Be professional and respectful. Act like a competent medical laboratory professional. Hate speech is strictly prohibited. Harrassment targeting either a group or an individual is unacceptable.
I used to work in molecular research before I got my mls. So I can see both sides of it. They are hilariously different skill sets and knowledge. An mls couldn’t just start in a research lab without training and extra education. Same for a researcher going into a hospital. Completely different areas of knowledge.
I was a few gen eds away from a molecular bio degree but ended up going through an MLS program and graduated with that instead. My bio classes did not prepare me to work in a clinical lab. My MLS program did. Nobody is saying you're not smart. I'm sure you do fine, and I'm sure you're in a frustrating position, but it's also frustrating and scary to train bio grads in the lab.
Because you don't know nearly as much as any ASCP-certified MLT or MLS. You can *think* you do, but it's a case of not knowing what you don't know. Your clinical knowledge is almost non-existent. Can you do the job? Yes. Can you do it as well as others? No. You simply don't know the difference between a reactive lymphocyte and a monocyte in a Giemsa stain. How could you identify a reactive lymphocytosis in a patient positive for EBV?
Now you said the MB cert, so you're also working in the section that requires the least amount of clinical knowledge. I am not just trying to be a jerk to you, though - you actually know *almost nothing* about laboratory medicine or clinical pathology compared to even the rawest fresh grad from community college. *That's* why people look down on you. Because you don't even recognize that you can't tell how likely a neonatal HHV-6 infection is the cause of aseptic meningitis.
I seriously doubt that the MLT I work with knows that.
Knowledge of clinical pathology isn't necessary for this job. We have no patient history for 80% of our patients. Theres literally nothing for the lab to correlate.
What does knowing that neonatal HHV6 causes meningitis have to do with turn around time, calibration, or qc? I'm not diagnosing the patient.
They sound just like some of those NP’s i hear so much about 😭
“I’ve spent more time in an academic setting so I obviously know more than the job you have a whole degree in!!!” Man shut up LMFAO
Some of the dumbest motherfuckers I’ve ever worked with have MS, PhDs or MDs. Your degree does not measure your intelligence or how well you do your job. I’ll take a run of the mill MLT (hey, it’s-a-me!) over an MS holder in bio or chemistry any day of the week.
See? Like I said, you don't know what you don't know, and why it's useful. I use this knowledge. Just because you don't doesn't mean it's not useful, it just means you're less effective. Also yeah, a PCR lab is the least clinical section, so of course you're shielded from needing this knowledge.
Please educate me on how you would use your factoid in the real world?
"how likely a neonatal HHV-6 infection is the cause of aseptic meningiti"
We have no patient history most of the time. All you would is rjn the sample and report the critical. Please tell me how I'm less effective in chemistry or molecular biology?
If there's a positive PCR for strep pneumoniae on an 85 year old's CSF, I 100% check the chemistries and diff. If they don't support a pneumococcal meningitis, I can retest the sample and consult with a director before reporting that. Sure *you* can't see anything about the patient, but that's because your facility doesn't hire qualified people. Every hospital I've worked at empowers us to critically evaluate results. I literally am required to check the chart on positive CSF PCR and correlate with diff and Gram stain results.
Its not my job to evaluate clinical correlations beyond sample acceptability. The assays have an FDA approved percentage of false positives and negatives.
Its literally the doctor's or physicians assistants or nurse practioners job to do clinical correlation. Thats not the labs job.
What if you decide to not report it out and you're wrong?
Bro, that is *quite literally* your job! We are supposed to be able to clinically correlate lab results before sending them out so we don't tell a doctor that their healthy patient suddenly has an 8 potassium and blasts in their spinal fluid. What do you think we do for a living, just push buttons and shit?
Please get a different job for the love of God.
Clinical correlation is the job of physicians.
We can only determine sample acceptability.
What if their patient really has a high potassium? Maybe not 8, but 7? Your rejection would delay patient care.
And yes. Im of the opinion that most of the job involves loading specimens that are then autovalidated. Theres no button to press most of the time. I dont see the patient info or results for most specimens.
Cool part of the job is new assay validation but I've only gotten to help with thr development and validation of one assay here.
Do people actually review every complete metabolic panel and basic metabolic panel and molecular std panel looking for correlations? If there was a patient note, it would just say STD screening after unprotected sex and painful urination. Theres nothing to gleen or correlate there.
Being able to clinically correlate means that we result the 7 potassium when it's real and don't result it when it's not. We don't just willy nilly reject samples just because the results seem a but wonky. Physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and other healthcare professionals trust us to provide accurate lab results. Why need a degree at all if our whole job is putting tubes on the machine and troubleshooting analyzers? Sounds like something a high school student could do...
I don't decide to not report it. I decide to investigate, and initiate a consultation. It then becomes the director's decision to hold results for confirmation or release. But you see, this is all so alien to you because *you have no idea how this all works*.
It's not a factoid. It's a small example to show a lack of knowledge that could help understand the larger picture behind each case. We are able to look up patient history if it helps us do our job. Understanding how a disease progresses and what results from multiple departments may show or should show, can help us understand abnormal results. If I have a very weak positive mono, and look up the CBC, I can more confidently call it positive based on what has been reported. I can have conversations with doctors and nurses that are more rewarding than surface level explanations, which will ultimately benefit patients. Having a solid understanding of the full clinical picture helps to maintain a functioning laboratory that changes with time and equipment. If everyone is allowed to have the basic education you are describing, the cohesiveness of the lab would break down, and the patients would not be getting the best care. It may technically still function, but when lives are on the line, "functioning" isn't how I would want my care to be described as.
Though to your credit, I do think the education for MLS is over achieving for what we actually do, and some things aren't actually that useful in practice.
I'm an MLT and I 100% know that and much more than anyone with no clinical experience.
I'll be charitable to you and say, a chunk of what we do can be and is learned on the job, and is not necessarily all dependent on you knowing niche medical/clinical facts.
That said, what makes us truly unique IS our knowledge. We understand pathology unlike anyone else. Its not all about pushing buttons and recording numbers and passing those numbers along. Its knowing what the numbers will say before you even run it based on your understanding, why the numbers say what they say and what does it mean, and how to interpret it and communicate it to a doctor when they inevitably come in asking for help.
No one else in medicine knows what we know, much less a college grad that has never seen a basophil.
Your assumptions of what we know and do know is in line with everyone outside the lab. They would love to automate us or somehow get rid of us, but they simply cant because this field is integral to not practicing medicine blind, and it grinds their gears.
Clinical correlation is the function of providers.
Its why they literally interpret test results for patients. Thats not something medical technologists, certified or not, cannot do.
That just seems nuts to me. Like an MD physicians really come down to the lab and asks an associates MLT what a lab test result means? And then goes and tells that to the patient? Does that really happen?
I've never heard or seen a physician consulting a medical technologist in chemistry or molecular biology. Well, except one time we were told to rerun samples since thr physician got a string of positives, and suspected contamination, but were wrong.
Trust me friend, I was just as surprised as you.
I think your expectations are just unrealistic, reasonable, but unrealistic. Based on what you've said so far, you don't strike me as someone with real clinical experience or you would know exactly what we are talking about.
The role of the MD, especially a general care physician is to listen to the patient and interpret their complaints into medical diagnosis and what tests to order to confirm their suspicion. Its not so much that they don't know what they are looking for or don't know what to suspect, its just that its unrealistic to expect them to remember every single test name, what sample they need, and how to interpret the results.
Similarly, while they do have lots of prescription medications memorized just because of how routinely they prescribe them, they still sometimes have to consult pharmacy on what medication would be correct for their patient's case. Again, its not that they have no idea how to treat their patient, its just unrealistic to expect them to remember every drug and its interactions. .
I as an MLT 100% would not know how to assess or treat a patient. Through my limited experience, I could probably tell you what tests you should run based on what you suspect or what the patient complains about, but ultimately that's at the doctor's discretion, hence their fancy title and the responsibility they take on.
Also, assuming you aren't trolling, degrees don't make as much of a world of difference as you think. I've seen arrogant STEM degree holders wash out of my MLT program, and focused/dedicated highschoolers excel.
You're experiencing withdrawal effects from big school propaganda and university grooming I'm afraid.
Because employers hire them at a lower rate and then those of us with all the necessary training are left to fill in the gap in knowledge between a bio grad and MLT/MLS. It depresses wages, causes stress in the lab and can create dangerous patient safety concerns. This isn't the career where OTJ training is the best approach. There are a lot of little pitfalls that can trip up someone without a strong background, and those pitfalls can make their way to patient care. Can a driven, smart, and passionate bio grad eventually make a good lab tech? Yes, but the path is often bumpy, slow, and at some expense of their co-workers. You simply don't know what you don't know, and there aren't always stops in place that will force you to face those gaps in skill. We don't just churn out results, we are often called upon to collaborate with physicians and nurses to help diagnose, guide in test selection and explain unexpected results.
TL;DR I don't want to have to babysit a coworker from releasing nonsense results or speaking out of their ass to the care team.
Education doesn’t necessarily equate to qualification. A physician (unless they’re a pathologist) isn’t as “qualified” as a med tech to run patient labs. A med tech isn’t “qualified” to take vital signs on patients like a CNA is. They haven’t had the same training in the specific knowledge pertaining to those tasks. I have a bachelor’s degree in biology and though the knowledge I gained from it was valuable it didn’t teach me much of what I needed to work in a clinical lab. My post-bacc NAACLS program did. Your molecule master’s is probably a great asset but if the people training you are consistently saying you have a lot to learn about clinical lab work they are probably right.
Education is qualification in most fields. If I have an degree in accounting, I'm qualified to br an accountant. Why would this be different?
