PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Bishop, Susanne
AU  - Honeycutt, Karen
TI  - Medical Laboratory Science Undergraduate Management Curriculum Development Using Practitioner-reported Job Tasks
AID  - 10.29074/ascls.2020002238
DP  - 2019 Oct 01
TA  - American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science
PG  - 138--145
VI  - 32
IP  - 4
4099  - http://hwmaint.clsjournal.ascls.org/content/32/4/138.short
4100  - http://hwmaint.clsjournal.ascls.org/content/32/4/138.full
SO  - Clin Lab Sci2019 Oct 01; 32
AB  - A Midwestern medical laboratory science (MLS) program conducted an online survey as part of a larger national study to assess what specific management skills staff-level MLS practitioners were performing as part of their job. The survey provided data that helped guide management-related curriculum development. Participants self-reported how often (ie, often, sometimes, never) they had been asked, as part of their staff-level job, to perform a list of 30 managerial tasks. Frequently performed tasks (ie, percentages represent both the “often” and “sometimes” responses) included training laboratory staff (88%); performing or participating in equipment/method validation (82%); preparing for/participating in laboratory inspection/assessment (82%); ensuring compliance of regulations/standards (76%); monitoring quality via quality indicators (64%); investigating standard operating procedure/policy deviations (65%); analyzing/reviewing inventory data (65%); planning, measuring, and evaluating process improvement projects (61%); developing competency assessment materials (61%); revising or writing policies and procedures (61%); and participating in interdisciplinary teams (61%). Least-performed tasks identified included hiring new employees (2%); preparing a laboratory/department budget (3%); performing a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats analysis (5%); negotiating vendor contracts (8%); writing job descriptions (8%); determining productivity (11%); and performing a cost analysis (14%). The reported descriptive statistics helped distinguish between frequently and infrequently performed tasks and helped develop managerial curriculum for an undergraduate and graduate MLS program. The staff-level practitioner rarely performed financial and human resources, so these tasks became the focus of the graduate-level management curriculum.