CLINICAL LAB SCIENEC

CHAPTER 2: LABORATORY PERSONNEL CREDENTIALING AND FACILITY ACCREDITATION 57
such as nanotechnology, molecular biology, and genetic manipulations, as well
as the use of genetic information, will be ever more prevalent in the diagnosis
and treatment of virtually all diseases. There is still much to be done in the area
of credentialing of laboratory workers, and training and retraining these professionals
will be necessary as their roles in the positions they occupy change, as
they certainly will. It is incumbent on all laboratory workers to become a part of
these areas that need to be addressed.
Clinical laboratory workers have a myriad of opportunities within the laboratory
profession. The four major departments of the clinical laboratory afford
the professional a choice of the basic types of work that are performed in a
typical laboratory setting. An additional possibility is in the histology and cytotechnology
sections of the pathology laboratory, in which tissue specimens and
cell preparations, respectively, are evaluated. These two choices usually require
additional specialized training, and it is possible for technicians to transition
into the pathology department, as some of the skills practiced by technicians and
technologists are directly transferrable to the pathology section.
Most job opportunities exist in hospitals and clinics. Other good job opportunities
exist in government and pharmaceutical research laboratories and in the
armed forces laboratories, where both civilians and military personnel may work
side by side. Reference laboratories, where smaller laboratories send seldomperformed
tests and physician office laboratories, are other potential sources of
employment. Education, sales, and training for users of manufactured equipment
offer good job opportunities with excellent pay and benefits for many of
these businesses.
Basic nomenclature for the two major levels of technical personnel of the
laboratory differ, based on which accrediting body or registry is being used.
MLTs registered in one agency may be known as CLTs in another. The same is
true for MTs, who may be called CLSs by one agency and medical technologists
by other accrediting agencies. There is also a blurring of the edges between
duties performed by the two basic levels of personnel, and the job tasks depend
on the clinical facility and its interpretation of personnel standards. Some states
license laboratorians and mandate what each category can or cannot do in the
way of producing laboratory reports. Still other states have few or no regulations
regarding the practice of laboratory personnel. This has resulted in years
of competition between “registering” authorities and their own interpretation of
laws and provisions that are in some cases local based.
Some laboratory tasks are physical and require that certain essential tasks be
performed; this may hinder or keep some with physical or mental disabilities
from achieving a position in the laboratory. Accuracy is vital, and the ability to concentrate
for long periods and to pay attention to detail is a must. The work may be
stressful, and the ability to organize the work flow and to prioritize tasks is essential.
The laboratorian must also maintain a professional decorum as it is important
to work with other health care professionals as well as with patients and families.
Few members of the public are aware of the hierarchy of workers such as technicians
and technologists within the laboratory or even of the existence of such a
program of study. Even among health care workers, there is little knowledge of the
Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.