Healthcare

Medical Lab Technician School: An Amazing Opportunity

HealthcareJuly 12, 2014

If you are thinking about attending a medical lab technician school, you should consider the many benefits of this particular field of study. Here are some of the things you will learn as well as the opportunities that await once you have completed your schooling.

What You'll Learn

In a good medical lab technician school, you'll learn how to use lab and computerized equipment in order to analyze blood, body fluids and cells. Since there may be a large number of tests you'll have to learn how to perform and analyze, the school you choose to attend is very important and should teach you everything you need to know to have a successful career. Additionally, since you need to be certified to work in the field, the courses you take must give you the necessary skills to obtain your medical lab technician certification.

Skills You'll Need

As a medical laboratory technician, you'll need to be able to operate sophisticated computerized equipment. This may include working with machines that count cells and using a microscope to properly identify and understand samples. You'll need to be able to recognize bacteria and parasites in blood samples as well as body fluids. Another important part of your job will be to perform a range of tests that analyze the results of samples taken from a patient.

Working in a laboratory environment, you might also have to decide which piece of equipment or computer program will give you the results necessary to properly diagnose an illness or disease. If you provide the wrong information to a physician, the course of treatment might not work; therefore, your skill in interpreting and putting samples through the proper screening processes is crucial. Ultimately, your results will directly correlate to how the patient is treated by their physician going forward.

Where You'll Work

After successfully completing the courses in a medical lab technician school, you could find employment in a hospital lab or a laboratory that does testing for medical practices. You could be dealing with hundreds of different types of tests every day — everything from studying blood samples that may have abnormal cell counts to cells that are morphing into something else entirely.

Record-keeping Is Key

Besides blood and cell analyses, you may also analyze urine, tissue samples and other bodily fluids. Each test that you perform on these samples needs to be recorded and presented to the physician. The physician, in turn, will prepare a course of treatment for the patient when dealing with any abnormal findings. Consequently, carefully keeping track of each of these tests is vital; you wouldn't want to make the mistake of giving someone a false diagnoses or switching patient samples by mistake!

Ample Career Opportunities

With a variety of career opportunities available, you'll find that a medical lab technician salary is highly competitive and may vary depending upon not only on where you are working but also whether you decide to work in a hospital or for a private laboratory. Regardless of where you find your "work home," your skills will be in high demand, and you'll be a valued member of a health care team that both patients and physicians rely on to provide them with accurate test results.

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