Culture Shock
“I was working a lab assistant shift receiving specimens, when a doctor phoned the lab. He was very upset that there was a test that was taking too long. I said okay, and asked what the test was. A fungal culture takes at least two weeks to see if anything grows. The patient was in the ER.
I politely told him the test was a send out and they generally take about about two weeks depending on the fungus. He got all huffy and asked why it took so long and is there a way to speed up the process. I chuckled a little because this is a common problem with cultures, we can’t just make them grow faster.
He then asked for a lab tech because I was just a lab assistant. I then let him know I was a lab tech with experience in microbiology and I can tell him that fungal cultures are some of the slowest cultures and assured him that if anything comes of it, we’ll let ER know.” Story credit: Reddit / texasbornandraised95