In the US, it is an Individual Donor Assessment and applies to everyone. Everyone gets the same question tree, regardless of sexual orientation. If you have had a new partner in the last 3 months or have multiple partners that doesn’t defer you, it sends you to the next tier of question: have you engaged in anal sex. Yes to anal with a new partner or multiple partners is the deferral. If you haven’t had a new partner or multiple partners in the last 3 months, you will not be asked about anal sex. Canada went live with their individual donor assessment a year before the US and has noted a slight drop in donations in straight donors because they are now being deferred for high risk activity when they were previously missed.

Prep is listed under a medication deferral. First responders that take prep for protection from workplace exposure are deferred as well.

(I’m a blood banker)

TX had similar bullshit (nothing until 11) when I was there working overnights. It’s my 8pm. I’ve been up keeping patients alive all night. Make my drink.

Gotcha! I’ve stuck with Samsung because they make a phone that will fit in the pathetic excuse that is women’s pants pockets. My husband tried to get me to switch to the Pixel but it was too big.

My Samsung does it very easily with decent customization options in Gallery (and has for at least two phones). What phone are you using that can’t? I agree the collage feature in Google photos is lame.

Well how do we know that any scale at all is right?

My lab has weights that get calibrated against a NIST standard annually. We use those weights to perform daily quality control that our scale is accurate (to +/- 0.01g). If the quality control fails then we recalibrate the scale.

I have witnessed this exchange >.<

The first part is what my husband tells me.

I do recognize that Medical Laboratory Scientists are a very superstitious lot especially funny since our degree and certification include Scientist. Don’t say it’s slow or quiet because it’s getting to get stupid busy (and everyone will blame you). Don’t run quality control more than required because you are tempting failure and will have to do a look back of all the testing to make sure it was accurate. We jokingly put an elf on the shelf out that had FDA written on the hat and the FDA showed up for an unannounced inspection a week later. I’m a Lead and every time I bring my Lead work to the bench with me, we get so busy with patient samples and orders that I can’t touch it. All are definitely confirmation bias situations.

Full moons do not have an impact on people with mental illness, make weird things happen, increase work load, or increase the chance of going into labor. I have worked in three separate hospitals in three separate states and the consensus is: full moons bring out the crazies and the babies.

I’m a Medical Laboratory Scientist (bachelor’s degree, nationally certified, and current on my certificate maintenance continuing education requirements) and it has taken 16 years for me to crack 100k/year. I started at 38k. There are not enough MLS out there to staff all the labs in the US. Labs are scrambling to figure out how to continue providing patient care in the face of crippling staffing shortages and yet pay is still shit.

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I love the tradition of trick or treating in the neighborhood. I hate that it is dying in some communities (instead going to malls, trunk or treat etc). I happily give candy to anyone who knocks on the door and I don’t care how old they are or if it’s “late”. It’s a fun time for everyone.

I agree! I would much rather actually retire which now, thanks to my pension providing job, I can.

There are agencies that act as intermediary for healthcare workers to pick up travel gigs. You sign up with the agency. Hospitals/laboratories/etc who need short term staffing solutions (laughs then sobs in COVID staffing shortage) reach out to agencies saying they need a nurse/medical assistant/medical laboratory scientist and the agency sends them the resumes of all their contract workers that are available. If the facility wants you, the agency contacts you to see if you want to take it.

Housing/living expenses are covered and you make BANK compared to the permanent employees (who may resent you for it). The travel pay and contracts are slowly returning to pre COVID levels but it was ludicrous for a while there. I did try to figure out a way to take a leave of absence from my job (don’t want to lose that pension) so that I could pick up a travel gig. It was that lucrative. There’s always a staff shortage in healthcare somewhere in the country.

There is potential for feast and famine so people doing it as their sole income need to plan for that or be willing to work in facilities that are a dumpster fire or in places that they wouldn’t relocate to for permanent work. Most contract agencies don’t offer benefits so that also needs to be planned for. Travelers usually make 2-3 times more per hour than permanent staff and have a separate allowance for living expenses so getting your own health insurance won’t negate your earnings.

40yo millennial checking in. I landed a job at the state run hospital and signed up for the pension. Before I managed that, my “retirement plan” was to be a traveler. Pick up 13 week assignments all over the country with some down time between assignments. I still have it in my back pocket just in case.