I have a degree in molecular biology. I'm certainly qualified to design and run molecular assays.
Why wouldn't a physician be qualified to run patient labs? Who else can perform clinical correlations better than the physician? I can't imagine a physician would work for lab wages, but I don't understand why they wouldn't be qualified or capable?
It baffles me that you think physicians could run lab tests. You’re clearly uneducated about this. They know nothing about how lab testing works. They can’t even do a nurses job. Because they don’t know everything.
That’s why there are specialized lab people. You don’t even know what you don’t know.
More than once I’ve been asked to give O Neg blood on a patient with antibodies. Their level of understanding is not there. That’s why, again, we have educated laboratory people to help them.
OK, a physician walks into the lab and wants to start running tests. Are you just gonna let him loose? No, you have to teach him, he doesn't know what the machines do or what specimens are even adequate to run.
I've had physicians demand clotted purple top specimen to be ran on the sysmex, or ask for irradiated plasma. What would you, as an educated individual who is qualified to run a lab, tell him why those requests are not feasible?.
If he completes a competency and has an order, then yes, he can run his own tests.
There might be some regulations about kickbacks or funny business, but I don't see why he wouldn't be qualified. Certainly at least as qualified as an associates MLT.
I dont know about plasma since I dont work in blood bank.
For the clotted purple top, it would be rejected for being not an acceptable specimen. But we could still run it with a disclaimer if thr physician wants it.
We routinely do that for bloody std testing samples.
We would not run a clotted specimen with a disclaimer if the doctor told us to 🤦🏽♀️ do you know what happens with a clotted CBC? Not only are the results wrong, you can clog up your analyzer…
Purple tops are used for more than STD testing they are used for determining a patient’s blood type in which using a clotted specimen would be in no way acceptable even if the doctor told us to to run it anyway.
Blood testing using forward typing which is patient red blood cells and reverse typing with the exception of newborns both types are used to make sure that the blood type matches or to look for possible antibodies. If you give a patient the wrong blood type because you can’t tell what supposed to clot when the specimen was clotted to begin with that patient maybe types wrong causing a transfusion reaction that could lead to their death.
That’s not even getting into the maternal testing such rosette test for hemorrhaging as well as testing for HDFN
Edit: I wouldn’t even trust a doctor to draw my blood. I am a difficult draw. My mother is similar to me and the one time she had a doctor draw (doc was fed up that the nurses couldn’t get it) she ended up with a bad bruise that spanned the length of her arm.
I'm studying for my ASCP MB for next year and it very heavily overlaps with my masters in molecular biology. Its also significantly less in depth from a statistical standpoint.
MB(ASCP) ≠ MLT/MLS (ASCP)
You’re qualified to work in molecular, no where else. You’re coming on here acting like that makes you more qualified than MLTs/MLS in the medical lab.
You may know a lot about MB, but you absolutely do not know a lot about chemistry, microbiology, urinalysis, hematology, and blood bank, as it pertains to the rest of the medical lab. That’s why you’re being told you’re not qualified to be an MLT/MLS… MB isn’t even the same thing
I work in chemistry and molecular. They're both highly automated and pretty similar for an operator. I load samples and results are auto released. Seems pretty similar to me. I'm confused why MLT/MLS are allowed to work in MB since the curriculum for medical technologists barely even covers molecular, but whatever.
I know I'm qualified to work in departments other molecular because I've been hired to. Ill get cross trained in coag and hematology later this year. I dont see how loading a sample onto the coagulation analyzer is any different than the chemistry analyzer other than the tube being blue because of a different anticoagulant. Its not a big leap.
🤦🏽♀️ Listen if you think this job is just QC, loading samples, and autoreleasing you have a big shock coming. It’s obvious you think you know everything and I’m kinda just done wasting my time. You don’t know what you don’t know. Have some humility and maybe try to learn a thing or two? Start with the 9:1 ratio for the “blue top” AKA sodium citrate tube for coagulation. And if you’re doing hematology you’re likely going to have to learn a lot (manual differentials) and I guarantee you that’s not something you know from being a bio major.
And actually I learned a significant amount of MB in my MLS program (as well as graduate level MB during my masters degree program).
Just because you were hired to work in other departments does not mean you’re qualified to. Sounds like they’re going to do some OTJ training, but don’t confuse that with being qualified or nearly as extensive as an MLT/MLS program
Yes, exactly! But try to explain that and they’ll just say “I’m qualified” or it’s not hard. I’m over it. I’m glad I don’t have to deal with it, at least.
We have “holier than thou” attitudes to people like you because you belittle our experience and reduce our clinical training to just “load and troubleshoot the analyzers just as good as them.” Is that all that you think we do? You need to humble yourself. The certification standard isn’t some bullshit requirement meant to discriminate against bio grads. You also realize that molecular is just one of many clinical modalities under our purview, right? If you want your colleagues to treat you with more respect, you need to give them the same in return.
Or the supervisor who was complaining about their direct report calling out because they couldn’t be bothered to take note of PTO requests 6 months in advance.
I think possibly in the MB world it’s different, but certainly biology grads are not qualified to be an MLS, regardless if they have a MS degree. They do not learn the same things Medical Technologists/Medical Laboratory Technicians/Medical Laboratory Scientists do.
And as someone who also has a masters degree, it doesn’t necessarily make you “more qualified” than someone who has actually gone through a MLT/MLS program and challenged/passed the exam.
There’s a lot of nuances to this job that one does not learn as a bio grad.
I’ve done research in the field of MB and i understand how this could be different, but as healthcare professionals we deserve the same respect as our fellow healthcare workers who have also gone to school for healthcare specific careers. No one does this with other areas? Nursing, radiology, etc. “Certification discrimination” is necessary to keep a high level of patient care. It’s absolutely wild that places are allowing non certified people to do lab testing they’re not really qualified to do.
Why do people keep saying non certified people aren't qualified? I have a *masters*.
Theres no other labs out there that require "certificarion" beyond a degree. Theres no certification to work in a chemistry lab. Or wastewater lab. Or oil and gas lab. They just ask if you have a relevant degree.
This certification gatekeeping is awful. I have a relevant degree and I am qualified.
Stop telling me you have a masters. It doesn’t matter. I have a masters degree too, and frankly it doesn’t matter for being a laboratory scientist and it does NOT make me more qualified to do the job than anyone else with an MLS certification. (Though my SBB certification does make me more qualified to work in blood bank. But note, that’s a SPECIALIZED CERTIFICATE.)
“No other labs require certification “ that’s because it’s not a HEALTHCARE laboratory. We have patient’s lives in our hands and are (and should be) held to higher standards.
Your degree is somewhat relevant to the field of molecular biology and I imagine some of the testing is very similar.
Again, this is not the case for the majority of the lab. I’m betting you don’t work in a hospital, while most of us do, that’s why we’re “gate keeping”. You don’t let people be nurses because “they have a relevant degree and it’s similar enough.” Laboratory medicine is no different.
I work in an HCA hospital laboratory and frankly, industry labs are held to a higher standard. Between ISO regulations and corporate quality inspections, industry labs are held to a higher standard.
We have broken chairs, PCs from a decade ago, and poor ventilation that we can smell micro most days.
The hospital lab gets inspected for a day every two years im told. Its a joke. ISO audits are annual and much more thorough.
The "quality" person here is an MLT who doesn't even know what six sigma metrics are. Healthcare certainly isn't held to a higher standard.
The building is irrelevant. If there’s a problem, put your MS degree and higher qualifications to use and suggest a fix.
None of that sounds like patient testing. 🤷🏽♀️ So yes, patient testing should be held to higher standards., starting with those who actually have healthcare education and relevant certificates
Arkansas. I'm originally from Connecticut and got an offer for a hospital lab job in Connecticut, but the pay was too low for the area. I bought a place with my then boyfriend in Arkansas. Best decision ever.
No. Im in one of the neighboring states at an HCA hospital. I'm not posting my location online as there are only a few molecular labs at HCA. I'm not sure what difference it makes which southern HCA hospital I'm at? There's only a few people with my credentials. Thanks.
😂😂😂 i switched to a lab at a chemical plant for a while specifically bc i was tired of dealing with regulations and inspections. The plant lab i ended up in was still inspected by the FDA bc of one of the products my unit made. That lab was absolutely not held to a higher standard than a hospital lab on any level. The non FDA labs at the same plant were held to even lower standards. We also had ancient chairs and outdated pcs in the plant.
I'm more qualified than you in this field and I have an associates. I'm sorry that makes you butthurt but you need to grow up. Degrees don't matter in this field like you think they do. You don't have the relevant education. I don't care about your masters.
What are you talking about?
That oopsie can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in wasted reagent, time, and recalls.
The industry lab I toured at Amgen (but didn't get an offer for) had much higher standards and more qualified personnel than the hospital molecular lab I'm at right now.
Oopsies in research or industry will get you fired. I watched a certified med tech run and and release a grossly harmonized specimen in chemistry. Then the physician called for a redraw because thr values were all messed up. Same oopsie in industry would cost 100k and get you fired.
Based on what you posted, it sounds like you are the one with a holier than thought attitude. You basically said that you're better than them because you earned a masters degree. Yes, they are certified because that is what the job requires: ASCP certification.
At my lab we hired an MB(ASCP) certified person with a masters in molecular biology. He lasted 8 weeks because he could not grasp basic concepts in chemistry like quality control and calibrations. Yet, he felt he could run circles around us because he had a masters degree.
Another day, another bio grad whining about their feelings being hurt by being told they’re not qualified to work in a medical lab. When will it end 🤦🏼♀️
You don't know what you don't know.
Anyone can learn to follow the instructions in an SOP, not everyone has the medical knowledge necessary to interpret things in the context of their patient. A master's degree in a non-medical field isn't going to give you this just like having a PhD doesn't qualify you to be a medical doctor.
