Holy smokes! Are we EVER busy these days! One PA has resigned; one site's Gross Room has been condemned; all of the grossing from that site is being done at the other site which was already extremely busy. There are only 3 grossing benches and there are now 7 people who can do the grossing. Shifts are despised but are a necessity. Gladly we're going to use the well-ventilated Autopsy Suite dissection benches as grossing benches. We'll be ensuring that the formalin levels are within safe limits and we will have created a couple more spaces at which to work during normal working hours. Yeh! We're still one person short however so the backlog, which has been building since the New Year, is not likely to disappear soon.
We have a brand new grossing Tech trainee who is nice and smart and eager to learn. This can only mean good things for the group once she learns the ropes and hones her skills so that her productivity increases. I'm looking forward to her soon being a full-fledged member of the team.
On a more serious note, the PAs are quite demoralized at the volume of the backlog. Emotions are right at the surface and I don't blame them for a minute. The light has disappeared from the end of the tunnel I'm afraid. With a little perseverance and the use of another grossing station or two, I'm sure that we'll eventually get back to an acceptable level where the turnaround times are within normal limits.
I hope that the PAs hang in for a little while longer. We'll get there and we'll get there together.
This blog exists to give Canada's PAs a sense of community by providing this space to communicate with one another; to voice concerns; ask questions of those who might be more experienced, etc.
have a good day!
Love cycling!
I used to cycle to work...to facilitate more cycling!
About Me
- Bill Stinson
- West Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada
- Among the first PAs in Canada, I began my career in Ottawa in the early '70s, at The Ottawa Hospital. I made the move west in May, 2005. I have long recognised the need for education, certification and regulation of Canadian PAs and am very positive about the bright future of PAs in this country. I was privileged in 2004 to receive the nomination from The Ottawa Hospital for the 2004 CAP Technologist of the Year award and received two nominations for PA of the Year in 2008 (an award given annually by the Canadian Association of Pathologists). I have had the additional privilege to have been involved in the publication of numerous articles; collaborating with a number of Pathologists and clinicians over the years; currently having my name on over sixty publications.
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