Nellis Lab Technicians work, train towards team success Published Feb. 21, 2012 By Senior Airman Jack Sanders Nellis Public Affairs NELLIS AFB, Nev. -- The word laboratory tends to conjure a vision of a solo scientist working with beakers and test-tubes, but that's not the case with the team based workflow of the 99th Medical Support Squadron medical laboratory. The medical lab is responsible for a wide variety of tasks and utilizes six working sections to analyze, confirm and test different medical samples to aid in the diagnosis and treatment of patients. "All the information we gather together helps doctors treat patients specifically," said Senior Airman Dearson Allen, 99th MDSS Medical Laboratory Technician. "That way if you're having a kidney problem the doctor isn't going to prescribe you medication for maybe a heart problem to get your cholesterol down, he's going to specifically treat the kidney." Lab technicians work in Hematology, Microbiology, Urinalysis, Blood Bank, Chemistry, and also Histology sections, each with its own specific purpose like looking for infections or checking for cancerous cells. Although the technicians work in different sections they are all trained and qualified to work in any of the sections. Aside from their responsibilities of daily examinations, the Nellis Medical Laboratory is also responsible for providing phase two training to lab technicians, qualifying them in the career. Phase two students are stationed at training facilities for nine months of on the job training and then are transferred to their first permanent duty station as permanent party technicians. "Depending on what section you're in it's a lot of teamwork," said Airman 1st Class Brian Childers, 99MDSS Phase two student. "You need to be able to do everything in your section, but during the day there's too much for just one person to do so you have to rely on each other to get the job done." Working close with each other comes in handy for the technicians when getting the job done may mean providing information that could potentially save someone's life. "Our job is very technical and very involved," said Mrs. Ruth Jones, technical supervisor of microbiology. "It takes up to a year of training for technicians in my department to become completely sufficient, so it's not something that is learned quickly and it takes somebody who is very detail oriented and very focused to thrive in our department, because simple mistakes could easily cost someone dearly." The change to a medical center is providing the lab technicians with an opportunity for expansion and growth in both training and mission responsibilities. "On a monthly basis we can easily see upwards of 20,000 patients with different tests, but that is expected to increase since the hospital is now a medical center," Allen said. "I think becoming a medical center makes it more exciting for us," Jones said. "It's going to increase our work volume and I think it will allow more technicians to gain experience because we're going to have to grow our department." Despite the challenges ahead, together the lab team is eager to take on whatever may come their way. "It's an important job in the hospital," Childers said. "We may not always directly see patients, but we have to report correct lab results to the doctors so that they can provide the correct type of treatment that people need."