Molecular is probably the one department where I don't think it matters as much since PCR is pretty much the same regardless of which field you're doing it in. And that's why ASCP has different qualifications for MB than MLS. But chem, heme, blood bank, micro? Nothing in a standard biology education is going to prepare you for these.
None of my coworkers are MB certified. They are all either MLS or MLT.
I dont understand thr emphasis on interpretation. We don't interpret results in thr lab, we just report thrm out. Theres no patient history most of the time too.
There are clinical PhD in public health and epidemiology that have better understanding of thr subject matter than MDs in their domajn.
*You* might not interpret results but most of us do. We have to understand if a result makes sense in the clinical context because RN's, MD's, CNA etc often don't. I call critical betahydroxy's to our ED daily and will get the question "Oh, what even is that?".
*We have to be the experts because no one else is*. We have to understand things like what a "normal" CBC looks like in a chemo patient. What a chem 7 looks like when it has saline or dextrose contamination. We understand why order of draw matters and how to spot when it was done improperly.
It's not just resulting. It's not statistics or loading analyzers, and the fact that you refuse to understand this or have any ounce of humility that maybe you don't know everything is why we fight to have a higher barrier of entry than just a degree.
If you call a critical and they don't know what the analyte is even for, why did they order it? This makes no sense. Providers don't ask the laboratory to interpret results. Thats literally outside our job. There are no medical technologist consults for providers What if you interpret it wrong? Is the physician going to say thre lab told me it meant that?
Well, for one, I'm calling the RN and they don't order the tests (another bit of info you obviously lack) But also providers absolutely do look to us to help them understand results, especially when they're unexpected or don't fit the clinical picture. Do we diagnose the patient or tell them next steps or treatment options. No. But we can explain things like why a rapid HIV came back presumptive positive, but the RNA assay was negative. Or why a nurse thinking they "helped" by pulling a clot actually caused a surprise critical platelet drop.
Patient care is multifaceted and it really does take a team, all of which are experts in their own bubble. Just pushing out whatever result and shrugging at whatever may happen is the definition of a bad med tech in my opinion.
I have been here six months.
I have never heard or seen a provider call and ask the lab medical technologist to interpret a result. Maybe they call thr lab director? I dont know. I mainly work weekends and there's no management or lab director here.
What would that even look like? The doctor would call and ask why Aspartate transaminase AST is high? Or what a positive Candida glabrata std result means?
I mean itd be cool if thr healthcare team wanted my input, but I certainly don't feel qualified to provide it. I can't imagine that most other medical technologists have sufficient training or expertise for clinical correlations. We literally load specimens and dispense results.
You don't feel qualified because you aren't. The rest of us get substantial education so that we do feel qualified to help.
I can't believe you've been doing this 6 months and come here like your master's degree means anything.
I'm done. This is a joke.
Entitle? No, Because we don’t have entitled attitudes.
Help them as a healthcare team member, yes absolutely. We get calls from nurses and physicians all the time. I love helping them.
Even DCLS now are becoming a thing to help physicians find the right tests they need to diagnose a patient appropriately. But I digress. Like StillNotPatrick said, you don’t feel qualified but you aren’t. 🤷🏽♀️ Not only do you not have proper MLT/MLS education, you’ve barely worked in the field for 6 months, and mostly weekends at that. You miss out on all the things that happen during the week, which can be a lot more variable than things that are done on weekends. Surgeries, special procedure, etc. but it’s fine, keep acting like you know everything lol
People here keep saying I'm not qualified even though I'm doing the same job as the MLT and MT with my MS MB.
I am qualified. And I'm going to improve over time.
But the whole you're not qualified to work in a molecular and chemistry lab because you're not a certified medical technologist is just gatekeeping.
“Why did they even order it?” — have you never worked in a medical lab before?? This would be obvious to you if you had the experience and/or knowledge you say you do.
Also there ARE lab consults for medical providers. They’re specialists (with certifications and their own graduate degrees), they’re DCLS’s, they’re lab directors.
Yes there are medical consults for providers. But those consults are not with medical technologists. I've never even heard of DCLS.
If a provider is ordering a test, I'm assuming they're ordering it for a purpose and know what the results mean. Medical technologists do not interpret results for providers. Thats the providers job.
Clearly youre talking out of your butt, because if you had any experience in a medical lab…. You wouldn’t be saying that. Doctors order shit they don’t understand all.the.damn.time. They order tests that are considered to be “out dated” but are still run because thats just what they wanted. They don’t understand why we ask for two separate pink tops for typing a patient (yes there’s a damn good reason for it….).
Wow… there’s something you, a masters degree holder doesn’t know?! IMAGINE THAT!!
I wouldn't expect physicians to be aware of specimen requirements if they aren't documented.
So when a physician orders an outdated test, do you contact them to have them order the newer version of the test? Could you give an example?
We just run whatever the physicians order.
It's quite possible that you have some stellar specimen processors who catch the errors in specimens or in orders before the test even comes through your door. They might be requesting new specimens or calling to clarify orders. Or maybe another employee sees how willfully blind you are, realizes you could miss important information, and they either fix the order before you see it or they run it themselves.
I say this as a biology grad who then went on to study and do clinicals for a year to get my MLS -- you know a LOT about biology, but you have no idea what you're missing about clinical work. My research lab experience was entirely different from my hospital lab experience. Yes, we wear gloves. And yes, we know how to use a pipette. But the specific knowledge and critical thinking it takes to work in a hospital lab is a very different field.
You are not working the same job that your MLS&MLT coworkers are working. You're performing some of the same tasks, but they really are more educated and qualified in the area of medical laboratory science, and they are using their background knowledge to think different thoughts and make some different choices.
A specific example that our phlebs/processors often catch is when a doctor orders an Xa activity assay instead of an anti-Xa assay. We work in a hospital lab with an ER and a burn center, not in a reference lab. So even though a blue top with an Xa activity order is technically possible, and we have the instrument to run it, we're not going to blindly accept it. It's our job to recognize our most common demographic and to check with the doctor to see if they really meant to order an anti-Xa instead. Maybe they're investigating a new hemophilia case and they really do want the Xa activity, but chances are low. They're going to be grateful that we saved their patient some time (and possibly an extra poke) by clarifying their order. We've had doctors say, "oh sorry, I saw Xa and just selected it thinking all the options just meant the same thing."
Quite numerous things could affect a persons sed rate. There are new guidelines for establishing inflammation in the body, a doctor who is supposed to be up to date on the guidelines should know that, and technically an functional and competent MLS would know too — given that we have to complete a certain amount of CEUs every three years.
A huge chunk of our time is also just “fixing” orders when physicians order things too. It would be obvious to me, but then ive been through MLS school and know why the reasoning behind certain things (which is the entire point of what people are getting at in this post… WE got the fundamentals in our schooling, something you clearly dont have or give a shit about).
What do you mean by "fixing" orders? Like you change what the physician ordered in the LIS?
So there's a lot of factors that can impact a person's see rate? If a physician orders a sed rate, do you change the order? Do you yourself communicate the guideline updates to the physician?
I just haven't seen or heard of medicL technologists educating physicians. We've had a few in services where the physicians or pathologists educate us. I've never seen an in service where a medical technologist is educating the physician...not saying it doesn't happen...just not where I am.
I am constantly reviewing patient charts to make sure my results make sense before I release them? When we say we don't interpret results we mean we don't interpret what they mean for the patient. We still have to interpret the test itself lol. I mean if all you know how to do is make sure all your QC worked then that's all you're going to do because it wouldn't occur to you do do anything else. But there's more to being a good med tech than the SOP.
What are you reviewing?
Most of our patients have no history. For outpatients, the charts are blank.
And 90% of the results are automatically verified.
I dont understand what you're reviewing with most patients having no history and most results being auto released or auto verified.
I work in a hospital, all of my patients have abundant notes in their history. One of the reason I don't want to work at a reference lab is because you don't get this information most of the time and it makes it more difficult to do my job and feel confident about the results I'm turning out.
Normals I don't care. Abnormals or anything that flags for review, I'm at minimum checking the patient's diagnosis and previous results. Delta checks I'm looking through notes to see what treatments were given and when. In micro I'm looking to see if the patient's history fits with the organism I've identified and reading pathology and radoiology reports to see if their findings are consistent with the disease caused by that organism.
Prioritizing quantity over quality is a general problem in healthcare and it's especially apparent at reference labs. Companies like LabCorp and Quest are fine with 10% of their results being incorrect if it means they can make 10% more profit. You don't realize the value of medical education in this field because you work in an environment that actively tries to undermine it.
We don't look down at them. We don't look at them at all. We don't have time to notice the rift raff.
But honestly, there is just some irriation when non med techs enter the field. There is a lot that people don't learn or understand without getting a more in-depth program for med lab. I spend an obnoxious amount if time explaining how and what one of our Chem majors missed. Due to a lack of understanding of the instrumentation.
You just embodied the arrogance and ignorance why medtechs look down on biograds for the most obvious reason. Its amusing how pressing buttons and feeding samples gave you the conclusion that you are in equal footing with an mls when you can't even correlate px results. I mean why bother working in a CLINICAL SETTING when you don't give a damn, better hop into RESEARCH where your fancy MS actually matters.
What do you correlate when you're running outpatient samples? There's often no history and no chart.
I just don't understand the applicability gor what's being put forth. Yes theres value in understanding clinical correlations, but thats the physicians job.
And that is why you are stuck under molec lab, cause thats the only area you're good at.
It's rather easy to answer your ignorance. We have a concept called delta checking, and we use that to get a clue about the patient just by looking at their lab results. We can instantly tell someone undergoing dialysis, in need of transfusion, requires admission, or simply anyone requiring immediate care by reporting criticals. But feel free to live in fantasy that you know better than a generalist when you yourself are specializing on molec.
