Staff profile: Amanda Gourley

(Inside Aotea, June 2011)

Medical laboratory technician in Microbiology and Molecular Biology

Responsibilities

In the mornings, I ‘read’ bacterial cultures to identify the bacteria growing on patients’ specimens and I test them for the antibiotics they may be resistant to. In the afternoons I prepare specimens for testing. This includes urines, swabs, fungi and faeces (which isn’t as bad as you might imagine!). I also help prepare specimens in Molecular Biology.

Most rewarding part of your job

Every day I have the opportunity to learn something new. There is a wealth of knowledge in the work place, and there is always a new challenge, be it a tricky micro-organism to identify, or troubleshooting a problem on an instrument that isn’t behaving.

How do you most enjoy spending time outside work

I love to travel, although I don’t do it as often as I would like! I love going to new places, seeing different cultures in their day-to-day lives, and enjoying the local cuisine and shopping!

Health tip

Take micro-pauses. When sitting at a microscope or desk all day, your body needs a stretch to get the blood flowing. So get up, have a brief stretch and take a walk about. It’ll help prevent overuse type injuries and give you some incidental exercise. Every little bit counts!

Something your colleagues may not know about you

I’m a bit of a chatter box, so there probably isn’t a lot that the people I work with directly don’t know about me. I love getting to know people, and sharing in their trials and tribulations, and of course joining them in their joys (... and getting all our work done together, too, of course).