Medical Laboratory Science Graduate Management Curriculum Development Using Managerial Survey Responses

Susanne Bishop; Karen Honeycutt

doi:10.29074/ascls.2018000257

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Managers’/directors’ mean expected and perceived preparedness of newly hired/recently promoted managers to perform managerial tasks. Mean Expected; Mean Perceived.
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Figure 2.
Managers’/directors’ mean expected and perceived preparedness of newly hired/recently promoted managers to perform quality, regulatory, other duties, and equipment tasks. Mean Expected; Mean Perceived.

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Table 1.

Demographics

		Supervisors/Leads	Directors/Managers
Gender	Male	15%	31%
Gender	Female	85%	69%
Community	Rural (<50,000 people)	27%	33%
Community	Urban (>50,000 people)	73%	67%
Length of experience, y	0-<1	0%	0%
	1-2	2%	0%
	3-5	6%	2%
	6-10	13%	2%
	11-15	7%	5%
	16-30	32%	28%
	>30	40%	63%
Highest level of education	Associate’s degree	6%	3%
	Bachelor’s degree	81%^*	69%^**
	Master’s degree	13%	25%
	Doctorate degree	0%	3%
Professional certifications held	MLT (ASCP) or CLT (NCA)	9%	3%
	MT/MLS (ASCP) + MLT (ASCP) or CLT (NCA)	2%	4%
	MT/MLS (ASCP), MT (AMT) or CLS (NCA)	61%	67%
	2 or more – MT/MLS (ASCP), MT (AMT), and CLS (NCA)	9%	3%
	2 or more – MT/MLS (ASCP), MT (AMT), and CLS (NCA) and ASCPspecialist (SBB, SC, SH, or SM)	17%	16%
	CQA (ASQ) or CQIA (ASQ)	2%	1%
	DLM (ASCP)	0%	1%
	Board-certified pathologist	0%	2%
	Not certified	0%	3%
Laboratory setting employed in the longest	Physician’s office	0%	7%
	Hospital	81%	64%
	Hospital and reference	11%	4%
	Reference	2%	21%
	Other	6%	4%

↵* 77% of these individuals earned their Bachelor’s degree in CLS
↵** 80% of these individuals earned their Bachelor’s degree in CLSAMT, American Medical Technologists; ASQ, American Society for Quality; CLT, Certified Logistics Technician; CQA, Certified Quality Auditor; CQIA, Certified Quality Improvement Auditor; DLM, Diplomate in Laboratory Management; MLT, Medical Laboratory Technician; MT, Medical Technologist; NCA, National Credentialing Agency; SBB, Specialist in Blood Banking Technology; SC, Specialist in Chemistry; SH, Specialist in Hematology; SM, Specialist in Microbiology

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Table 2.

Self-Reported Mean Preparedness to Perform Managerial Tasks Based on Education Level/Category

