10 Terrace Review — Wednesday, April 9, 1986

A salute to medical technologists -

TERRACE — The scene
is all too familiar: Fred,
a middle-aged man, is
wheeled into the hospital
Emergency Room in a
state of shock, aresult of
a heart attack.

by Alex Enriquez, M.D.
Regional Pathologist

The doctor on duty
immediately examines
him and begins giving
orders to the nurse even
as he is rendering
emergency care, Those
orders might include in-
travenous fluids,
medications, and other
measures to restore nor-
mal heart function, and
laboratory tests to
evaluate the condition of
Fred’s heart and his
overall state of health.

“T want a stat CBC,
CPK, LDH, CPKMB,
SGOT and blood gases.”’
The nurse enters these
code-like orders on a re-

quisition and calls the
laboratory technologist.
In minutes, he or she is
drawing a sample of
Fred’s blood which will
be analyzed to give the
doctor the critical infor-
mation he needs in order
to correctly evaluate and
manage Fred.

The technologist hur-
ries back to the lab and
performs all the re-
quested tests with the aid
of a battery of
sophisticated analyzers
and instruments. As
soon as results become
available (some of them
within minutes), the
technologist will
telephone them to the
Emergency Room staff.

Sounds like an easy
job, right? Just punch a
few buttons and wait for
the machine to hand
back the results. Who,
really, is this often little-
known and sometimes

Support group
opens doors

TERRACE — A self-
help group for women
alone (widows, divorced,
separated) has been
started in the commun-
ity.

by Daniele Berquist

Jacquie Webb,
spokesperson for the
group said that their pur-
pose was to support
women who are alone.
“In the transition stage
we can be of big help as
our meetings are social
get togethers,’’ explained
Webb. ‘‘We share a cup
of coffee and a warm

son’s personal affairs,
we offer friendship.”’

As a rule, there’s no
smoking at our meetings,
added Webb. She
stresses that they will not
give advice to anyone but
will listen and give sup-
port. Often, Webb said,
that's all a person needs.

The idea of a self-help
group for women alone
came to Webb from a
friend who was visiting
in the lower mainland,
where such groups are
made available for in-
dividuals.

For more information -

under-appreciated
medical laboratory
technologist?

In fact, he or she is
one of many well-
educated and highly
skilled professionals
whose ability and judge-
ment are constantly call-
ed upon both in hospital

and independent com- 3

munity laboratories.
April 13-19 is National
Medical Laboratory
Week, which gives
residents the opportunity
to learn more about
these behind-the-scenes
health care workers.

‘Your Body Talks’? is -

their theme, expressing
the technologists’ role in
decoding the complex
messages our bodies con-
vey in health and disease.

In the 1890's they
began as unskilled
pathologists’ assistants,
trained on the job in
hospital laboratories,
and there was no stan-

' dardization of their

training or qualifying ex-
aminations until these
were instituted in
England in the 1930's
and later in other Com-
monvwealth countries.
Today, medical
laboratory technologists
constitute the third
largest group of health

Alex Enriquez, M.D.

care professionals in
Canada and they are re-
quired to meet the
qualifications of provin-
cial licensing bodies
and/or the national ex-
amining bodies (The
Canadian Society of
Laboratory Technol-
ogists).

The course of study,
offered by universities

and technological in-
stitutes is usually three to
five years in length,
depending upon the
degree of basic or ad-
vanced qualification
sought by the student.

Technologists who

work in smaller hospitals

must be skilled in most
areas of laboratory
work: Hematology or
blood analysis; Im-
munohematology, or
blood typing and com-
patability testing for
transfusions; Cytology,
or the study of cells as
the ‘‘Pap- Test;
Biochemistry, which
measures body chemical
and enzyme activity;
Microbiology, which
deals with infectious
organisms and the
diseases they cause; and
Histotechnology, which
prepares, processes and
stains body tissues for
microscopic examination
and diagnosis by the

pathologist.

Technologists may
choose one or a few of
these fields for their
main area of study and
may then work in one
section of: a_ large
hospital laboratory.

The progress of our
patient, Fred, was
monitored by repeated
laboratory tests. He may
not have been aware of
the part played by
laboratory technologists
in his medical treatment
and eventual recovery,
but the information they
provided to his doctor
was essential to the
diagnosis of his condi-
tion and in determining
the emergency and post-
emergency care he need-
ed.

We salute these essen-
tial members of the.
health care team who
form the backbone of
our laboratories.

=
y

Terrace

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