Table 3.

Variations in sense of belonging between early career medical laboratory scientists.

TopicsRecent graduate (RG)Novice MLS (NOVICE)
Current career goalsWant to work at a small facility to gain experience before moving to a larger facility or specialty.
Interview Question:
Where have you been hired to work?

  • A smaller facility as a generalist, where I will be doing all departments in the lab every day (rotating phlebotomy)

  • As things go right now; a hospital with about 25-30 beds


Want to stay in current position for a period less than five years.
Interview Question: How long do you plan on staying at your place of hire?

  • The plan is for about 4 years

  • At least 2 years I would say

  • 2-4 years


Expect career advancement opportunities.

  • I think there are rumors of a promotion if things go well. (we'll see, lots of promises were made to get me to stay, so if any of them come true I'll be happy.

Have left first position and shifted to a different hospital.

  • After I graduated and passed the boards I was employed there as a night shift med tech for a little over 2 years. I currently am employed on a rotating scheduling in a large health care facility in a major metropolitan area.

  • Stayed in my first position for a little more than eight months, moved to a different state and have been employed in a facility for a little over a year. At the end of the month I will be taking a new position in a different state.


Have sought out extra responsibility.

  • I am the head of the Chemistry Department.

  • Been offered a position of laboratory manager in a different state. Will be relocating to become a laboratory manger with less than three years of fulltime experience.


Looking for a niche.

  • I think I may try working in a microbiology laboratory lab first and see how I like that.

  • I like working in the lab. I don't have much interest in transferring to an area of health care where I would be dealing directly with patients routinely. I would like to make this profession work for me

Future career goals.Plan to seek an advanced education in clinical laboratory science.

  • I do want to get my masters

  • Start my masters

  • I want to go on and get more education in lab management-related issues.

Sometimes feel like knowledge is underutilized.

  • Sometimes I feel more like a troubleshooting expert for qc or instrument breakdowns than a medical professional.


May leave field for other health care positions

  • Lately I've been debating looking for a job with a large corporation like Siemens or Beckman Coulter.

  • Eventually I'd like to go back and get my RN

Working alongside more experience laboratory professionals.More experienced techs are unfriendly to early career colleagues.

  • I think there were some areas that the techs did not want me to be in there “territory” so to speak.

  • I make others feel uncomfortable and they don't want to work by me.

Laboratory climate needs to change to retain workers.

  • There is a lot of negativity out there about this profession, mostly from the people who have been doing it the longest.

  • At times there is too much drama in the laboratory between coworkers. It's hard working with women who have been there for 20-30 years.