Utilization of Communication, Organization, and Time Management
Vicky Davis
Columbia Southern University

As a healthcare professional who has chosen to return to college, communication,organization and time management are of utmost importance. Working the night shift with a scant number of laboratory technologists is a hurdle in itself. With only two techs, keeping up with emergency room, intensive care, and timed lab test orders can be extremely tricky. There are also daily maintenance and quality control that must be completed at certain times during the night. As technologists, we must manage and organize ourselves carefully and communicate with each other in order to stay within the turnaround time set by our hospital’s policy. I work with one other technologist and a phlebotomist. Communication between the three of us is essential to a successful night. Orders come into the lab throughout the night and knowing each other’s location within the facility saves time when drawing blood from patients in different departments. This speeds up the process of getting samples to the lab for testing instead of waiting until someone comes back to see order labels lying on the counter. Not only do I have to communicate with my coworkers in the laboratory, I also have a team of nurses, radiology technicians, respiratory therapists and doctors with whom I must maintain constant contact. Nurses notify us when they have stat lab orders that need to be drawn. Radiology and respiratory are at times held up in their diagnostic procedures due to waiting on lab values to determine whether or not it is safe to proceed. When samples are submitted for radiology or respiratory, they are given first priority just as we would give a stat or emergency room sample. The less time a patient has to wait the sooner that person is treated. I also have to test samples around the nightly