Laboratory Assistant

County of Los Angeles•Los Angeles, CA

68d•Onsite

About The Position

The County of Los Angeles is the largest employer in Southern California with over 116,000 employees in more than 38 Departments. We provide vital public services and offer one of the strongest public-sector benefits packages in the country. This position is within the Department of Health Services, which is dedicated to advancing the health of patients and communities by providing outstanding care. Laboratory Assistants work in a laboratory setting performing a variety of tasks such as logging in patient specimens, adding fixatives and preservatives to specimens, smearing specimens onto microscopic glass slides, transcribing laboratory tests results into a computer, preparing media and reagents, or assigning, training, and reviewing the work of a group of lower-level laboratory positions.

Requirements

Six (6) months' experience in laboratory work in a public health, medical, or biological laboratory
Physical Class 3 - Moderate: This class requires that the incumbent stand or walk most of the time with bending, stooping, squatting, twisting, reaching, working on irregular surfaces, occasional lifting of objects weighing over 25 pounds, and frequent lifting of 10-25 pounds.
Required experience must be fully met at the time of filing and clearly indicated within the materials provided.
No Out of Class experience will be accepted for this examination.

Nice To Haves

Laboratory work experience in an Acute Care Hospital Laboratory beyond the minimum requirements.
Successful completion of chemistry, biology, or microbiology lecture and lab course(s) at an accredited college or university.

Responsibilities

Receives patient specimens such as blood, urine, feces, pulmonary fluids, gastro-intestinal fluids, body carry fluids, and sputum slides with standard laboratory request forms providing information such as patient's name and tests to be performed by licensed personnel; verifies patient's name and permanent file number by matching information on request form and specimen container.
Prepares specimens for laboratory testing by adding fixatives or preservatives using a prescribed technique/instrument appropriate to the type of specimen.
Processes specimens for subsequent analysis by certified professionals by performing duties such as making primary inoculations of test material to be cultured, and smearing and staining test specimens on laboratory glass slides and/or plates.
Transcribes laboratory test results from laboratory reports/worksheets into a permanent log or computer; routes laboratory reports to patients' ward so medical personnel will be informed of laboratory findings.