Smear tactics: Making and reading blood smears

Blood film review is an important skill for fact-checking analyser data and, especially, for when your haematology analyser decides to malfunction out of hours! This session will review how to assess a blood film without the support of analyser numbers. We'll cover how a pathologist approaches looking at a blood film and some important considerations before you even start looking at the film. The session will also include some tips on how to assess PCV, WBC, and red cell size.

• Where to look on the film for specific morphologic features
• How to estimate some of the numerical data from the analyser
• How to recognise and interpret some important morphologic changes