Blog #2 - Work Readiness Skills

I am working as a Microbiologist at Marin General Hospital. One of the tasks that I do when I am working in the microbiology lab is to isolate bacteria on blood plates. What this means is that I take a colony of bacteria and spread it onto blood agar that will allow the bacteria to grow. Once, I accidentally tore the blood agar and I immediately told my supervisor. My supervisor wasn't mad at me and told me even other scientists make the same mistake. What I learned from this was that you have to be own up to making a mistake from the get-go in order for your supervisor to keep your trust. Another task that I do is look at bacteria under a microscope. Once, I found bacteria on a low setting on the microscope but couldn't find it on a higher setting. I asked my supervisor to help me find the bacteria and when I did, he taught me a useful trick of how to find bacteria. What I learned from this was that there is no harm in asking for help if it means that you act with diligence. Asking for help can mean that you waste less time working on something if you have a lot to do or it can mean that you can learn new tricks to become more diligent. 


Being literate has held me back. My supervisor has asked me to read chapters from a college level text book. It was hard for me to understand what was being written because the language was hard for me to understand. The names of the bacteria and the large number of bacteria made the language harder for me to understand. Also, not having taken any biology courses made it harder for me to understand the material being presented.