Like many histotechnologists, Clare Thornton didn’t intend to enter the field. After earning a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Maine, she started working for Dahl-Chase Diagnostic Services in Bangor, where they decided histology would be the best place for her.
And Dahl-Chase was right.
Thornton fell in love with histology and is currently the company’s Lead IHC Technologist. She’s also been an active member of NSH for over a decade and her dedication to our organization and profession has made her an obvious choice for 2024’s Histotechnologist of the Year award.
We caught up with Thornton to learn more about her career, why she loves histology so much, and what NSH membership means to her.
What do you find most rewarding about being a histologist and why?
I think absolutely the most rewarding—and I think most histotechs are going to say this—is the patient care. Even though we don't have patient contact, you always have in the back of your mind that there is a real person on the other end of what we're doing. And that person, unfortunately, could be very sick. We want to get them the best quality results, but also as fast as possible. You just think, “Gosh, if that was me, I wouldn't want to be waiting around to find out if I have cancer.”
So 100 percent, the most rewarding thing is just being part of that, and being a really integral part of the whole healthcare team, even though most people don't even know we exist. For me, the best part is really trying to provide the best patient care possible.
What advice would you give to up-and-coming histotechnologists?
My biggest advice would be to look at being a histotech as more than just a job that you show up to. I have done a lot of volunteering with NSH for quite a few years now, and it has been a lot of work, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. Even though I’m still working at the same place I was hired at over 20 years ago, I’ve had so many doors open to me. So when the time comes—and the time probably will come—that I'm ready to try something new, go someplace new, I have so many relationships with other people in the field, and I wouldn't trade that for anything.
As much as you can, get involved with NSH, even if it's on a minor level. God knows we need as much help as we can get with volunteers. The benefit I have gotten from it has paid off, and will pay off even more in the future. Networking is invaluable, and I could probably say I know somebody in every state in the country because of the work I've done through NSH.
How do you feel the histology field has changed since you started?
It's changed a lot. Sometimes I still think of myself as one of the young ones, but that's changing. Now I've got some coworkers who could be my child. I think back to when we used to make our hematoxylin and eosin by hand, handwrite our cassettes or slides, and do offline antigen retrieval using vegetable steamers and pressure cookers. That was about the era that I came in on, and wow, it's really changed a lot. Automation has really allowed those changes to happen, but if we didn't have those kinds of things, we'd be in big trouble. With the amount of histotechs we have in the country, or even globally, and the amount of work that we do, I think it would be really hard if we were still doing things the old-school way.
The basics haven’t changed. The H&E stain is still the same. Lots of new IHC stuff has come along the way, but in some ways, it's still done the same. So in some ways, it's almost a little comforting. Things change, there’s lots of new technology, but the basics are still there, and you still use those basics every day.
Why do you feel membership in NSH is important?
Membership is important because there's power in numbers. There are a lot of changes that people would like to see. They would like more professional recognition. They would like better salaries. They would like better training. We want to encourage people to join, and make histology their career. The more members we have, the bigger our voices.
For me, that's the number one reason why I think membership is important. If we're trying to get the attention of CLIA or CMS or the FDA, they're going to listen to us a lot more if we've got 10,000 members as opposed to 2,000 members. The more members that we can get, the more we're going to be able to accomplish.
What does winning the Histologist of the Year Award mean to you?
It means a lot. I’ve volunteered a lot of my own personal time. People who have worked with me know that I'm pretty much not available during my work hours, so all the volunteering that I've done for NSH has truly been on my free time. I do it because I want to, that's the bottom line. It’s certainly not to get any sort of award or anything like that. I was a little shocked when I heard that I was being given this award. But it's really validating and it's exciting.
Congratulations Clare!
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