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_GeoffreyLebowski t1_j6to55r wrote

I know a bunch of people have said anything in the medical field, I would call out Lab Techs. It can be a very good career path without some of the stress of direct patient care.

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Low-Shake8053 t1_j6tprtz wrote

Could you eli5 who I become a lab tech

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_GeoffreyLebowski t1_j6u2e9u wrote

I will start off by saying my suggestions are very southern Maine centric, so if you are going to be in a different part of Maine this may not be super helpful.

The first thing to do would be to make sure you have your GED or High School Diploma. Then go to a lab website and find a tech position. Nordx operates the Labs for all the MaineHealth hospitals and has tons of openings, here is an example of a posting.

https://www.careersatmainehealth.org/jobs/1350029-anatomic-pathology-technician-histology

The job description will say prior Tech experience preferred, but you definitely want to make sure your resume has things on it that point to you wanting to work in healthcare. Volunteering at hospitals, or non clinical jobs in the healthcare field would be a great thing to have on your resume to show that. So would college or community college level classes on Health Sciences or Healthcare Administration.

Another option would be to start as a phlebotomist, working at a lab clinic or hospital drawing blood. This is a direct patient care role, but is often a good inroad to a lab carreer. SMCC has a 6 week fully paid program where you can learn to become a phlebotomist.

https://my.smccme.edu/ICS/icsfs/Phlebotomy_221115.pdf?target=2dea6825-44e6-4429-bf41-f76919df0555

I hope some of this helps. Maine does need new blood in the workforce, so good luck!

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dungeonlaa t1_j6vsr4d wrote

Unfortunately there is a lot of stress in labs due to short staffing and severe underpayments, our job is invisible to many 😕

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