to watch a couple people do some tests and do a couple myself. By far the most interesting was the incoming bioburden test. The tissue processing lab sends up some chunks of heart or vein in a (theoretically) sterile fluid. We then use a machine (technically known as THE ST0MACHER) to grind them up and put the stuff into a couple different tubes that are incubated to see if anything grows. One thing that continues to surprise me is how many of these they do. We probably process the tissue of about 10-20 different donors everyday. That means 10-20 dead people are the fuel for my daily paycheck.
I think I am really going to enjoy it once I get a little more comfortable with the place and how to do the job. Right now I'm not exactly sure what I am supposed to be doing all the time. Also, I have to wear purple scrubs most of the time, which a little strange since I don't think I've ever worn purple in my life. It was certainly not my first choice of color, but it is for the entire microbiology department. Overall though I must say it is really awesome to be doing this kind of work.
Anyway, that's enough for now. As soon as I get the chance I will take some pictures of me in scrubs and in the clean room outfit.
It's certainly an interesting job and I'm glad to be doing it, but the first part of this week has been a little slow and frustrating. The first day was a pretty standard corporate orientation. The next couple of days was all waiting to get my hepatitis test and drug screen back from the lab. In the meantime I was doing pretty much nothing but watching old ass safety videos and reading standard operating procedures manuals which are extremely boring and practically useless without the equipment in front of you. I was kind of sweating a little bit waiting for these results to get back, particularly since they told me twice that I had passed my drug test only to come back a short time later and say that they had still not received it. I am actually somewhat suspicious that I did not in fact pass the test and the HR ladies fudged me into it in order to not get in trouble for hiring me and paying me for two days without first having passed the test.
Today however, I got to watch a couple people do some tests and do a couple myself. By far the most interesting was the incoming bioburden test. The tissue processing lab sends up some chunks of heart or vein in a (theoretically) sterile fluid. We then use a machine (technically known as THE ST0MACHER) to grind them up and put the stuff into a couple different tubes that are incubated to see if anything grows. One thing that continues to surprise me is how many of these they do. We probably process the tissue of about 10-20 different donors everyday. That means 10-20 dead people are the fuel for my daily paycheck.
I think I am really going to enjoy it once I get a little more comfortable with the place and how to do the job. Right now I'm not exactly sure what I am supposed to be doing all the time. Also, I have to wear purple scrubs most of the time, which a little strange since I don't think I've ever worn purple in my life. It was certainly not my first choice of color, but it is for the entire microbiology department. Overall though I must say it is really awesome to be doing this kind of work.
Anyway, that's enough for now. As soon as I get the chance I will take some pictures of me in scrubs and in the clean room outfit.