FELICIAN COLLEGE SALUTES NATIONAL MEDICAL LABORATORY WEEK 

Medical Laboratory Technology – The “Hidden Profession”

A Look at a Career in Demand from The Felician College Department of Allied Health Professions 

Lodi and Rutherford, NJ—Felician College salutes National Medical Laboratory Week, April 14-20, 2002.  It is a time to honor the more than 265,000 medical laboratory professionals around the nation who perform and interpret more than 10 billion laboratory tests performed in the United States each year.  These tests help save lives and keep people healthy.  Pathologists, laboratory technologists and technicians around the nation are among the many behind-the-scene “unsung heroes” working in today's healthcare.   

“Medical Laboratory Technician”—it sounds vaguely familiar, like something you might be able to identify, but can’t quite put your finger on.  Perhaps you know someone who is an “MLT,” but you really can’t remember for sure.  The truth is, if you have ever had a blood sample or a throat swab taken, you have met an MLT.  MLTs work in hospitals and private clinical laboratories, where they collect, analyze, and evaluate samples of blood and other body fluids.  Physicians rely heavily upon the MLT’s ability to perform rapid and accurate analyses.  MLTs also work in doctors’ offices, in the pharmaceutical industry, for food manufacturers, in cosmetic companies, and as medical supply salespeople.  MLTs are the professionals who do DNA testing, drug testing at the Olympics, and crime scene investigative laboratory work.  MLTs touch everyone’s life at some point or another, doing an estimated 10 billion lab tests each year.  Yet this remains a profession that most people have never heard of, and a profession that currently suffers from a national critical shortage of qualified personnel. 

According to the January 7, 2002, issue of Advance Magazine (for laboratory professionals), jobs in the laboratory field are projected to grow by 17% as compared to a 14.4% growth rate for all jobs in the US.  The Bureau of Labor Statistics has also projected that there will be 53,000 new jobs in the laboratory field and 40,000 vacancies (created by retirement, leaving the field, etc.) for a total of 93,000 incremental positions to be filled at about 9,000 jobs per year during the period of 1998-2008.  At the present time, according to a 1999 estimate from the National Accrediting Agency for Clinical Laboratory Sciences (NAACLS ), there will only be 4,990 students graduating from accredited programs who will be able to fill these vacancies, leaving an increasing need for qualified Medical Laboratory Technicians. 

“Given those statistics, it has never been a better time to become a Medical Laboratory Technician,” says Professor Anne Loving, Felician College’s MLT Education Coordinator since 1979. With an Associate in Applied Science MLT degree program that was established in 1973, Felician College offers one of New Jersey’s best career-preparatory programs for students wishing to become Medical Laboratory Technicians.  The program is fully accredited by the National Accrediting Agency for Clinical Laboratory Science (NAACLS), and boasts a 100% job placement for all of its graduates who seek employment in the field.  The recently released Bureau of Labor Statistics projections indicate an expected shortage of qualified medical laboratory professionals for the next several years, making this truly a recession-proof career.   

Students in Felician’s MLT program take courses in the arts and sciences, as well as highly technical courses in specimen collection, Hematology, Blood Banking, Clinical Microbiology, Serology, Urinalysis, and Clinical Chemistry.  Incorporated into the MLT program is a “clinical externship,” where students spend time in a hospital laboratory, earning college credit while experiencing hands-on training.  The on-campus theory courses are designed to integrate closely with the hospital training, where students use state-of-the-art equipment and instruments while testing actual patient specimens.  Through Felician College’s MLT program, students receive their hands-on education at Holy Name Hospital in Teaneck, Clara Maass Medical Center in Belleville, Passaic Beth Israel Hospital, and at East Orange General Hospital.  On-campus courses take place in fully equipped laboratories and classrooms.  Upon completion of the AAS degree program, graduates are eligible to take the National Registry Board Examination, administered by the American Society for Clinical Pathology.

Felician College MLTs can be found in hospitals, doctors offices, clinics, research facilities, blood banks, public health centers, the Armed Forces, universities and industry.  Within the laboratory, these highly educated and experienced medical laboratory professionals may work in chemistry, serology, hematology, cytotechnology, microbiology, immunology, coagulation, histology, urinalysis, molecular biology, or the blood bank. 

 “We are very proud of the work we do,” says Professor Marilyn Rubin, who has been the MLT Chairperson since the program opened in 1973.  “Our MLT graduates have to be painstakingly meticulous in performing their jobs to provide accurate and dependable answers to your family physicians.”  Felician College offers classes days, evenings and weekends, and has modern dormitories on its Rutherford campus for those who wish to enjoy the convenience of living on campus. 

For further information about Medical Laboratory Technology, contact the Felician College Department of Allied Health Professions at 201-559-6185, or by e-mail at rubinm@felician.edu, or visit http://www.felician.edu/Depart/AHP/index.htm.