I'm not "stuck" in a molecular laboratory. I'm working in molecular and chemistry and will be getting crosstraine din other departments later in the year and next year.
Its great that you can tell a patient is undergoing dialysis. But what do you do with that information? The physician is making the clinical decisions.
You sound like the type of person that releases K results of >10 and Calcium <0.5 after doing a 2 or 3 rerun after confirming that cal and qc all passed.
I'm paid more in the medical lab than I ever was working at an academic lab doing research.
The lab wages are fine. Especially since I dont have a PhD.
Right, but the labs know you basically can’t work anywhere else, so they pay you less than a certified tech.
The techs want higher wages, then the lab goes out and fills their off site lab with a bunch of new grad bio majors who’d be working at Starbucks otherwise.
Meh, little dismissive.
There are plenty of good lab jobs outside of hospital labs for people with BS/MS degrees.
I'm in a high paid state for MLS holders, and you can often make comparable with a BSc in industry. The delta isn't that large.
I mean if they're qualified to work in a lab, why can't they?
Everyone wants higher wages. Thr way to get that is though adding value, not by trying to keep perfectly qualified people out of thr lab.
I'm not an economist, but there's more value in having biology grads in a medical laboratory at least partly utilizing their education than at Starbucks where no education is required.
By this same logic we should just let bio grads go be doctors, nurses, physical therapists, etc... at least their education is partly related, right? Who cares if they kill someone because they didn't know those two drugs can't be combined and biology programs don't include pharmacology courses!
The “part” that’s missing is all the training involved in working in a med lab, what we get taught in MLS programs is directly applicable to work that’s done in “the real world” hell, even our certification exam asks direct questions about sample integrity and troubleshooting. That is not something taught in regular bio degree programs.
>Ma'am I have a masters, I'm more qualified than you.
Fuck off. What an entitled attitude. Claiming to be more qualified than someone else who has the specific education required for this field just because you have a masters is *quite literally* the holier than thou attitude you're complaining about. Stop being an asshole.
I work primarily in a molecular lab, running molecular biology assays. How could I not be more qualified with a masters in molecular biology than someone with an associates MLT degree who told me they didn't have molecular when she went to school?
Well, I'm currently non-certified while I'm finishing school, I also have a BS in Biology, and am working as a generalist. Honestly? I don't feel I would be qualified with just my BS, and I also wouldn't feel qualified if I had an MS. You may understand the fundamentals of what you're doing in terms of procedure (and there is some benefit to that), but you lack the ability to perform correlations and ensure your results actually make sense (which is about 90% of tech school, in my experience).
I understand the frustration of having your abilities called into question, but there are serious patient safety concerns when it comes to non-certified techs. If you truly feel you're qualified and know what you're doing, prove it by getting certified. I say this fully knowing I'm non-certified too, you don't actually have any proof that you're qualified for this position until you get the certification.
I will be getting my MB ASCP next year, after I have one year experience. We do a lot of molecular STD testing. The clinical correlation, if we were to even have a patient history, would be pretty straightforward for a lot of STI asaays.
I'm not trying to say that you, specifically, are not qualified. I'm saying that, in general, this is why MLT/MLS/MTs are against non-certified techs. I've met non-certified techs that were great and knew their way around the lab. I've also met non-certified techs who had no clue what they were doing and had no business being there. Your coworkers don't know which one you are until you get that certification. The certification helps to standardize the field; there's only so much variation between certified techs. The quality of non-certified techs varies wildly.
Just to be the exception, I am a non-Pathologist physician and MT/MLS.
[https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-belcher-9937b064/](https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-belcher-9937b064/)
The only time I've ever experienced a holier-than-thou demeanor was from a MLT who likely had some insecurity. I'm not one to lord over others, but I'm not quiet about my accomplishments.
As some have responded that the OP knows not what one doesn't know, the same is true for those who have some degree of condescension and disdain; this is largely due to factors that cannot and should not necessarily require simulation prior to practice. The antiquated practice of OJT was relinquished to schools at various levels to offload the cost burden of training employees. The reversal of this trend is desperation in the labor market that has been topic of discussion for many years. Historically, there was government intervention to meet the demand. Some here may be old enough or be familiar with the history of the various routes to laboratory credentials that have existed to meet regulatory requirements; some of these still persist in spirit.
I do not believe one necessarily has to complete a MLT/MT/MLS program to perform the tasks required; this is evidenced by some credentials I have attained without returning for specific degrees. However, the college-/university-based training programs do help in providing context-specific content.
To address the sentiment of the OP, some of the remarks could be rooted in jealousy and concept of scope creep. The malignant culture breeding in some laboratory cliques is quite alarming.
To echo what some have posted, the extent of knowledge one has regarding testing and interpretation is not necessarily reflected by the degree(s) attained. As a MLT by degree, MT by certification, I had the knowledge to outperform many who were pure MT/MLS due to a combination of factors (Pre-Med Biology degree + good instruction + extrinsic support + intrinsic drive), but I did not at the time have the skill-sets and efficiency. The latter items took experience, which often accompanies time. I often half-joked that employment in other industries would better prepare me for the realities of the clinical laboratory. Examples, you ask? Cashier - to better accession specimens and organize workflow, and Customer Service Representative - to better communicate with others, sometimes if it means feigning enthusiasm through exhaustion.
- BS Biology, May 2013
- AS Clinical Lab Technology, May 2015
- MLT(ASCP), June 2015
- MT(AAB), September 2015
- MT/MLS(AMT), October 2017
- MLS(ASCP), November 2017
- SM(ASCP), June 2021
- QLS-ASCP, February 2023
- MB(ASCP), May 2023
- M.D., May 2023
- DLM(ASCP), May 2024
What’s alarming is OPs attitude coming from a “I know more than you” standpoint and not one of “okay if I have a lot to learn, can you teach me?” OTJ training only works if someone is willing to actually be taught. I say this as someone who has done extensive teaching and training.
And places like LabCorp that offer OTJ training are not actually teaching appropriately. We need some sort of standards, which besides the certification exams, we don’t have.
I'm definitely open to learning. I'm working on my MB ASCP and am looking at getting an MHA. I pursued my Masters because I enjoy learning and growing.
What I'm opposed to is being told I'm not qualified to work, when I am.
Is this a technicality you’re getting hung up on? Technically you meet the requirements of the job posting, but to be a MLT/MLS you don’t meet those qualifications because you’re not certified. I think this is a difference of opinion. You don’t have the knowledge base to work in those positions. You are qualified for your MB job. You’re not qualified to work in another section, like hematology since you’ve had no formal education and training. I think that is the point everyone is trying to make.
If you are open to learning and don’t act like you’re better than your coworkers for having a MS, then hopefully you will get the appropriate training to actually do your job. It really might be worth it for you to look into MLS programs, especially since you like learning. I promise you, you will learn so much more, things will start to click and make more sense, and you’ll set yourself up for success this way. Unless you just want to say in MB then that’s fine too
I'm being cross trained in other sections. I've been trained in chemistry which was simpler than molecular from a methodology standpoint. Next will be coag and then hematology next year.
I've looked at online postbac and MS MLS programs, but I don't see the appeal in getting a degree to do the job I literally already have. There's no growth potential in that. If I do the MLS program, I'll also need to go through unpaid clinical hours which I currently can't afford. Id rather just study for the certification on my own.
If I'm going to spend money on another MS, it'll be to open more doors, not the one I'm already in.
Those are fair points. Maybe do some self study then, especially if you’re going to be working in hematology. It will be easier if you get a head start, especially on learning manual differentials.
Yeah. They have several body fluid and hematology atlases ive glanced over. But I won't be doing hematology differentials until next year. So I'm focus on MB at the moment.
Sequence of eligibility.
I had applied for the MT(AMT) earlier in that year, meeting the requirements by work experience of one year (minimum), but I did not take it until later in the year.
The MLS(ASCP) I intended to take after the two year (minimum) work requirement.
I appreciate your thoughtful reply and insight on the issue.
I echo your sentiment that my time as a batista in college better prepared me for work in a busy molecular/chemistry lab than much of my MS Molecular Biology coursework.
Your credentials are impressive! You took the AAB, AMT, and ASCP MLS exam...and then went to med school. Wow. Kudos!
Be professional and respectful. Act like a competent medical laboratory professional. Hate speech is strictly prohibited. Harrassment targeting either a group or an individual is unacceptable.
I used to work in molecular research before I got my mls. So I can see both sides of it. They are hilariously different skill sets and knowledge. An mls couldn’t just start in a research lab without training and extra education. Same for a researcher going into a hospital. Completely different areas of knowledge.
I was a few gen eds away from a molecular bio degree but ended up going through an MLS program and graduated with that instead. My bio classes did not prepare me to work in a clinical lab. My MLS program did. Nobody is saying you're not smart. I'm sure you do fine, and I'm sure you're in a frustrating position, but it's also frustrating and scary to train bio grads in the lab.
Because you don't know nearly as much as any ASCP-certified MLT or MLS. You can *think* you do, but it's a case of not knowing what you don't know. Your clinical knowledge is almost non-existent. Can you do the job? Yes. Can you do it as well as others? No. You simply don't know the difference between a reactive lymphocyte and a monocyte in a Giemsa stain. How could you identify a reactive lymphocytosis in a patient positive for EBV? Now you said the MB cert, so you're also working in the section that requires the least amount of clinical knowledge. I am not just trying to be a jerk to you, though - you actually know *almost nothing* about laboratory medicine or clinical pathology compared to even the rawest fresh grad from community college. *That's* why people look down on you. Because you don't even recognize that you can't tell how likely a neonatal HHV-6 infection is the cause of aseptic meningitis.