Master’s in Business/ Management	MMLS +nonbusiness Master’s degree	BA^*/BS other	BS in CLS
3.6	3.4	3.0	3.3	Train laboratory staff	Education and Training Tasks
3.5	3.1	2.8	2.9	Train nonlaboratory staff
3.5	2.8	2.8	2.7	Develop CE material
3.8	3.3	3.1	2.9	Present CE material
3.0	2.4	1.7	1.7	Negotiate vendor contracts	Finance Tasks
4.0	2.9	2.1	2.1	Perform a cost analysis
4.0	3.0	2.1	1.8	Prepare a laboratory or department budget
3.7	2.7	2.2	2.2	Determine productivity
3.4	2.8	2.1	2.2	Interview applicants	Human Resource Tasks
3.3	2.9	2.1	2.1	Hire new employees
3.5	2.6	2.3	2.2	Write job descriptions
3.6	2.8	2.1	2.2	Evaluate employee performance
3.5	2.5	2.2	2.1	Build employee consensus
3.2	2.5	2.1	2.2	Resolve conflict
3.6	3.2	3.1	3.2	Monitor quality via quality indicators	Quality Tasks
3.8	2.4	2.2	2.1	Plan, measure, and evaluate process improvement projects
3.8	3.0	2.8	3.2	Investigate standard operating procedure/policy deviations
3.2	2.6	2.4	2.4	Analyze/monitor test utilization
4.2	2.7	2.0	1.9	Perform a SWOT analysis
3.4	2.5	2.5	2.5	Develop competency assessment materials	Regulatory Tasks
3.5	2.7	2.6	2.4	Facilitate/oversee competency assessment
3.6	2.9	2.7	2.8	Prepare for/participate in laboratory inspection/assessment
4.1	3.2	2.9	3.0	Revise or write policies and procedures
3.5	2.3	2.5	2.5	Develop/oversee document management/control system
3.8	3.2	2.7	2.9	Ensure compliance of regulations/standards
3.2	2.5	2.7	2.4	Recommend, select, and/or acquire equipment	Other Duties and Equipment Acquisition/Validation
3.4	2.7	2.8	2.8	Perform/participate in equipment/method validation
4.2	3.0	2.8	2.7	Participate in interdisciplinary teams
3.0	2.2	2.0	1.9	Maintain/validate the LIS
4.2	2.6	2.3	2.4	Manage projects efficiently

↵* BA, Bachelor of Arts.

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Table 3.

Proposed MMLS curriculum—draft student independent study plan

Completion of MLS Program = 28 undergraduate hours and 15 graduate hours
Course/Level	Credit(s)	Semester/ Year	Example Graduate Application Project(s)
Laboratory operations (U)	1	Summer/1	N/A
Introduction to chemistry/urinalysis (U)	1	Summer/1	N/A
Introduction to hematology (U)	2	Summer/1	N/A
Introduction to immunohematology (U)	2	Summer/1	N/A
Introduction to microbiology (U)	2	Fall/1	N/A
Clinical chemistry/urinalysis I (U)	2	Fall/1	N/A
Clinical hematology I (U)	2	Fall/1	N/A
Clinical microbiology I (U)	2	Fall/1	N/A
Clinical immunohematology I (U)	2	Fall/1	N/A
Clinical endocrinology & toxicology (U)	1	Fall/1	N/A
Clinical core laboratory practicum I (U)	1	Fall/1	N/A
Clinical microbiology practicum I (U)	1	Fall/1	N/A
Clinical immunohematology practicum I (U)	1	Fall/1	N/A
Clinical immunology & molecular diagnostics (G)	2	Fall/1	Research paper w/molecular diagnostics focus
Clinical laboratory management I (G)	2	Fall/1	Case study paper w/ethics focus
Clinical chemistry/urinalysis II (G)	2	Spring/1	Poster project w/clinical chemistry focus
Clinical hematology II (G)	2	Spring/1	Case study paper w/hematology focus
Clinical microbiology II (G)	2	Spring/1	Educational e-learning module development w/microbiology focus
Clinical immunohematology II (G)	2	Spring/1	Evaluate immunohematology focused research paper
Clinical core laboratory practicum II (U)	1	Spring/1	N/A
Clinical microbiology practicum II (U)	1	Spring/1	N/A
Clinical immunohematology practicum II (U)	1	Spring/1	N/A
Clinical laboratory management II (G)	3	Spring/1	Write a clinical laboratory procedure
Clinical laboratory science theory, application, and correlation (U)	5	Spring/1	N/A

+ Required Graduate Courses Not Part of MLS Program
Graduate Course	Credit (h)	Semester/Year	Example Graduate Application Project(s)
Health care management I: managing people effectively	3	Fall/2	Semester project related to the clinical laboratory
Fundamentals of funds management and financial decision making	3	Fall/2	Semester project related to the clinical laboratory
Health care management II: managing processes	3	Spring/2	Semester project related to the clinical laboratory
Elective (eg, management or education)	3	Spring/2
Elective (eg, management or education)	2	Spring or Fall/2