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Dialysis Technician

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When it comes to tough stomachs, Lee Cauble is at the top of her class. She knew she was cut out for dialysis work when she was the only one in her nursing program who didn't pass out!

"I got exposed to it in 1976 when I was going through a practical nursing program and I found it really interesting," Cauble says with a laugh.

In 1976, there were no in-house technicians at the hospital in south Florida where Cauble got started. "We had someone that we called in case the machines broke," she says. "The machines weren't quite as sophisticated as they are today. I learned to do some basic troubleshooting over the phone, and I just got more and more interested in the back room stuff -- the water treatment, the ways the machines work, the different solutions that are involved," she says.

Cauble not only enjoys the fact that she gets to work with both people and machines, she also loves the independence of her position. "If you really enjoy not having anyone standing over you all the time, it's a great place to work -- if you're able to work independently," says Cauble.

Once in a hospital setting, there is room to shift around in terms of job duties. Some technicians even move on to work for manufacturers and distributors. "There are lots of opportunities to grow in terms of both personal and professional growth. You can learn a lot."

Renal technologist Denis Morgan started out as an orderly, assisting medical and nursing staff with patient care. He is formally trained as a medical lab technician, and he became interested in the renal unit purely by chance.

"During my regular course of duties, I discovered the renal unit, and I used to observe treatments that were given to these people. I thought, 'That's something I would like to do!'" says Morgan.

Turns out he was right. Dialysis work combines his interests in electronics and science with his desire to care for people. Anyone with this combination of interests, says Morgan, is a prime candidate for a position with the dialysis unit.

Sometimes, the pleasant feelings of compassion and interest in the dialysis are subdued by the fact that people come in sick. Quite regularly, says Morgan, patients lose consciousness in the unit. Having to witness his patients' brushes with death is incredibly frightening, he says.

"Normally, a patient needs to lose about two to three liters of fluid from their bodies when they come in. And sometimes, what happens is the fluid is pulled out of the vascular system. If the fluid is pulled out too fast, after a while the volume of fluid in the vascular system becomes depleted and the patient becomes what we call 'flack' -- they start to lose consciousness."

At this point, says Morgan, the nurse rushes in to administer fluid to the patient's vascular system. Without it, their heart has nothing to pump and death is the only way out.

Moments like this are fairly regular in the dialysis unit, according to Morgan. For the patient, he says, the sensation of slipping away due to a lack of vascular fluids is the same as what we'd experience if we were fading fast and dying. Moments like this have changed his life.

"First of all, I don't normally get upset about anything because I've come to realize that nothing is forever. We're just passing through. I think I know more people who've died than most people. One realizes that there's nothing really permanent about our existence here," he explains.

Coming face to face with death and dying on a regular basis, Morgan has developed the habit of living fully in the here and now. "I try to enjoy life. I try to smell the roses. I try to maintain friends, let people know that I love them," he says. "It makes you sit down and ask yourself, 'Why am I here? Am I doing what I'm supposed to be doing?'"

As a result of his electronic and scientific duties, Morgan provides people with the facilities they need to survive. He is part of a life-giving team. "It has different aspects to it," he says. "It's got the electronics side to it, it has the clinical aspect to it -- actually working with the nurses as a team. It's a very exciting job.... It's a very rewarding job!"

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