CLINICAL LAB SCIENEC

14
ESSENTIALS OF CLINICAL LABORATORY SCIENCE
on an immediate basis (called “stat”). Even under the stressors listed, laboratory
workers are expected to produce accurate results in a timely manner.
Image Projected by Laboratory Professionals
Social status is often associated with one’s profession. Few laypersons and medical
workers, including phlebotomists, are aware of the knowledge required to
become a medical laboratory worker. Many patients and visitors are unfamiliar
with the role a medical laboratory technician or technologist plays on the health
care team. Pharmacists and nurses, to name a couple of medical professions,
have done a great deal to raise their stature as professionals, but laboratory
professionals have not accomplished as much in that area. Fragmentation of
educational and training standards have possibly harmed the progress of the
profession and the raising of the public’s consciousness regarding the value of
medical laboratory workers. The various registry bodies that provide certification
for laboratory workers sometimes still appear to be at odds with each other,
even while purportedly pursuing the same goals. During the past 30 years, little
progress has been made to cure these ills, despite the efforts of many laboratory
professionals and sometimes politicians (CLIA 67 and 88) to push for consistent
standards and requirements for this important component of the medical care
industry.
Some of the reasons for the lack of progress in moving the profession forward
lie in the apathy of many of the workers themselves. There are still some medical
laboratory workers who were “credentialed” by the old government programs
initiated by the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, which has
evolved into the Department of Health and Human Services. Others attended a
1-year program decades ago that credentialed them as “technologists” with no
college-level academic preparation. Some credentialing agencies maintain that
certain academic requirements are unreasonable obstacles to some persons aspiring
to become laboratory workers. Regardless of whether these issues are real
or perceived, some activity must be taken to provide consistency between the
differing factions for credentialing or licensure. Most professions require a college
degree, so many consider this to be a precondition for entering the training
portion of a clinical laboratory program. For the past few years, the American
Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) and the American Society for Clinical Laboratory
Sciences (ASCLS) have worked with the National Credentialing Agency
for Laboratory Personnel (NCA) to form a unified front in dealing with these
problems. In December 2008, an agreement was reached that resulted in several
committees beginning work to resolve any differences between these groups. But
until these groups and their members grow to such proportions that collective
efforts will produce positive results, the situation will likely not change.
Advances in the Laboratory for the Future
As the medical detective of the health care industry, the laboratory worker has
an almost unlimited range of opportunities for employment. Laboratories are
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