Is the Medical Laboratory Technician Qualified to do the same Job as the Medical Laboratory Scientist?
Introduction
Employment in the medical industry is expected to grow as the Baby Boomer generation enters retirement and then old-age (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2017). One dimension of the healthcare industry that will be influenced by this trend is the medical laboratory. Two key stakeholders in the medical laboratory are the Medical Laboratory Technician (MLT) and the Medical Technologist or Scientist (MT or MLS) (American Society for Clinical Pathology, 2017). These two medical careers, very close in scope, as well as in the supportive roles they offer each other, have only recently been differentiated and codified by standard. The …show more content…
Most MLTs work in a hospital or doctor’s office (Panteghini, 2004). MLTs will often work within a traditional healthcare hierarchy by which they commonly face informal and formal authorities. For example, while MLTs will not typically have a pathologist as a manager, they must work alongside pathologists that have vast amounts of informal authority within the clinical setting. Most MLTs are assigned to work under a Medical Laboratory Scientist (MLS), Medical Technologist, laboratory manager, or a physician (Panteghini, 2004). The testing procedures executed by a MLT include a broad array of laboratory fields such as microbiology, blood banking, hematology, clinical chemistry, cytotechnology, and molecular biology (Rosenberg, 1999). MLTs will also be involved with a variety of laboratory activities that range from preparing fluid specimens, cross matching blood types to determine compatibility, chemistry analysis, urinalysis procedures, examining immune system elements, and operating innovative pieces of laboratory equipment such as microscopes, cell counters, and automated analyzers (Baker & Silverton, …show more content…
The small change of title from Technician to Scientist equates to more years of schooling, different licensing requirements, and one hopes, a higher wage. This is seen “While an associate degree or other type of postsecondary education is typically needed for the technician exam, the four-year degree is generally needed to be eligible to sit for any of the technology/scientist certification exams” (Medical Technology Schools, 2017, p. 1). The American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) is a certification organization which offers different certifying exams for both MLT and MLS just for this reason (Medical Technology Schools,
Introduction
Employment in the medical industry is expected to grow as the Baby Boomer generation enters retirement and then old-age (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2017). One dimension of the healthcare industry that will be influenced by this trend is the medical laboratory. Two key stakeholders in the medical laboratory are the Medical Laboratory Technician (MLT) and the Medical Technologist or Scientist (MT or MLS) (American Society for Clinical Pathology, 2017). These two medical careers, very close in scope, as well as in the supportive roles they offer each other, have only recently been differentiated and codified by standard. The …show more content…
Most MLTs work in a hospital or doctor’s office (Panteghini, 2004). MLTs will often work within a traditional healthcare hierarchy by which they commonly face informal and formal authorities. For example, while MLTs will not typically have a pathologist as a manager, they must work alongside pathologists that have vast amounts of informal authority within the clinical setting. Most MLTs are assigned to work under a Medical Laboratory Scientist (MLS), Medical Technologist, laboratory manager, or a physician (Panteghini, 2004). The testing procedures executed by a MLT include a broad array of laboratory fields such as microbiology, blood banking, hematology, clinical chemistry, cytotechnology, and molecular biology (Rosenberg, 1999). MLTs will also be involved with a variety of laboratory activities that range from preparing fluid specimens, cross matching blood types to determine compatibility, chemistry analysis, urinalysis procedures, examining immune system elements, and operating innovative pieces of laboratory equipment such as microscopes, cell counters, and automated analyzers (Baker & Silverton, …show more content…
The small change of title from Technician to Scientist equates to more years of schooling, different licensing requirements, and one hopes, a higher wage. This is seen “While an associate degree or other type of postsecondary education is typically needed for the technician exam, the four-year degree is generally needed to be eligible to sit for any of the technology/scientist certification exams” (Medical Technology Schools, 2017, p. 1). The American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) is a certification organization which offers different certifying exams for both MLT and MLS just for this reason (Medical Technology Schools,