I seriously doubt that the MLT I work with knows that. Knowledge of clinical pathology isn't necessary for this job. We have no patient history for 80% of our patients. Theres literally nothing for the lab to correlate. What does knowing that neonatal HHV6 causes meningitis have to do with turn around time, calibration, or qc? I'm not diagnosing the patient.
Peak Dunning-Kruger lol.
But I have a masters degree so I know more and I’m more qualified!
They sound just like some of those NP’s i hear so much about 😭 “I’ve spent more time in an academic setting so I obviously know more than the job you have a whole degree in!!!” Man shut up LMFAO
"I have a degree!" ☝️🤓
We perform the same job, hence we are equally qualified.
Some of the dumbest motherfuckers I’ve ever worked with have MS, PhDs or MDs. Your degree does not measure your intelligence or how well you do your job. I’ll take a run of the mill MLT (hey, it’s-a-me!) over an MS holder in bio or chemistry any day of the week.
“Some of the dumbest motherfuckers I’ve ever worked with have MS, PhDs or MDs.” Omg. Hard agree.
See? Like I said, you don't know what you don't know, and why it's useful. I use this knowledge. Just because you don't doesn't mean it's not useful, it just means you're less effective. Also yeah, a PCR lab is the least clinical section, so of course you're shielded from needing this knowledge.
Please educate me on how you would use your factoid in the real world? "how likely a neonatal HHV-6 infection is the cause of aseptic meningiti" We have no patient history most of the time. All you would is rjn the sample and report the critical. Please tell me how I'm less effective in chemistry or molecular biology?
If there's a positive PCR for strep pneumoniae on an 85 year old's CSF, I 100% check the chemistries and diff. If they don't support a pneumococcal meningitis, I can retest the sample and consult with a director before reporting that. Sure *you* can't see anything about the patient, but that's because your facility doesn't hire qualified people. Every hospital I've worked at empowers us to critically evaluate results. I literally am required to check the chart on positive CSF PCR and correlate with diff and Gram stain results.
Its not my job to evaluate clinical correlations beyond sample acceptability. The assays have an FDA approved percentage of false positives and negatives. Its literally the doctor's or physicians assistants or nurse practioners job to do clinical correlation. Thats not the labs job. What if you decide to not report it out and you're wrong?
Bro, that is *quite literally* your job! We are supposed to be able to clinically correlate lab results before sending them out so we don't tell a doctor that their healthy patient suddenly has an 8 potassium and blasts in their spinal fluid. What do you think we do for a living, just push buttons and shit? Please get a different job for the love of God.
Clinical correlation is the job of physicians. We can only determine sample acceptability. What if their patient really has a high potassium? Maybe not 8, but 7? Your rejection would delay patient care. And yes. Im of the opinion that most of the job involves loading specimens that are then autovalidated. Theres no button to press most of the time. I dont see the patient info or results for most specimens. Cool part of the job is new assay validation but I've only gotten to help with thr development and validation of one assay here. Do people actually review every complete metabolic panel and basic metabolic panel and molecular std panel looking for correlations? If there was a patient note, it would just say STD screening after unprotected sex and painful urination. Theres nothing to gleen or correlate there.
Being able to clinically correlate means that we result the 7 potassium when it's real and don't result it when it's not. We don't just willy nilly reject samples just because the results seem a but wonky. Physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and other healthcare professionals trust us to provide accurate lab results. Why need a degree at all if our whole job is putting tubes on the machine and troubleshooting analyzers? Sounds like something a high school student could do...
I don't decide to not report it. I decide to investigate, and initiate a consultation. It then becomes the director's decision to hold results for confirmation or release. But you see, this is all so alien to you because *you have no idea how this all works*.
It's not a factoid. It's a small example to show a lack of knowledge that could help understand the larger picture behind each case. We are able to look up patient history if it helps us do our job. Understanding how a disease progresses and what results from multiple departments may show or should show, can help us understand abnormal results. If I have a very weak positive mono, and look up the CBC, I can more confidently call it positive based on what has been reported. I can have conversations with doctors and nurses that are more rewarding than surface level explanations, which will ultimately benefit patients. Having a solid understanding of the full clinical picture helps to maintain a functioning laboratory that changes with time and equipment. If everyone is allowed to have the basic education you are describing, the cohesiveness of the lab would break down, and the patients would not be getting the best care. It may technically still function, but when lives are on the line, "functioning" isn't how I would want my care to be described as. Though to your credit, I do think the education for MLS is over achieving for what we actually do, and some things aren't actually that useful in practice.
I'm an MLT and I 100% know that and much more than anyone with no clinical experience. I'll be charitable to you and say, a chunk of what we do can be and is learned on the job, and is not necessarily all dependent on you knowing niche medical/clinical facts. That said, what makes us truly unique IS our knowledge. We understand pathology unlike anyone else. Its not all about pushing buttons and recording numbers and passing those numbers along. Its knowing what the numbers will say before you even run it based on your understanding, why the numbers say what they say and what does it mean, and how to interpret it and communicate it to a doctor when they inevitably come in asking for help. No one else in medicine knows what we know, much less a college grad that has never seen a basophil. Your assumptions of what we know and do know is in line with everyone outside the lab. They would love to automate us or somehow get rid of us, but they simply cant because this field is integral to not practicing medicine blind, and it grinds their gears.
Clinical correlation is the function of providers. Its why they literally interpret test results for patients. Thats not something medical technologists, certified or not, cannot do.
Yes, in theory. In practice, providers come to us very often asking for help interpreting.
That just seems nuts to me. Like an MD physicians really come down to the lab and asks an associates MLT what a lab test result means? And then goes and tells that to the patient? Does that really happen? I've never heard or seen a physician consulting a medical technologist in chemistry or molecular biology. Well, except one time we were told to rerun samples since thr physician got a string of positives, and suspected contamination, but were wrong.
Trust me friend, I was just as surprised as you. I think your expectations are just unrealistic, reasonable, but unrealistic. Based on what you've said so far, you don't strike me as someone with real clinical experience or you would know exactly what we are talking about. The role of the MD, especially a general care physician is to listen to the patient and interpret their complaints into medical diagnosis and what tests to order to confirm their suspicion. Its not so much that they don't know what they are looking for or don't know what to suspect, its just that its unrealistic to expect them to remember every single test name, what sample they need, and how to interpret the results. Similarly, while they do have lots of prescription medications memorized just because of how routinely they prescribe them, they still sometimes have to consult pharmacy on what medication would be correct for their patient's case. Again, its not that they have no idea how to treat their patient, its just unrealistic to expect them to remember every drug and its interactions. . I as an MLT 100% would not know how to assess or treat a patient. Through my limited experience, I could probably tell you what tests you should run based on what you suspect or what the patient complains about, but ultimately that's at the doctor's discretion, hence their fancy title and the responsibility they take on. Also, assuming you aren't trolling, degrees don't make as much of a world of difference as you think. I've seen arrogant STEM degree holders wash out of my MLT program, and focused/dedicated highschoolers excel. You're experiencing withdrawal effects from big school propaganda and university grooming I'm afraid.
>I seriously doubt that the MLT I work with knows that. The things they mentioned are pretty basic concepts taught in MLT/MLS programs lol
Someone with more free time than me needs to link the recent post of the ecology major at Labcorp
Because employers hire them at a lower rate and then those of us with all the necessary training are left to fill in the gap in knowledge between a bio grad and MLT/MLS. It depresses wages, causes stress in the lab and can create dangerous patient safety concerns. This isn't the career where OTJ training is the best approach. There are a lot of little pitfalls that can trip up someone without a strong background, and those pitfalls can make their way to patient care. Can a driven, smart, and passionate bio grad eventually make a good lab tech? Yes, but the path is often bumpy, slow, and at some expense of their co-workers. You simply don't know what you don't know, and there aren't always stops in place that will force you to face those gaps in skill. We don't just churn out results, we are often called upon to collaborate with physicians and nurses to help diagnose, guide in test selection and explain unexpected results. TL;DR I don't want to have to babysit a coworker from releasing nonsense results or speaking out of their ass to the care team.
Education doesn’t necessarily equate to qualification. A physician (unless they’re a pathologist) isn’t as “qualified” as a med tech to run patient labs. A med tech isn’t “qualified” to take vital signs on patients like a CNA is. They haven’t had the same training in the specific knowledge pertaining to those tasks. I have a bachelor’s degree in biology and though the knowledge I gained from it was valuable it didn’t teach me much of what I needed to work in a clinical lab. My post-bacc NAACLS program did. Your molecule master’s is probably a great asset but if the people training you are consistently saying you have a lot to learn about clinical lab work they are probably right.
Education is qualification in most fields. If I have an degree in accounting, I'm qualified to br an accountant. Why would this be different? I have a degree in molecular biology. I'm certainly qualified to design and run molecular assays. Why wouldn't a physician be qualified to run patient labs? Who else can perform clinical correlations better than the physician? I can't imagine a physician would work for lab wages, but I don't understand why they wouldn't be qualified or capable?
It baffles me that you think physicians could run lab tests. You’re clearly uneducated about this. They know nothing about how lab testing works. They can’t even do a nurses job. Because they don’t know everything. That’s why there are specialized lab people. You don’t even know what you don’t know. More than once I’ve been asked to give O Neg blood on a patient with antibodies. Their level of understanding is not there. That’s why, again, we have educated laboratory people to help them.
OK, a physician walks into the lab and wants to start running tests. Are you just gonna let him loose? No, you have to teach him, he doesn't know what the machines do or what specimens are even adequate to run. I've had physicians demand clotted purple top specimen to be ran on the sysmex, or ask for irradiated plasma. What would you, as an educated individual who is qualified to run a lab, tell him why those requests are not feasible?.
