Q:What's a typical workday like for you?
I work with six histotechnicians to prepare tissue from biopsies for examination by a pathologist. We rotate jobs weekly, so depending on the week, I will work with pathologists' assistants; maintain machinery that processes tissue; apply special stains to tissue samples to detect bacteria or certain types of fiber; work with tissue from autopsies or hospital research; apply stains containing antibodies to detect disease in tissue; work on kidney biopsies; or float among the jobs, depending on where I'm needed.
Q:How does your role fit into the bigger healthcare picture?
Histotechnicians and histotechnologists enable physicians to examine tissue from a biopsy and figure out what's wrong with a patient. We also work quickly so physicians can get the diagnosis out right away.
Q:Who do you interact with during the course of the day?
I interact with hospital pathologists and pathologists' assistants; surgeons and surgery nurses; other laboratory workers; medical examiner technicians, investigators and pathologists; vendors; and outside institutions who send us renal work.
Q:Why did you become a histotechnologist?
I took a histology course in college. One day the professor offered to show us how to make slides and stains on tissues and I thought, "Oh, my gosh. It never occurred to me that it was so complex to get a piece of tissue on a slide." I got my bachelor's degree in biology and went to Argosy University for a two-year degree in histology.
