CLINICAL LAB SCIENEC

56
ESSENTIALS OF CLINICAL LABORATORY SCIENCE
Educational institutions also have a number of accreditation bodies; some are
institution-wide and others affect programs only. However, the entire institution
is affected by individual program accreditation, as the institution is ultimately
responsible for enabling program officials to meet the program requirements.
In some states, personnel licensure of professionals, including laboratorians, is
required, while other states accept registered personnel as being “licensed.” To
further complicate the situation, some states have few or no requirements for
various professions, including laboratory workers.
In addition, some of these states will accept registry as laboratory workers
by one professional organization and not by another such agency due to differences
in the standards of each. The graduate of a clinical laboratory program
must choose an acceptable route to become qualified to work as a professional,
based on state, local, and institutional requirements. The administrators of various
schools of laboratory medicine around the country should be able to aid the
graduate of an accredited program in determining the qualifications needed to
work in the area where the laboratory worker seeks employment.
Some signs of cooperation have occurred relatively recently. Some states
have adopted personnel licensure and have accepted the examinations from an
accreditation agency as the official licensure test. The fragmentation that has
been rife in the laboratory field since the early 1900s has changed very little.
There is much work to do for the professional who works in laboratory medicine.
Each new graduate should become involved in local, state, and national
organizations to enhance and advance the profession.
Hundreds of years ago, clinical or medical laboratory technology began its
climb toward its present status as one of, if not the most, important diagnostic
and prognostic tools possessed by the medical practitioners. From early observations
of ants eating sugar in the urine of diabetic patients and the idea that
the blood of sick patients could contain impurities and poisons, the profession
has evolved into an extremely sophisticated and technologically advanced career
choice.
From the contributions of the fledgling scientists of yesteryear to the efforts
of biomedical engineers and innovative practitioners has come the base of knowledge
that we take for granted today. All components of laboratory practice, from
the preanalytical aspects of collection of specimens and treatment of them along
with proper documentation of identification, are the first basic steps of providing
accurate and useful clinical information. In some cases, these tasks fall on the
phlebotomist, before the specimens are presented to the laboratory technologists
and technologists. Laboratory professionals then become involved in the analytical
portion of the process of providing clinical data. A great deal of knowledge,
diligence, and attention to detail is necessary to provide the best possible results.
The third dimension of providing this service is the postanalytical portion of
the entire process, where the results are produced in an intelligible format and
provided to the right person.
We have seen from the previous introduction that the laboratorian’s daily
duties have changed dramatically. With current advances in the laboratory arena,
the work will become even more important as well as more sophisticated. Terms
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