WVDL Provides Tours for Veterinary Technician Students
Each quarter, Dr. Megan Jordan from Globe University brings a group of vet tech students to the WVDL for an informational tour of the lab. The students start in the Sample Receiving Department. Here they get pointers on the proper way to package and submit specimens to the lab. Dan Christensen, a Senior Lab Sample Receiving Technician, talks about the things that help and hinder the processing of samples. “Showing the students what not to do has a huge impact on the learning process. They get to see what happens to the specimens when improperly shipped: boxes full of broken tubes, bags of mixed feces or milk, wrong types of specimens sent for testing, etc. Proper packing and shipping of biological specimens to a diagnostic lab is an essential part of the testing process. It is directly related to the turnaround time of their clients’ results.”
The vet tech students then go on to tour the rest of the lab including bacteriology, virology, histology, serology and pathology. “They get a general overview of some of the work that is done in each lab section. I try to focus on showing them the areas of testing that they will be dealing with at their respective veterinary clinics,” informs Christensen.
Outreach programs are an integral part of WVDL. The staff at WVDL are more than happy to contribute to this growing veterinary community…and we’re pretty sure the vet techs enjoy the tours, too!
