My whole day was spent in the laboratory. In fact I'm still in the lab right now, as I've been here since 8AM this morning (took a break to get dinner and attend mass at 6:30PM). The stress of finishing this research and my duties as a Teacher's Assistant for my professor is getting to me. Maybe its because its getting closer to the end of the semester, nonetheless, I got really annoyed earlier today when one of my students who helped me in the lab. **note that the lab that I work in is the physiology/anatomy/microbiology lab, which is highly sterilized due to the types of viruses, bacteria and cadavers inside the lab setting** Anyways, I had two students work for me, as part of their independent study, i deliberately told Alicia (one of the students) to becareful in taking out the treponema pallidum out of the cold freezer--due to its infectious material. She, knowing full well of what I told them (and I am very strict in the lab area) grabbed the tray of T. pallidum without laytex gloves, her white lab coat wasn't tied properly, and as a result, when walking to the lab bench where i was preparing test tube samples, she accidently lost control of the tray and half of the contents broke on the ground and spilled over the whole floor. My reaction was swift and outright. Okay for those who do not know what Treponema pallidum is, it is a bacterial spirochete which is responsible for the manifestation of syphilis and is extremely infective. I ran to the site and immediately rebuked the student and told her to immediately go to the emergency bathroom and shower. I had to call the infectious disease control department to clean up the mess and had to quarantine the area. Immediately told Alicia to go to the ER to make sure that the bacterium samples didnt' get into her squamous and columnar epithelium (dermal cavity)--i just found out today around 5PM that she was negative for syphilis, which was a sigh of relief on my part. I however had to report the case to Professor Kleinschmit and Ostrofsky, which didn't help at all. I tried, truly did try to be lenient with students who work under me in the lab, but this incident is one of the reasons why I am so sterile in the work place--due to the total embarassment that I went through today, I failed Alicia in her lab portion, and now do not allow underclassmen to work with me on weekends (which i used to allow for extra-credit opportunities).
Outside of the class, I am very jovial and open minded, but when it is in the work place i am quite the stern and serious kind of individual who does not tolerate inadequacy. How could she have forgotten to put on her gloves and hold the tray with both hands when I explained to these students of lab protocol and safety procedures? One thing that I cannot stand, particularly in the work place, is idiocy. I have little to no patience for it.
Ah..
Do you think i was too harsh? Was i justified?
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