When I was just a First Year Graduate Student Jekyll, I saw another student's grad school application in which she mentioned that she had already done fine dissection work, so she knew she had good "hands."
At the time, I scoffed at the relative importance of this metric. So you can dissect--who cares? Science is about Ideas.
A postdoc I was working with put the kibosh on me. "I knew a woman in grad school who had to drop out of her lab because she simply couldn't do the dissection," she said. I listened, but remained skeptical.
This week, teaching Tech the niceties of pipetting, I couldn't help but notice that he has the worst hands I've ever seen. He shook so much that the pipette clattered uncontrollably against the Falcon tube.
When we'd finished for the day, I asked him about the shakes. "Lot of coffee this morning?"
"Well," he replied, "I had coffee, and I didn't eat breakfast, so that contributes. But also shaky hands run in my family. Some kind of inbreeding a while back, I think."
"Ah," said I. "Ok, I'd recommend you cut back on the coffee and eat more breakfast." Two days later, he was perhaps less shaky, but still had significant difficulty picking up a slide with forceps.
Now, I have several friends with noticeable tremors who are nonetheless outstanding experimentalists. I think they use the standard tricks--brace one hand against the other, or against a bench--and perhaps some others I don't know.
So I know that this is not the end of the world. Still, when someone is employed as a new, straight-from-college tech, their primary job is...to have good enough hands to do the work. (Also, molarity calculations.) Not to create Ideas (although that would be great too!) Oh, young Jekyll, why so foolish?
Up til now, I've been showing Tech some histology protocols that are only moderately hands-intensive. But on Monday or Tuesday, I have to teach Tech a dissection. It's not a terribly fine dissection, but it has to be done correctly to be useful. It will be a big waste of precious transgenic animals if he biffs it over and over.
I plan on sitting down with him beforehand to review steady-hands strategies. I don't have those rock-steady hands with superb control that some people do, but I've never had trouble learning dissections, so I don't have a lot to offer him. Do any of you have recommendations beyond what I listed above--bracing your hands or arms on something?
15 years ago
15 comments:
I do a 100 micron vessel catherization by hand. Here shaking at all impedes the catheterization. I place the tissue of interest in a pie plate so that I rest my wrists on the edge of the pie plate and that keeps my hands still (a technique I devised on my own).
But the other best cure for shakey hands is practice and confidence. I think that may come to your new tech with time.
use the shortest possible instruments, so use the short forceps over the 10" ones. the length of the instrument will amplify the shakes. sounds easy, but it really helps. make sure he knows not to hold his breath, that also makes a difference. maybe have him practice techniques in a nonsterile nonexpensive setting?
I agree with Isis and QSA that practice and shortening the length of the instrument can make all the difference. For animal microsurgeries, I find that steadying the forceps etc against the side of the incision can also help. If I find I'm having a particularly shaky day, taking a break to recharge and calm down can help (a chocolate fix does both of these things!).
I've trained a few dozen undergrads in pipetting... they are ALL nervous as hell and intimidated about sticking the stupid pipette tip in a gel well. Jacked up or undernourished, they all shake. And it makes me feel like a hovering vulture to watch. But after a while of them screwing it up and loading the stupid sample into the buffer and mutilating the wells, they get it. By the 1000th time, they get it. And they stop shaking. at least when I'm not looking! Pretend not to watch. Let them screw stuff up... make them do it again. I earned the nickname "slavedriver" thank you very much.
Physioprof tagged me... and I'm tagging you...
http://bluelabcoats.wordpress.com/2008/10/26/6-random-things-about-drdra/
Hmm, I agree with the others. Sounds like this guy doesn't have a ton of experience, and he's been working with you (being observed) all of the time- he's still probably pretty nervous.
I hate animal experiment days primarily because I do not allow myself any coffee that morning. Another thing that helps me is that I get my face as close as possible to the action. Somehow having my eyes right there reduces the shakes.
Like previous commenters, I find the practice and wrist support makes fine dissections/cannulations much easier to deal with. The other thing I find useful for some of the more time-consuming fine work I do is to ensure that chairs and scopes are set at the correct height before starting. Hunching over an extra inch is fine for a few minutes, but if it's long procedure the shakes will just get worse and worse.
I second the bracing the hands and refraining the coffee the morning of important stuff. When I load a gel - early on anyway - I held my "other hand " under the forearm of my pipette arm, all while leaning the elbows on the table. THat helps.
When doing dissections, I find it helpful to stick my tongue out through my teeth to avoid clenching my jaw... with a mouth piece it is not as gross as it sounds.
And since he seems to be shaky, please tell him to abstain coffee that breakfast?! Good luck!
I do mouse embryo dissections--on those mornings, I drink lattes instead of black coffee, and eat carbs. Somewhat calming.
I also find it helpful to not over-think when I am dissecting. Over thinking --> panic --> shaking.
I switched from a clinical field and working in hospitals, to a molecular bio lab that is way more prestigious than I deserve or think I am qualified for, and therefore shook like an epileptic when first learning to load wells or pipette antibodies into a 96 well plate.
I got over this with time through many of the techniques already listed, I also practiced when no one was around with distilled water to make sure I was pipetting the correct amounts and into the location I wanted to. That helped to build my confidence up for the next observation/teaching experience by our labs post doc (a PhD/MD I might add).
The first tech I hired as a PI had a terrible tremor. I still remember his first day - my jaw hit the ground when I saw how badly he was shaking. He noticed and said "Didn't I mention my tremor when you interviewed me?" He did not. I had nightmares that night about all the money going down the drain.
But, cheer up. It was probably worse than usual because he was nervous, and even if he always shakes, and can't calculate molarity, he may have other strengths. Mine did.
Molarity... heh heh. The student who predated me in my PhD lab was apparently making up solutions on his first day, held up a big tub of (dry) NaCl, and said "this is at 1M, right?"
The techs were most relieved when I demonstrated that I actually knew how to make my solutions.
I think I literally punched holes through half of the wells in my first gel. This feat completely astonished my mentor, but in a few months I was totally schooling her on loading time/clearness of bands. So give the wee n00bins some time and they shall flourish, maybe.
I didn't have shaking problems in molecular biology labs loading samples into gel wells.
BUT when I started learning dissection in electrophysiology lab I was terrible! The first time I did it I was so calm and steady that Postdoc was astonished. She said she never saw someone such steady at their first dissection. HOWEVER she kept on stressing that I should speed up and do it quickly otherwise the brain will die and become useless. I must also be very careful not to damage the brain (by punching it with the scissors for e.g.). Here I became very nervous and started shaking like hell! I always panicked that I would end up with dead brain tissue either because of being slow or clumsy.
Someone suggested that I should cut down on my coffee, but it was just no use. I kept shaking for about two months and yielding dead brain almost always until Advisor interfered and said that I should not worry about speed for now and focus only on the procedure. "Speed comes with time," He said.
Eventually, I got it. I am amazed myself that I don't shake anymore and I am also fast. And yes, I perform better when no-one is watching!
PS: at the very beginning I practiced on rats that were drug-treated after the experiment was over. i.e. they were going to be executed anyway.
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