Academic Programs

Over the past several years, university programs that offer Clinical Laboratory Sciences as a major declined to levels that I think were unacceptable. Now this was in the boom years when the profession saw a lot of its practitioners change careers into areas such as information technology, business and finance. A lot of these career changers site declining wages that did not keep up with inflation as one of the reasons for their exit. In recent years however, the rececssion has brought some focus on the healthcare industry which has shed less jobs as compared to the broader economy. Healthcare is one of fastest growing industry according to careerbuilder, and the continued growth of this sector has helped enrollement at schools that offer Clinical Laboratory Sciences. We hope that the pick up in enrollement especially in low cost community colleges will continue to grow. Community colleges mostly offer an Associate degree in  Clinical Laboratory Sciences. The programs offer a low cost alternative to the traditional four year college. These med techs are well prepared to practice and I think that employers should pay close attention to these programs and in some cases help in any way they can as these community college bases programs can provide the necessary pool of employees they need to shore up their employement base. We shall try as much as possible to provide links to the various programs in your area.

This is a blog created by a Med Tech, for med techs. Please provide comments and we will include them in our post.

Route of Entry

Most Medical Technologists got into the profession through the traditional route of going to college, be it a four year college  or the most common two year college of today. Yet there are a great number who were grandfathered into their med tech position through on the job training. I have met professionals who are excellent techs through this route. So how did you become a med tech. Care to share?

I got in through the traditional four year college where I majored in Clinical Laboratory Sciences. Passed through a six to eight months of clinical training in a hospital, enrolled and passed my board exam, then got a job. Please tell us your story.

Definition of Terms

Medical Technologists work in the clinical laboratory. They run the blood tests that help the Physician diagnose an illness or disease. The field of Medical Technology is rather broad and encompasses all areas in the laboratory such as Clinical Chemistry, Clinical Hematology, Clinical Immunology, Blood Banking, Clinical Microbiology, Molecular Diagnostics, Cytogenetics, Cytology, Histotechnology, Tissue Typing, Flow Cytometry, Phlebotomy, Coagulation, and Urinalysis. Some work in research, educational settings, but most work in the tradional setting of the laboratory.

In this blog, the term "Medical Technologist" shall refer to all professionals that work in the various labs in the clinical setting be it in the hospital or reference labs, research or in education. The term shall include anyone who performs performs laboratory tests on patient samples and releases and documents those results into computer system.

This is a blog created by a med tech for med techs. So leave a comment or two and tell us about your experiences, frustrations, areas of growth. Also tell us about what you do, what you like about your job and what you like less about it.