LBI offers new program
Laurel Business Institute (LBI) in Uniontown has expanded its program options with a most recent addition to train people to become medical laboratory technicians, a field in which the federal government is predicting a shortage. For Valerie Bacharach, director of the downtown-Uniontown postsecondary school, a May article published in the Wall Street Journal was enough to help LBI pursue the program. The article stated that the federal government estimates that 138,000 new lab professionals will be needed by 2012 to replace retiring technicians, but only 50,000 will be trained by that time because a third of the training programs at colleges around the country have closed down.
According to the Bacharach, local job openings in the field do exist, and hospitals are predicting a further need for trained and certified medical laboratory technicians in the future.
“The time is right to begin a program like this,” said Bacharach. “These people are critical to any hospital. There are some job openings now and there are predicted to be more as those in the profession retire.”
Leading local hospitals have written to Bacharach voicing their support for the program.
Predicting a large turnover in laboratory personnel within the next five years, Elena J. Bell, administrative director for the laboratory at Uniontown Hospital, said hiring qualified professionals to fill the void “will be a tremendous relief for myself and others in my position.”
According to Barbara Day, a lab manager at Excela Health’s Westmoreland Hospital, the average technician at Westmoreland Hospital is over 50 years of age and many are looking at retirement within the next few years.
“It is difficult to fill open positions due to a shortage of available technicians,” wrote Day. “I can’t imagine what it will be in five years time.”
That’s the impetus behind LBI beginning the now 18-month diploma program, which will begin Sept. 28 and could offer students the chance to sit for certification once they graduate.
Bacharach said LBI has established a partnership with area employers, having them help guide additions and/or changes to new or current programs at LBI with LBI, in turn, steering graduates toward their workplaces to help fill existing job openings in critical areas.
The 18-month program will graduate its first class in May 2011. The program will include lecture, lab and clinical courses. The clinical part of the program will be completed at several area hospitals and medical facilities. The program could award associate degrees if proper approval is granted.
“It’s a very structured and challenging program of study,” said Joyce Geroux, director of the new med lab tech program and the course’s primary instructor. “It’s very strenuous with lots of science.”
Geroux, a 35-year veteran of the field, said students must pass “a more extensive” admissions process before they can enroll in the program.
Students accepted into the program have been interviewed twice, took an assessment test and observed a hospital laboratory in action through job shadowing. Geroux interviews each applicant and they complete job shadowing, which entails spending about three or four hours in a hospital lab observing.
Geroux clarified that lab personnel generally have low patient contact. A lot of people think of the job as being a nurse, but it’s not, Geroux said. Nor is the job that of a phlebotomist, who draws a patient’s blood.
A fair degree of the work as a lab professional involves analyzing blood and urine samples and reporting the results of the test to the doctors, said Geroux. Potential applicants must also be comfortable working with computers and technology, she added.
Bacharach said a person who is focused and likes science and is able to work independently, structure their time to get tasks done and pays attention to detail are qualities to have to do well in the program.
“This is a great field,” said Bacharach. “There are going to be job openings.”
Another source, the 2008-09 edition of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Outlook Handbook, predicted job openings for medical and clinical laboratory technicians will grow by 15 percent, or an additional 23,000 jobs nationwide, by 2016.
The bureau expects 174,000 people to be working in the field by 2016. That’s faster than the average for all occupations as the volume of laboratory tests continues to increase with both population growth and the development of new types of tests, according to the handbook.
Jobs for clinical and medical laboratory technologists – a position technicians can advance to by receiving additional education and work experience – is also expected to increase anywhere from 12 to 14 percent, or at least an additional 21,000 jobs nationwide.
The average annual earnings of medical and clinical laboratory technicians were between $26,430 and $41,020. Most jobs will continue to be in hospitals, but those trained in the field could also gain employment at colleges or universities, physician offices or medical and diagnostic laboratories.
Geroux added that she is “pleased with the caliber of students” accepted into the program. Those she interviewed have said they are pursuing the program because they want “a better future,” she said.
The program is not yet full. Applicants must have a high school diploma or General Educational Development (GED) to apply. Space remains, but school officials urged potential applicants to contact the school as soon as possible since it is a competitive enrollment process.
For further information on the LBI’s med lab tech program, call the school at 724-439-4900, e-mail admission@laurel.edu or visit the campus at 11 E. Penn St. in Uniontown.