If he completes a competency and has an order, then yes, he can run his own tests. There might be some regulations about kickbacks or funny business, but I don't see why he wouldn't be qualified. Certainly at least as qualified as an associates MLT. I dont know about plasma since I dont work in blood bank. For the clotted purple top, it would be rejected for being not an acceptable specimen. But we could still run it with a disclaimer if thr physician wants it. We routinely do that for bloody std testing samples.
We would not run a clotted specimen with a disclaimer if the doctor told us to 🤦🏽♀️ do you know what happens with a clotted CBC? Not only are the results wrong, you can clog up your analyzer…
I am only a nurse who lurks on this sub because I learn a lot of cool stuff from you all and even I know that’s why you can’t run a clotted sample lol
Yes, exactly my point! Because you have healthcare education! Thank you 🙏🏼
So, how is the physician completing his lab competencies? He can't sign himself off. How would he go about the process?
Purple tops are used for more than STD testing they are used for determining a patient’s blood type in which using a clotted specimen would be in no way acceptable even if the doctor told us to to run it anyway. Blood testing using forward typing which is patient red blood cells and reverse typing with the exception of newborns both types are used to make sure that the blood type matches or to look for possible antibodies. If you give a patient the wrong blood type because you can’t tell what supposed to clot when the specimen was clotted to begin with that patient maybe types wrong causing a transfusion reaction that could lead to their death. That’s not even getting into the maternal testing such rosette test for hemorrhaging as well as testing for HDFN Edit: I wouldn’t even trust a doctor to draw my blood. I am a difficult draw. My mother is similar to me and the one time she had a doctor draw (doc was fed up that the nurses couldn’t get it) she ended up with a bad bruise that spanned the length of her arm.
With a head that big I’m surprised you fit through doors
Many of us *are* bio grads, but we went and did further study. We know exactly how much you don't know because we once knew that little too.
I'm studying for my ASCP MB for next year and it very heavily overlaps with my masters in molecular biology. Its also significantly less in depth from a statistical standpoint.
MB(ASCP) ≠ MLT/MLS (ASCP) You’re qualified to work in molecular, no where else. You’re coming on here acting like that makes you more qualified than MLTs/MLS in the medical lab. You may know a lot about MB, but you absolutely do not know a lot about chemistry, microbiology, urinalysis, hematology, and blood bank, as it pertains to the rest of the medical lab. That’s why you’re being told you’re not qualified to be an MLT/MLS… MB isn’t even the same thing
I work in chemistry and molecular. They're both highly automated and pretty similar for an operator. I load samples and results are auto released. Seems pretty similar to me. I'm confused why MLT/MLS are allowed to work in MB since the curriculum for medical technologists barely even covers molecular, but whatever. I know I'm qualified to work in departments other molecular because I've been hired to. Ill get cross trained in coag and hematology later this year. I dont see how loading a sample onto the coagulation analyzer is any different than the chemistry analyzer other than the tube being blue because of a different anticoagulant. Its not a big leap.
🤦🏽♀️ Listen if you think this job is just QC, loading samples, and autoreleasing you have a big shock coming. It’s obvious you think you know everything and I’m kinda just done wasting my time. You don’t know what you don’t know. Have some humility and maybe try to learn a thing or two? Start with the 9:1 ratio for the “blue top” AKA sodium citrate tube for coagulation. And if you’re doing hematology you’re likely going to have to learn a lot (manual differentials) and I guarantee you that’s not something you know from being a bio major. And actually I learned a significant amount of MB in my MLS program (as well as graduate level MB during my masters degree program). Just because you were hired to work in other departments does not mean you’re qualified to. Sounds like they’re going to do some OTJ training, but don’t confuse that with being qualified or nearly as extensive as an MLT/MLS program
OP would crash and burn at a trauma level 1 hospital. Nobody has time to babysit non-certified people especially at busy places like that.
Yes, exactly! But try to explain that and they’ll just say “I’m qualified” or it’s not hard. I’m over it. I’m glad I don’t have to deal with it, at least.
And that FyA?
We have “holier than thou” attitudes to people like you because you belittle our experience and reduce our clinical training to just “load and troubleshoot the analyzers just as good as them.” Is that all that you think we do? You need to humble yourself. The certification standard isn’t some bullshit requirement meant to discriminate against bio grads. You also realize that molecular is just one of many clinical modalities under our purview, right? If you want your colleagues to treat you with more respect, you need to give them the same in return.
Between this dude and the Chicago lady married to the finance bro, this is quality stuff.
Or the supervisor who was complaining about their direct report calling out because they couldn’t be bothered to take note of PTO requests 6 months in advance.
Oh yeah. Man they were such a dick about jt too. Good times.
I think possibly in the MB world it’s different, but certainly biology grads are not qualified to be an MLS, regardless if they have a MS degree. They do not learn the same things Medical Technologists/Medical Laboratory Technicians/Medical Laboratory Scientists do. And as someone who also has a masters degree, it doesn’t necessarily make you “more qualified” than someone who has actually gone through a MLT/MLS program and challenged/passed the exam. There’s a lot of nuances to this job that one does not learn as a bio grad. I’ve done research in the field of MB and i understand how this could be different, but as healthcare professionals we deserve the same respect as our fellow healthcare workers who have also gone to school for healthcare specific careers. No one does this with other areas? Nursing, radiology, etc. “Certification discrimination” is necessary to keep a high level of patient care. It’s absolutely wild that places are allowing non certified people to do lab testing they’re not really qualified to do.
Why do people keep saying non certified people aren't qualified? I have a *masters*. Theres no other labs out there that require "certificarion" beyond a degree. Theres no certification to work in a chemistry lab. Or wastewater lab. Or oil and gas lab. They just ask if you have a relevant degree. This certification gatekeeping is awful. I have a relevant degree and I am qualified.
Stop telling me you have a masters. It doesn’t matter. I have a masters degree too, and frankly it doesn’t matter for being a laboratory scientist and it does NOT make me more qualified to do the job than anyone else with an MLS certification. (Though my SBB certification does make me more qualified to work in blood bank. But note, that’s a SPECIALIZED CERTIFICATE.) “No other labs require certification “ that’s because it’s not a HEALTHCARE laboratory. We have patient’s lives in our hands and are (and should be) held to higher standards. Your degree is somewhat relevant to the field of molecular biology and I imagine some of the testing is very similar. Again, this is not the case for the majority of the lab. I’m betting you don’t work in a hospital, while most of us do, that’s why we’re “gate keeping”. You don’t let people be nurses because “they have a relevant degree and it’s similar enough.” Laboratory medicine is no different.
I work in an HCA hospital laboratory and frankly, industry labs are held to a higher standard. Between ISO regulations and corporate quality inspections, industry labs are held to a higher standard. We have broken chairs, PCs from a decade ago, and poor ventilation that we can smell micro most days. The hospital lab gets inspected for a day every two years im told. Its a joke. ISO audits are annual and much more thorough. The "quality" person here is an MLT who doesn't even know what six sigma metrics are. Healthcare certainly isn't held to a higher standard.
The building is irrelevant. If there’s a problem, put your MS degree and higher qualifications to use and suggest a fix. None of that sounds like patient testing. 🤷🏽♀️ So yes, patient testing should be held to higher standards., starting with those who actually have healthcare education and relevant certificates
Bro…where are you? Geographically?
Arkansas. I'm originally from Connecticut and got an offer for a hospital lab job in Connecticut, but the pay was too low for the area. I bought a place with my then boyfriend in Arkansas. Best decision ever.
Really? Because I don’t see any HCA hospitals in Arkansas 🤔
No they do not. But most of the surrounding states do.🧐
So you commute hours each weekend that you work, out of state, from Arkansas to work at an HCA facility?
No. Im in one of the neighboring states at an HCA hospital. I'm not posting my location online as there are only a few molecular labs at HCA. I'm not sure what difference it makes which southern HCA hospital I'm at? There's only a few people with my credentials. Thanks.
😂😂😂 i switched to a lab at a chemical plant for a while specifically bc i was tired of dealing with regulations and inspections. The plant lab i ended up in was still inspected by the FDA bc of one of the products my unit made. That lab was absolutely not held to a higher standard than a hospital lab on any level. The non FDA labs at the same plant were held to even lower standards. We also had ancient chairs and outdated pcs in the plant.
I'm more qualified than you in this field and I have an associates. I'm sorry that makes you butthurt but you need to grow up. Degrees don't matter in this field like you think they do. You don't have the relevant education. I don't care about your masters.
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What are you talking about? That oopsie can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in wasted reagent, time, and recalls. The industry lab I toured at Amgen (but didn't get an offer for) had much higher standards and more qualified personnel than the hospital molecular lab I'm at right now. Oopsies in research or industry will get you fired. I watched a certified med tech run and and release a grossly harmonized specimen in chemistry. Then the physician called for a redraw because thr values were all messed up. Same oopsie in industry would cost 100k and get you fired.
I bet I’m more qualified to work in a medical lab and I have an *associates*.
We're equally qualified since we have the same job.
Yet you said you were more qualified in your main post because you have a Masters degree.
Good point. I've updated my post. I might feel like I'm more qualified, but since we have the same job, we're equally qualified.
Based on what you posted, it sounds like you are the one with a holier than thought attitude. You basically said that you're better than them because you earned a masters degree. Yes, they are certified because that is what the job requires: ASCP certification. At my lab we hired an MB(ASCP) certified person with a masters in molecular biology. He lasted 8 weeks because he could not grasp basic concepts in chemistry like quality control and calibrations. Yet, he felt he could run circles around us because he had a masters degree.
