Introduction: Effusion cytology can be performed for the purpose of diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of malignant disease. A common analysis of effusion cytology samples is the May Grunwald Giemsa stain.    Aim: The aim of the study was to compare May Grunwald Giemsa stain and May Grunwald Giemsa Quick Stain in order to determine the best quality stain and suggest ways to improve the current staining protocol.     Materials and Methods: The methods used in this study are the routine laboratory’s standard procedures for  May-Grunwald Giemsa stain and May-Grunwald Giemsa Quick Stain but with adapted washing steps that investigates the effect of tap water, distilled water, and phosphate buffer on stain quality. Two pleural effusion samples were stained in the initial experiment and two pleural effusions and one ascites sample in the second experiment.    Results and Conclusion: All samples gave a greater score when stained with May-Grunwald Giemsa Quick Stain compared to traditional May-Grunwald Giemsa stain. For the traditional May-Grunwald Giemsa, the use of any of the three phosphate buffers scores higher than the routine washing where tap water is used. In conclusion, it would be of benefit to further investigate and implement phosphate buffer in traditional staining or proceed with the May-Grunwald Quick Stain for all pleural and ascites effusions.