CHANGE MANAGEMENT

Change is hard and a little messy at first, but at the end, it may be more beautiful than you expected. Changes in life are not jokes, they should be taken seriously. Same as changes in the laboratory, one little change could bring everything down. Here is a brief info on how to manage a change in the laboratory.

Change management is the discipline that guides how we prepare, equip and support individuals to successfully adopt change in order to drive organizational success and outcomes. Decades of research shows there are actions we can take to influence people in their individual transitions. Change management provides a structured approach for supporting the individuals in your organization to move from their own current states to their own future states.

There are 3 levels of Change Management:

The first level is the Individual Change Management. This requires understanding how people experience change and what they need to change successfully. It also requires knowing what will help people make a successful transition such as what messages do people need to hear, when and from whom; when the optimal time to teach someone a new skill is; how to coach people to demonstrate new behaviors; what makes changes “stick” in someone’s work.

Second is the Organizational / Initiative Change Management. This involves first identifying the groups and people who will need to change as the result of the project, and in what ways they will need to change.

The third level is the Enterprise Change Management Capability. The organizational core competency that provides competitive differentiation and the ability to effectively adapt to the ever-changing world. It means effective change management is embedded into your organization’s roles, structures, processes, projects and leadership competencies.

“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new”    

- Socrates

HOW TO BE SAFE IN THE LABORATORY

No job is so important and no service is so urgent that we cannot take time to perform our work safely. Being safe is a must in being a medical technologist. Safety saves us from different hazards and infections. There are a lot of safety reminders in the laboratory, some of them are as follows:

• The observance of the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS)
• The MSDS is a document detailing the safety information about each hazardous substance must be available to employees at all times in an obvious and easily accessible location.
• The proper handling of biological specimens
• Tissues, organs, mucous secretions, saliva, semen, vaginal, urethral, cavity fluids, exudates, wounds, amniotic fluid and any materials acquired from the body are likely to be contaminated with blood and will invariably carry blood-borne pathogens.
• The practice of fire prevention
• Fire-fighting start firstly in the layout of the building plan. Materials used for the construction of the lab and actual construction require that fire-resistance should be at accepted available standards of safety. The devices that fight fires must be laid in plans.

The possible health and mechanical hazards that can be met inside the lab are:

• Compressed gases
• Electric shock
• Toxic vapors and irritants
• Flammable liquids
• Radioactive materials
• Corrosive substances
• Mechanical trauma
• Poisons
• Biologic materials
• Cryogenic materials
• Toxic and highly toxic agents
• Reproductive toxin
• Carcinogen
• Irritant
• Tissue corrosive
• Sensitizer
• Liver, kidney, and nervous system toxins
• Agents that act on or damage other body systems: hematopoietic, lungs, skin, eyes, mucous membranes

The Protective Methods and Procedures for the Laboratory

• Universal Precautions
• “Treat all human blood and certain human body fluids as if they were known to be infectious”
• Engineering and Work Practice Control
• “Engineering controls isolate or remove the blood-borne pathogen hazard from the workplace. Work practice controls reduce the likelihood of exposure by altering the manner in which a task is performed. Administrative controls include education, training, and application of Standard Operating Procedures for preventing occupational exposure to blood and other potentially infectious fluids.”
• Personal Protective Equipment
• Housekeeping Techniques
• Waste disposal system

Safety codes that help maintain the safety of the workplace

• Occupational Safety and Health Act
• RA 9003 (The Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000)
• RA 6969 (Toxic Substances and Hazardous and Nuclear Wastes Control Act of 1990)
• RA 8749 (Philippine Clean Air Act)
• RA 9275 (The Philippine Clean Water Act of 2004)

“Safety is not an intellectual exercise to keep us in work. It is a matter of life and death. It is the sum of our contributions to safety management that determines whether the people we work with live or die.”                              

- Sir Brian Appleton, Safety Assessor