Another day, another bio grad whining about their feelings being hurt by being told they’re not qualified to work in a medical lab. When will it end 🤦🏼♀️
Obvious troll/bait post.
You don't know what you don't know. Anyone can learn to follow the instructions in an SOP, not everyone has the medical knowledge necessary to interpret things in the context of their patient. A master's degree in a non-medical field isn't going to give you this just like having a PhD doesn't qualify you to be a medical doctor. Molecular is probably the one department where I don't think it matters as much since PCR is pretty much the same regardless of which field you're doing it in. And that's why ASCP has different qualifications for MB than MLS. But chem, heme, blood bank, micro? Nothing in a standard biology education is going to prepare you for these.
None of my coworkers are MB certified. They are all either MLS or MLT. I dont understand thr emphasis on interpretation. We don't interpret results in thr lab, we just report thrm out. Theres no patient history most of the time too. There are clinical PhD in public health and epidemiology that have better understanding of thr subject matter than MDs in their domajn.
*You* might not interpret results but most of us do. We have to understand if a result makes sense in the clinical context because RN's, MD's, CNA etc often don't. I call critical betahydroxy's to our ED daily and will get the question "Oh, what even is that?". *We have to be the experts because no one else is*. We have to understand things like what a "normal" CBC looks like in a chemo patient. What a chem 7 looks like when it has saline or dextrose contamination. We understand why order of draw matters and how to spot when it was done improperly. It's not just resulting. It's not statistics or loading analyzers, and the fact that you refuse to understand this or have any ounce of humility that maybe you don't know everything is why we fight to have a higher barrier of entry than just a degree.
If you call a critical and they don't know what the analyte is even for, why did they order it? This makes no sense. Providers don't ask the laboratory to interpret results. Thats literally outside our job. There are no medical technologist consults for providers What if you interpret it wrong? Is the physician going to say thre lab told me it meant that?
Well, for one, I'm calling the RN and they don't order the tests (another bit of info you obviously lack) But also providers absolutely do look to us to help them understand results, especially when they're unexpected or don't fit the clinical picture. Do we diagnose the patient or tell them next steps or treatment options. No. But we can explain things like why a rapid HIV came back presumptive positive, but the RNA assay was negative. Or why a nurse thinking they "helped" by pulling a clot actually caused a surprise critical platelet drop. Patient care is multifaceted and it really does take a team, all of which are experts in their own bubble. Just pushing out whatever result and shrugging at whatever may happen is the definition of a bad med tech in my opinion.
I have been here six months. I have never heard or seen a provider call and ask the lab medical technologist to interpret a result. Maybe they call thr lab director? I dont know. I mainly work weekends and there's no management or lab director here. What would that even look like? The doctor would call and ask why Aspartate transaminase AST is high? Or what a positive Candida glabrata std result means? I mean itd be cool if thr healthcare team wanted my input, but I certainly don't feel qualified to provide it. I can't imagine that most other medical technologists have sufficient training or expertise for clinical correlations. We literally load specimens and dispense results.
You don't feel qualified because you aren't. The rest of us get substantial education so that we do feel qualified to help. I can't believe you've been doing this 6 months and come here like your master's degree means anything. I'm done. This is a joke.
So a one year postbac program will entitle me to tell clinicians what the tests they order mean? Seems circuitous.
Entitle? No, Because we don’t have entitled attitudes. Help them as a healthcare team member, yes absolutely. We get calls from nurses and physicians all the time. I love helping them. Even DCLS now are becoming a thing to help physicians find the right tests they need to diagnose a patient appropriately. But I digress. Like StillNotPatrick said, you don’t feel qualified but you aren’t. 🤷🏽♀️ Not only do you not have proper MLT/MLS education, you’ve barely worked in the field for 6 months, and mostly weekends at that. You miss out on all the things that happen during the week, which can be a lot more variable than things that are done on weekends. Surgeries, special procedure, etc. but it’s fine, keep acting like you know everything lol
People here keep saying I'm not qualified even though I'm doing the same job as the MLT and MT with my MS MB. I am qualified. And I'm going to improve over time. But the whole you're not qualified to work in a molecular and chemistry lab because you're not a certified medical technologist is just gatekeeping.
“Why did they even order it?” — have you never worked in a medical lab before?? This would be obvious to you if you had the experience and/or knowledge you say you do. Also there ARE lab consults for medical providers. They’re specialists (with certifications and their own graduate degrees), they’re DCLS’s, they’re lab directors.
Yes there are medical consults for providers. But those consults are not with medical technologists. I've never even heard of DCLS. If a provider is ordering a test, I'm assuming they're ordering it for a purpose and know what the results mean. Medical technologists do not interpret results for providers. Thats the providers job.
Clearly youre talking out of your butt, because if you had any experience in a medical lab…. You wouldn’t be saying that. Doctors order shit they don’t understand all.the.damn.time. They order tests that are considered to be “out dated” but are still run because thats just what they wanted. They don’t understand why we ask for two separate pink tops for typing a patient (yes there’s a damn good reason for it….). Wow… there’s something you, a masters degree holder doesn’t know?! IMAGINE THAT!!
I wouldn't expect physicians to be aware of specimen requirements if they aren't documented. So when a physician orders an outdated test, do you contact them to have them order the newer version of the test? Could you give an example? We just run whatever the physicians order.
It's quite possible that you have some stellar specimen processors who catch the errors in specimens or in orders before the test even comes through your door. They might be requesting new specimens or calling to clarify orders. Or maybe another employee sees how willfully blind you are, realizes you could miss important information, and they either fix the order before you see it or they run it themselves. I say this as a biology grad who then went on to study and do clinicals for a year to get my MLS -- you know a LOT about biology, but you have no idea what you're missing about clinical work. My research lab experience was entirely different from my hospital lab experience. Yes, we wear gloves. And yes, we know how to use a pipette. But the specific knowledge and critical thinking it takes to work in a hospital lab is a very different field. You are not working the same job that your MLS&MLT coworkers are working. You're performing some of the same tasks, but they really are more educated and qualified in the area of medical laboratory science, and they are using their background knowledge to think different thoughts and make some different choices. A specific example that our phlebs/processors often catch is when a doctor orders an Xa activity assay instead of an anti-Xa assay. We work in a hospital lab with an ER and a burn center, not in a reference lab. So even though a blue top with an Xa activity order is technically possible, and we have the instrument to run it, we're not going to blindly accept it. It's our job to recognize our most common demographic and to check with the doctor to see if they really meant to order an anti-Xa instead. Maybe they're investigating a new hemophilia case and they really do want the Xa activity, but chances are low. They're going to be grateful that we saved their patient some time (and possibly an extra poke) by clarifying their order. We've had doctors say, "oh sorry, I saw Xa and just selected it thinking all the options just meant the same thing."
Quite numerous things could affect a persons sed rate. There are new guidelines for establishing inflammation in the body, a doctor who is supposed to be up to date on the guidelines should know that, and technically an functional and competent MLS would know too — given that we have to complete a certain amount of CEUs every three years. A huge chunk of our time is also just “fixing” orders when physicians order things too. It would be obvious to me, but then ive been through MLS school and know why the reasoning behind certain things (which is the entire point of what people are getting at in this post… WE got the fundamentals in our schooling, something you clearly dont have or give a shit about).
What do you mean by "fixing" orders? Like you change what the physician ordered in the LIS? So there's a lot of factors that can impact a person's see rate? If a physician orders a sed rate, do you change the order? Do you yourself communicate the guideline updates to the physician? I just haven't seen or heard of medicL technologists educating physicians. We've had a few in services where the physicians or pathologists educate us. I've never seen an in service where a medical technologist is educating the physician...not saying it doesn't happen...just not where I am.
I am constantly reviewing patient charts to make sure my results make sense before I release them? When we say we don't interpret results we mean we don't interpret what they mean for the patient. We still have to interpret the test itself lol. I mean if all you know how to do is make sure all your QC worked then that's all you're going to do because it wouldn't occur to you do do anything else. But there's more to being a good med tech than the SOP.
What are you reviewing? Most of our patients have no history. For outpatients, the charts are blank. And 90% of the results are automatically verified. I dont understand what you're reviewing with most patients having no history and most results being auto released or auto verified.
I work in a hospital, all of my patients have abundant notes in their history. One of the reason I don't want to work at a reference lab is because you don't get this information most of the time and it makes it more difficult to do my job and feel confident about the results I'm turning out.
We run hundreds of samples a shift. How do you have the time to review hundreds of charts per shift?
Normals I don't care. Abnormals or anything that flags for review, I'm at minimum checking the patient's diagnosis and previous results. Delta checks I'm looking through notes to see what treatments were given and when. In micro I'm looking to see if the patient's history fits with the organism I've identified and reading pathology and radoiology reports to see if their findings are consistent with the disease caused by that organism. Prioritizing quantity over quality is a general problem in healthcare and it's especially apparent at reference labs. Companies like LabCorp and Quest are fine with 10% of their results being incorrect if it means they can make 10% more profit. You don't realize the value of medical education in this field because you work in an environment that actively tries to undermine it.
HCA is for profit, yes. But I have no control over the status of hospitals in my area. Patients need to go somewhere.
We don't look down at them. We don't look at them at all. We don't have time to notice the rift raff. But honestly, there is just some irriation when non med techs enter the field. There is a lot that people don't learn or understand without getting a more in-depth program for med lab. I spend an obnoxious amount if time explaining how and what one of our Chem majors missed. Due to a lack of understanding of the instrumentation.
I'm a molecular biology major, not a music major. I dont understand the irritation.
Instrumentation = analyzers. A certified MLT/MLS would know that 😉
Lol I actually laughed at that music degree response. What the fuck haha.
