PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Miraglia, Caterina M.
AU  - March Mistler, James A.
TI  - Increased Skills and Student Retention After Additional Clinical Chemistry Laboratory Implementation: An Intervention of an Enrichment Pilot Program in Medical Laboratory Science
AID  - 10.29074/ascls.2022003202
DP  - 2024 Sep 13
TA  - American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science
4099  - http://hwmaint.clsjournal.ascls.org/content/early/2024/09/17/ascls.2022003202.short
4100  - http://hwmaint.clsjournal.ascls.org/content/early/2024/09/17/ascls.2022003202.full
AB  - The Medical Laboratory Science (MLS) Department was awarded a grant to create a pilot program for sophomores to increase retention in the junior year clinical chemistry course, MLS 342. Assessment was performed using 2-sample t-test to compare the averages of laboratory practical grades and final course grades between students who took the program and those who did not and additionally compared them to the previous 3-year average. Students who took the program did statistically significantly better [86.669%, P = 0.0156, 95% confidence interval (CI) −9.3547, −1.0206] compared to the previous 3-year average (81.481%) for the MLS 342 final course grade than those who did not participate in the program (82.996%, P = .5388, 95% CI −6.4593, 3.4313). Retention within MLS 342 was 100% for those who took the program. Within the same cohort, MLS 444 senior clinical chemistry course grade average for the entire class was higher than the course average for the previous 3 years, (87.001 and 81.365, respectively), which was statistically significant (P = .000012, 95% CI −7.9023, −3.3679). After assessment of the program, a degree-required course, MLS 242: Clinical Chemistry Applied Diagnostic Technique Laboratory, was added to the curriculum. The attrition rate in MLS 342 has been 0% since implementation of MLS 242.