01/08/2012
Medical Laboratory Scientist
Interest
Description
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A Medical Laboratory Scientist (MLS) is a healthcare professional who performs chemical, hematological, immunologic, microscopic, and bacteriological diagnostic analyses on body fluids such as blood, urine, sputum, stool, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), peritoneal fluid, pericardial fluid, and synovial fluid, as well as other specimens. Medical Laboratory Scientists work in clinical laboratories at hospitals, doctor's offices, reference labs, and biotechnology labs.
Educational requirements
A Medical Laboratory Scientist typically earns a bachelor's degree in medical laboratory science, clinical laboratory science, medical technology or in a life / biological science (biology, biochemistry, etc.), in which case certification from an accredited training program is also required. In most four-year medical laboratory degree programs, the student attends classroom courses for three years and clinical rotations are completed in their final year of study. This combination is called a 3+1 program. There are also 2+2 programs which specialize in accepting students who have completed their lower division coursework and completing their last two years of study in the CLS program. A 4+1 program would typically be completed after a student has completed a bachelor's degree and usually takes place primarily in a clinical site rather than a college. In clinical rotations, the student experiences hands-on learning in each discipline of the laboratory and, under supervision, performs diagnostic testing in a functioning laboratory. Although not compensated, a student in the clinical phase of training usually works 40 hours per week for 20 to 52 weeks, experiencing work as a full-time employee. In addition, some universities now offer graduate level programs to allow students who have undergraduate degrees in disciplines unrelated to science to enter the field.
Source
Description above from the Wikipedia article Medical Laboratory Scientist, licensed under CC-BY-SA full list of contributors here. Community Pages are not affiliated with, or endorsed by, anyone associated with the topic.
