Tyler

By BETTY WATERS
Staff Writer

Go to a doctor's office or clinic, or check into a hospital and laboratory professionals perform tests on blood and other specimens to produce data physicians need in making a diagnosis.

"The profession is a mystery to a lot of people. If you ask people walking down the street if they go to the doctor who does the lab test, they will say the nurse does it or the doctor does it. Usually that is not the case," said John Wentz, program coordinator for clinical laboratory science/medical technology at The University of Texas at Tyler.

UT Tyler teamed with UT Health Center at Tyler and UT Medical Branch in Galveston to offer a bachelor of science degree in clinical laboratory science to prepare students to work as certified clinical laboratory scientists/ medical technologists. The terms are synchronous.

Students enroll through UTMB but attend classes at UT Tyler, where the majority of lectures are delivered from UTMB via interactive television and streaming video over the Internet. They participate in laboratory teaching sessions at UTHCT and receive clinical training at selected hospitals in the Tyler-Longview area.

UTMB, which has the oldest and largest clinical laboratory scientist program in the state, will award the degree.

Clinical laboratory scientists/medical technologists are in short supply nationwide.

The shortage is expected to worsen with about 58,000 new positions projected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics by 2014 and as members of the laboratory workforce, whose median age is 50, begin to retire in the next decade.

It is more acute in rural areas and smaller cities such as Tyler and Longview, Wentz observed, noting few baccalaureate level certified laboratory technologists have been hired in the area. "I know Good Shepherd Hospital in Longview had a couple of positions open for more than a year," Wentz said.

Recruiting them from metropolitan areas to smaller cities is difficult. "One of the ways to get (clinical laboratory scientists) in an area like Tyler-Longview is to have a program and educate them locally ... In health professions, there is a lot of evidence that if people train in a geographic area, they will take jobs in that area," Wentz said.

Dr. Linda Klotz, dean of UT Tyler's College of Nursing and Health Sciences, wanted to bring this program to Tyler and "build it up so we can grow our own," Wentz said.

The intent eventually is for UT Tyler to award the degree. "Dr. Klotz asked me to work with UTMB for a while while we're trying to develop the program as an independent program here in Tyler," Wentz said.

"We will have to have people in the area who are willing to help support the program and help it become established independently here at UT Tyler," he added. Start-up of new clinical laboratory programs is expensive, which hinders growth of programs, and they must go through an extensive accreditation process.

The National Accrediting Agency for Clinical Laboratory Science accredits all the programs in the United States. There are approximately 200 accredited programs across the country that train students to become laboratory professionals.

UT Tyler had a program but it closed in 2001. It served primarily biology majors who had taken courses through the junior level and in their fourth year took the medical technology option.

The new program is a "Two plus Two program" and serves two types of students.

One group takes 60 credit hours of UT Tyler lower division level prerequisites for two years and in the next two years take specific courses in clinical laboratory science. They may have started out as biology majors, nursing majors or majors in another science or health profession who decide to change their major and become clinical laboratory scientists.

The other group is medical laboratory technicians with an associate degree from a community or junior college who enroll in UT Tyler's upper level (junior-senior) clinical laboratory science program. They take most of the same courses as the other students, but UT Tyler waives 21 credit hours of upper division courses required for regular students because they have received that course content in their community college studies.

"The advantage of this is that it allows you to attract a wider range of applicants," Wentz said. Another advantage, he added, is that the program can accept graduates of laboratory technician programs at community colleges with an associate degree, who can take a few more general academic courses at UT Tyler and complete their B.S. degree in clinical laboratory science.

That track accommodates working technicians. Students can take courses part-time and continue working while studying for the higher degree and labs don't lose an employee.

Upon graduation, they are eligible to take national certification exams for clinical laboratory scientists/medical technologists given by the American Society for Clinical Pathology Board of Registry and the National Credentialing Agency.

Those with bachelor's certification have a higher level of cognitive knowledge about samples and the clinical implications than medical laboratory technicians with an associate degree and are more trained in management skills and clinical education.

"Any laboratory will have a combination of people with associate level degrees and baccalaureate level degrees," Wentz said. Clinical laboratory scientist-s/medical technologists work in hospitals, clinics, commercial laboratories and doctors' offices.

Most hospitals prefer to hire those who have passed one or both the nationally recognized certification exams for clinical laboratory scientists/medical technologists

However, Texas is one of a few states that does not require certification. "We would like Texas to have a requirement for certification," Wentz said. "If you pass the certification exam, you've met the educational requirements to take the exam and then you have demonstrated by passing the exam that you know what you are doing," Wentz said.