My main duty as a lab assistant at Kaiser is to collect and prepare specimens. I am mostly in an outpatient-facing position, though I have other responsibilities as I am the lab's only official inpatient phlebotomist. When other departments in the Capitol Hill campus (such as Urgent Care, Inpatient and Outpatient surgery, etc.) need a tech to assist in blood draws or EKG's, I am paged to collect the sample and bring it to the lab, often for STAT testing. At Capitol Hill Kaiser, the laboratory and pathology departments work together to assist Shared Procedures and the OR in EBUS's (endoscopy, bronchoscopy, ultrasound) for diagnosing and/or staging Pulmonary and Gastrointestinal cancer. I attend these procedures along with a pathologist and assist in collection of biopsies as well as smears and staining on site so that the attending pathologist may do a quick look for the performing doctor. Currently, I am the main lab assistant who attends the EBUS's to support the Pathology department and have trained another tech to be the backup EBUS assistant.Along with special collections for pathology, inpatient draws, and outpatient draws, I also help to process specimens and ready them for transport to our main lab in Renton. This includes centrifuging and pour-off (aliquoting) when necessary.

I am trained and certified as a Phlebotomist/Medical Assistant in the state of Washington to register, screen, and collect blood from donors. In addition to being skilled in venipuncture, I am expected to properly maintain documentation and records as well as accurately determine donor eligibility. I must also take vitals and provide reaction care for donors should the need arise.The department I work in is “Donor Services”. It is very important to be personable and care for the donors first and foremost. In addition to providing excellent care and a comfortable environment for donors I am tasked with properly labelling, collecting, and storing blood donations and virology samples for shipment to our lab in Renton, WA. Interacting with donors is my favorite part of this job. This includes providing reaction care should a donor show signs of not feeling well before, during, or after a reaction. In these situations, I am charged with not only caring for the donor, I must accurately report every aspect of the reaction and post reaction care to our Donor Services Nurses. This includes ensuring that the donor’s reactions are not only addressed, but that we properly assess if the donor is recovered before releasing them from our care.Being the leader of a team as one of the contacts for the mobile units, I have experience in coordinating blood drives and ensuring that Standard Operating Procedures are followed as well as maintaining an excellent relationship with the community and those who host us for blood drives.Additionally, I was also an official Mentor for Bloodworks Northwest. When a new hire came on board, I was responsible for training and monitoring them and ensuring that they knew the SOP and how to navigate it for answers. The donors are the heroes of our community in Washington, Oregon, and beyond. Making sure that someone was well trained was, in my opinion, one of the most important parts of working at Bloodworks.