Laboratory Posting I

At the end of this course, students should be able to: 1. state hazards encountered in medical laboratories and the safety precautions to be applied to avoid disaster; 2. describe how to set up common laboratory equipment like microscope, autoclave and their application; 3. describe how laboratory specimens are collected and processed; and 4. discuss the basic organisation of a medical laboratory.

Laboratory hazards and precautions. General laboratory glassware and apparatus-composition of glass, cleaning of glassware, standardised glassware, general glassware. Apparatus-autoclave, centrifuge. Production of chemically pure water, elementary microscopy; refraction, refractive index, principal focus of a converging lens, principal focus of a diverging lens, component of a microscope, setting up of a microscope, some do’s and do not’s of the microscope, micrometry, Dark ground microscope, Flourescent microscope. Collection and reporting of specimens, ward etiquette, postage of specimen, preparation of specimen containers, swabs, collection of autopsy and biopsy specimens.