Cassandra Ambuehl

Cardinal Health relocated the Compression department to the Hazelwood site and I was eager to join this group for a new and challenging career opportunity. Some of the new products we were learning to utilize was the SCD 700, AVI, and SCD SmartFlow units. Many of these studies result in the use of DataMasters, microscopes, leak testers, temperature chambers, tensile testing machines, manometers and a mix of other scientific measuring devices. I regularly and actively train new hires on test protocols and how to use equipment both in compression and enteral feeding. I also regularly travel across America to support SCD SmartFlow implementations, software updates, tubing recalls and much more to assist in supporting our medical products in the field.

Cardinal Health is a medical device company that makes products for compression, enteral feeding, thermometry, endoscopy, needles and more. In the Hazelwood R&D Engineering site we tackled both new and legacy products. Not only have I worked on supporting complaints in the field but I've also performed studies to make sure new products are functioning properly prior to launch. Many of these studies required in the use of multimeters, flow rate devices, water baths, tensile testing machines, testing chambers and a mix of other devices and test setups. Protocols were written and approved for making these studies and recorded in regulated laboratory notebooks and approved data sheets for accuracy and longevity. I spent a week down in Atlanta, GA for a week to do a major reprogramming of enteral feeding pumps to get Kangaroo pumps ready for hundreds of customers.

In October of 2017 I decided to broaden my horizons at Patheon and accepted work in the Microbiology Lab as an Environmental Monitoring Technician. Environmental Monitoring included a new skill set where I routinely monitored all pharmaceutical areas at the Berkeley site to identify if there were any adverse bacteria or mold in the water or environment of the clean room manufacturing areas. This job required cGMP training and aseptic technique working in a pharmaceutical environment in order to accurately perform the duties mentioned above. I learned how to read agar rodac and settling plates as well as knowing how to work with the MIMS program for inputting Environmental Monitoring data. Utilizing MIMS I created barcodes for my daily sampling to create worklists for both water and agar monitoring. I also utilized the autoclave to ensure our equipment was properly sanitized and cleaned for lab use.

In the first two years I was a fully trained Buffers and Media Technician as well as being responsible for additional tasks. I used SAP for consuming materials in batch records used for buffers and media formulation. I also had upper level access in SAP to technically complete records and also perform official review of cGMP documentation. I was in charge of completing shift notes and communicating our team's progress at the end of every workday. I was skilled in the current sample tracking database and created barcode labels for batch records and also submitting them. In the creation of buffers and media I have calibrated and utilized pH meters, conductivity meters, NOVA, osmolality meters, turbidity meters and other instrumentation as needed. Daily I worked in a clean room (ISO 5, ISO 7, and ISO 8) environments where we formulated multiple batches of buffers and media.

My second internship with this company was focused more on engineering projects focused on quality of molds for car parts. This included torque testing of parts, travel between plants in Flora and Salem, as well as testing gauges and other equipment for quality control. Some long term projects I completed were the creation of light testers for all of the car parts in the Salem plant as well as gathering data and solving quality engineering problems when they occurred.

I dealt with problems and concerns from students, routed them to their destination and graded homework. My job included other secretarial duties that included answering important phone calls, copying and distributing school papers and other assignments made by employees in the office.

I utilized Microsoft Access to edit and improve a new hazardous waste database. After implementation, trained team members on how to interpret and utilize the new database. I was also responsible for maintaining hazardous waste schedules & confirming the accuracy of submissions to avoid costly penalties for the company and their clients. I organized and implemented a new and improved filing system for customer profiles in order to easily obtain customer files for day to day use. I also filled in for the secretarial position when required, such as answering important phone calls and greeting customers upon entry to the company site.

This summer intern experience with North American Lighting taught me about internal packaging (where I created a database for the company), as well as robotics training for company robots. Other activities I participated in were data processing, writing reports and creating packaging for internal part distribution.