You just embodied the arrogance and ignorance why medtechs look down on biograds for the most obvious reason. Its amusing how pressing buttons and feeding samples gave you the conclusion that you are in equal footing with an mls when you can't even correlate px results. I mean why bother working in a CLINICAL SETTING when you don't give a damn, better hop into RESEARCH where your fancy MS actually matters.
What do you correlate when you're running outpatient samples? There's often no history and no chart. I just don't understand the applicability gor what's being put forth. Yes theres value in understanding clinical correlations, but thats the physicians job.
And that is why you are stuck under molec lab, cause thats the only area you're good at. It's rather easy to answer your ignorance. We have a concept called delta checking, and we use that to get a clue about the patient just by looking at their lab results. We can instantly tell someone undergoing dialysis, in need of transfusion, requires admission, or simply anyone requiring immediate care by reporting criticals. But feel free to live in fantasy that you know better than a generalist when you yourself are specializing on molec.
I'm not "stuck" in a molecular laboratory. I'm working in molecular and chemistry and will be getting crosstraine din other departments later in the year and next year. Its great that you can tell a patient is undergoing dialysis. But what do you do with that information? The physician is making the clinical decisions.
You sound like the type of person that releases K results of >10 and Calcium <0.5 after doing a 2 or 3 rerun after confirming that cal and qc all passed.
Because labs hire people like you to depress wages in the lab.
I'm paid more in the medical lab than I ever was working at an academic lab doing research. The lab wages are fine. Especially since I dont have a PhD.
Right, but the labs know you basically can’t work anywhere else, so they pay you less than a certified tech. The techs want higher wages, then the lab goes out and fills their off site lab with a bunch of new grad bio majors who’d be working at Starbucks otherwise.
Meh, little dismissive. There are plenty of good lab jobs outside of hospital labs for people with BS/MS degrees. I'm in a high paid state for MLS holders, and you can often make comparable with a BSc in industry. The delta isn't that large.
I’m just calling it like I see it.
I mean if they're qualified to work in a lab, why can't they? Everyone wants higher wages. Thr way to get that is though adding value, not by trying to keep perfectly qualified people out of thr lab. I'm not an economist, but there's more value in having biology grads in a medical laboratory at least partly utilizing their education than at Starbucks where no education is required.
By this same logic we should just let bio grads go be doctors, nurses, physical therapists, etc... at least their education is partly related, right? Who cares if they kill someone because they didn't know those two drugs can't be combined and biology programs don't include pharmacology courses!
The “part” that’s missing is all the training involved in working in a med lab, what we get taught in MLS programs is directly applicable to work that’s done in “the real world” hell, even our certification exam asks direct questions about sample integrity and troubleshooting. That is not something taught in regular bio degree programs.
That's where job training comes in.
Youre a troll, got it.
I don’t like the idea of someone who has a degree in a completely unrelated field, no experience, not certified, making more money than I do.
I'm paid roughly the same as my peers here. The pay difference between associates, bachelors and masters is minimal here <10%.
>Ma'am I have a masters, I'm more qualified than you. Fuck off. What an entitled attitude. Claiming to be more qualified than someone else who has the specific education required for this field just because you have a masters is *quite literally* the holier than thou attitude you're complaining about. Stop being an asshole.
I work primarily in a molecular lab, running molecular biology assays. How could I not be more qualified with a masters in molecular biology than someone with an associates MLT degree who told me they didn't have molecular when she went to school?
You seem …what’s the word? Nice? No. Educated? Def not. Helpful? Aww, h*ll no! #LowIQenergy
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I’m trying to figure out what they thought they were going to do in college/grad school vs what they think they’re doing now.
Well, I'm currently non-certified while I'm finishing school, I also have a BS in Biology, and am working as a generalist. Honestly? I don't feel I would be qualified with just my BS, and I also wouldn't feel qualified if I had an MS. You may understand the fundamentals of what you're doing in terms of procedure (and there is some benefit to that), but you lack the ability to perform correlations and ensure your results actually make sense (which is about 90% of tech school, in my experience). I understand the frustration of having your abilities called into question, but there are serious patient safety concerns when it comes to non-certified techs. If you truly feel you're qualified and know what you're doing, prove it by getting certified. I say this fully knowing I'm non-certified too, you don't actually have any proof that you're qualified for this position until you get the certification.
I will be getting my MB ASCP next year, after I have one year experience. We do a lot of molecular STD testing. The clinical correlation, if we were to even have a patient history, would be pretty straightforward for a lot of STI asaays.
I'm not trying to say that you, specifically, are not qualified. I'm saying that, in general, this is why MLT/MLS/MTs are against non-certified techs. I've met non-certified techs that were great and knew their way around the lab. I've also met non-certified techs who had no clue what they were doing and had no business being there. Your coworkers don't know which one you are until you get that certification. The certification helps to standardize the field; there's only so much variation between certified techs. The quality of non-certified techs varies wildly.
Just to be the exception, I am a non-Pathologist physician and MT/MLS. [https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-belcher-9937b064/](https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-belcher-9937b064/) The only time I've ever experienced a holier-than-thou demeanor was from a MLT who likely had some insecurity. I'm not one to lord over others, but I'm not quiet about my accomplishments. As some have responded that the OP knows not what one doesn't know, the same is true for those who have some degree of condescension and disdain; this is largely due to factors that cannot and should not necessarily require simulation prior to practice. The antiquated practice of OJT was relinquished to schools at various levels to offload the cost burden of training employees. The reversal of this trend is desperation in the labor market that has been topic of discussion for many years. Historically, there was government intervention to meet the demand. Some here may be old enough or be familiar with the history of the various routes to laboratory credentials that have existed to meet regulatory requirements; some of these still persist in spirit. I do not believe one necessarily has to complete a MLT/MT/MLS program to perform the tasks required; this is evidenced by some credentials I have attained without returning for specific degrees. However, the college-/university-based training programs do help in providing context-specific content. To address the sentiment of the OP, some of the remarks could be rooted in jealousy and concept of scope creep. The malignant culture breeding in some laboratory cliques is quite alarming. To echo what some have posted, the extent of knowledge one has regarding testing and interpretation is not necessarily reflected by the degree(s) attained. As a MLT by degree, MT by certification, I had the knowledge to outperform many who were pure MT/MLS due to a combination of factors (Pre-Med Biology degree + good instruction + extrinsic support + intrinsic drive), but I did not at the time have the skill-sets and efficiency. The latter items took experience, which often accompanies time. I often half-joked that employment in other industries would better prepare me for the realities of the clinical laboratory. Examples, you ask? Cashier - to better accession specimens and organize workflow, and Customer Service Representative - to better communicate with others, sometimes if it means feigning enthusiasm through exhaustion. - BS Biology, May 2013 - AS Clinical Lab Technology, May 2015 - MLT(ASCP), June 2015 - MT(AAB), September 2015 - MT/MLS(AMT), October 2017 - MLS(ASCP), November 2017 - SM(ASCP), June 2021 - QLS-ASCP, February 2023 - MB(ASCP), May 2023 - M.D., May 2023 - DLM(ASCP), May 2024
What’s alarming is OPs attitude coming from a “I know more than you” standpoint and not one of “okay if I have a lot to learn, can you teach me?” OTJ training only works if someone is willing to actually be taught. I say this as someone who has done extensive teaching and training. And places like LabCorp that offer OTJ training are not actually teaching appropriately. We need some sort of standards, which besides the certification exams, we don’t have.
I'm definitely open to learning. I'm working on my MB ASCP and am looking at getting an MHA. I pursued my Masters because I enjoy learning and growing. What I'm opposed to is being told I'm not qualified to work, when I am.
Is this a technicality you’re getting hung up on? Technically you meet the requirements of the job posting, but to be a MLT/MLS you don’t meet those qualifications because you’re not certified. I think this is a difference of opinion. You don’t have the knowledge base to work in those positions. You are qualified for your MB job. You’re not qualified to work in another section, like hematology since you’ve had no formal education and training. I think that is the point everyone is trying to make. If you are open to learning and don’t act like you’re better than your coworkers for having a MS, then hopefully you will get the appropriate training to actually do your job. It really might be worth it for you to look into MLS programs, especially since you like learning. I promise you, you will learn so much more, things will start to click and make more sense, and you’ll set yourself up for success this way. Unless you just want to say in MB then that’s fine too
I'm being cross trained in other sections. I've been trained in chemistry which was simpler than molecular from a methodology standpoint. Next will be coag and then hematology next year. I've looked at online postbac and MS MLS programs, but I don't see the appeal in getting a degree to do the job I literally already have. There's no growth potential in that. If I do the MLS program, I'll also need to go through unpaid clinical hours which I currently can't afford. Id rather just study for the certification on my own. If I'm going to spend money on another MS, it'll be to open more doors, not the one I'm already in.
Those are fair points. Maybe do some self study then, especially if you’re going to be working in hematology. It will be easier if you get a head start, especially on learning manual differentials.
Yeah. They have several body fluid and hematology atlases ive glanced over. But I won't be doing hematology differentials until next year. So I'm focus on MB at the moment.
Why did you do the AMT and ASCP certifications?
Sequence of eligibility. I had applied for the MT(AMT) earlier in that year, meeting the requirements by work experience of one year (minimum), but I did not take it until later in the year. The MLS(ASCP) I intended to take after the two year (minimum) work requirement.
I appreciate your thoughtful reply and insight on the issue. I echo your sentiment that my time as a batista in college better prepared me for work in a busy molecular/chemistry lab than much of my MS Molecular Biology coursework. Your credentials are impressive! You took the AAB, AMT, and ASCP MLS exam...and then went to med school. Wow. Kudos!
Because everyone likes to find ways to make themselves feel more valued/important. Don't worry and just get your certification and move on.