The MalariaCare Toolkit

Tools for maintaining high-quality malaria case management services

Mentoring on common problems in slide preparation

Download all the MalariaCare tools from: www.malariacare.org/resources/toolkit.

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) funded MalariaCare under the terms of Cooperative Agreement No. AID-OAA-A-12-00057. The information provided in this presentation does not necessarily reflect the views or positions of USAID or the US Government.

Mentoring on common problems in slide preparation

MALARIACARE SUPERVISOR TRAINING

Objectives

• Describe common problems seen in preparation of thick and thin blood smears for malaria.

• Discuss mentoring approaches used to correct problems and improve laboratory staff performance.

• To achieve these objectives, we will: • Review photos of blood smears with common problems.

• Share experiences from your work as a laboratorian.

3

Are these thick films acceptable?

4

Are these thick films acceptable?

5

Thick blood films

should be round Too thick

Is this thick blood smear acceptable? Are these thick films acceptable?

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7

You know it is correct because you can read text through the blood film.

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Are these thin slides acceptable?

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10

A thin film should end in a conical tail and must cover two-thirds of the slide.

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Discussion

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Other common problems you’ve encountered in blood smear

preparation and how you can address those problems