How do I become a Medical Technologist?

If you're still in high school, then the easiest way to get started on the path to becoming a Medical Technologist or Clinical Laboratory Scientist is by visiting website for the National Accrediting Agency for Clinical Laboratory Sciences where you can find an accredited program for a number of positions in the clinical lab - including Medical Technology. Another helpful part of this website is that it offers contact information for the directors of all the accredited programs. This is important information if you intend to apply to the program! If you are looking for a four-year degree, then the type of program that you want is a CLS/MT, or Clinical Laboratory Scientist/Medical Technologist program. There is also a two-year degree called CLT/MLT, or Clinical Laboratory Technician/Medical Laboratory Technician. These folks do basically the same job as the Medical Technologists but with a little less pay because they do not get the extra training in health care management. Accredited CLS programs are required to provide training in management, business, and education along with the clinical science courses.

If you already have a college degree of some type or are already working on one, you are going to have to do basically the same thing. Unfortunately, I am not aware of any programs in the country that are geared towards the working adult. I myself had a Bachelor's of Science degree in Biology before going back to earn another Bachelor's in Clinical Laboratory Science. While I could take the courses at the pace that I wanted to, in the end, all programs require you to go through a full time internship at a hospital before graduating. I was, however, able to balance the internship with another job.

If you are not starting out in a Medical Technology or Clinical Laboratory Science program, then the key to getting into one of those programs is to make sure you are taking all the prerequisites outlined by the American Society for Clinical Pathology. If you are in a science field such as Biology or Chemistry, these classes are typically very easy to fit into your course schedule.

It is also very important to find a program that will accept your science credits from other schools. If you spend four years gathering the classes that you need and then get accepted into a program just to find you are going to have to retake most of those courses, it can be very disheartening as well as expensive! While I was going to Indiana Wesleyan University, I was in regular contact with the program director at Grand Valley State University to make sure I was getting the classes I needed and that they would indeed fulfill the requirements of their program. Make sure you fully understand the requirements of a program before you apply. Most (if not all) programs require a secondary application after being accepted into the school. You will be competing with other potential CLS majors for only a few spots based on the requirements you have completed, your gpa, as well as extra-curricular activities. These programs are not yet as competitive as some other Health Science programs, but as the shortage continues, more and more people are applying to the programs making it more competitive all the time.

Best of luck to you! Feel free to ask any questions using the comment function.

Is Clinical Laboratory Science right for me?

While the very idea of getting into a field that is actually hiring right now can be appealing, it is good to know that it is a job that you will enjoy going to. There are a variety of personality types in the clinical lab- introverts, extroverts, type A, or type B- whatever you are. The underlying interest in clinical laboratory scientists is solving problems. Before you start thinking of the story problems that they torment us with all throughout our childhood in math classes, I should tell you that these problems are nothing like those. The types of problems we look at in the clinical lab are more to do with the lab results and instrumentation.

For instance, Bob's potassium level is 9.0 mEq/L. For those of you who don't know, this value is not exactly compatible with life, so unless Bob is indeed a cadaver in the morgue, there is something wrong with this picture. The first place we are going to look to solve this problem is the serum itself. With a potassium level this high (normal is approximately 3.5-5.0 mEq/L), you are probably going to find the serum is almost the same bright red color as the blood itself rather than being a pale yellow color. This is an indication that the blood cells were lysed during the collection of the blood rendering this potassium value completely inaccurate. This can be a problem with the patient's blood, but more than likely it is an issue with the phlebotomist's technique. The solution to this problem? Unfortunately for Bob, the blood needs to be redrawn.

If talking about potassium and blood turns you away, let's talk about microbiology. Imagine all the bugs you can't normally see because they're microscopic. But when you put a non-sterile item on some agar and incubate it, all these bugs grow up into visible colonies all over the agar. It might look something like this:


Cool, right? One of my favorite things to do is take a plate that looks like this, only with lots of different things on it (this plate is only growing one thing) and run tests on them to figure out what's growing. This is how we figure out whether you should take amoxicillin or the z-pack for you ear ache.

Another department that might interest you is the blood bank. There is nothing quite like getting word from the emergency room that they have a patient who is bleeding severely and needs blood. You have a short amount of time to determine this patients blood type, make sure they don't have any abnormal antibodies, and then find crossmatch-compatible blood for them. If you do find an abnormal antibody in the patient's blood - then you've got to find out what it is and decide whether or not it's significant or not before transfusing blood into the patient.

These are just a few examples of the types of problems that we solve in the clinical lab everyday. If you enjoy jigsaw puzzles, sudoku, kakuro, or maybe even solving a good math problem, you might enjoy working in the clinical lab. Or if you frequently find yourself trying to solve other people's life problems - any kind of problems - you could very easily enjoy clinical laboratory science!

What is Clinical Laboratory Science

Clinical Laboratory Scienctists (CLS), or Medical Technologists are the trained professionals who run the lab tests whenever you or someone else gets their blood drawn. The majority of the education required to become a CLS are science classes. They are required to take courses in chemistry, biology, and mathematics before moving onto clinical courses which focus on the different laboratory tests. By the end of their education, they not only have to know what the different tests are, but also what the results mean and how to tell if there is a discrepancy with the results.

Laboratory testing today is highly automated, so they also need to be able to operate, maintain, and diagnose basic problems with the instrumentation. While some testing is still done manually, most of it is putting specimens on, pushing some buttons, and then analyzing the results. The automation allows the scientists to spend more time looking at the results to ensure that they are accurate and make sense.

Part of making sure that they are releasing high quality results is regularly running and analyzing Quality Control Testing. When the quality control tests do not provide the expected results, usually it means that there is a problem with the instrument or the reagents, and it is up to the technologist to determine what the problem is and how to fix it. Problem solving skills are some of the most important skills for a CLS to have.

Future posts will cover the specifics on how to become a Clinical Laboratory Scientist, what types of tests are performed in the various departments, where the job opportunities are, and important resources for those who are on the path to become a Clinical Laboratory Scientist.

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