Patrick Swayze once said, “I keep dreaming of a future, a future with a long and healthy life, not lived in the shadow of cancer but in the light. ” The career of a Medical Technologist is a hard and thoughtful career because other people depend on you to help better them. The research will describe the career of a Medical Technologist, and the impact this career has on society As a little kid I have always been fascinated science and how it has been changing the world today. Finding new ways to cure diseases and being able to help save someone’s life would be pretty great.
I would love to be a part of a big change in the recovery in someone else’s life. The history of Medical Technologists is very simple. In the early 19th century physicians taught their assistants how to perform some of their most common procedures. In the 1930’s the quality of the work varied greatly. Professional societies for technologist was made because of their important role in medical advancement. By the end of the 19th century medical specialities began to quickly develop creating demand for fulltime lab personnel. Medical Technology plays an important role in today’s society.
They specialize after working in an area for a long time and have received advanced education or training. The growth of Medical Technology is projected to grow up to 14% from the year 2012-2022, which is about as fast as the average for all occupations. With aging in the population a greater need to diagnose medical conditions such as cancer or type 2 diabetes, Medical Technicians and Technologist will be in higher demand. The work environment for a Medical Technologist is indoors usually in a lab. Most are employed in hospitals.
Others work in clinics, physician’s office, pharmaceutical labs, public health agencies, and research institutions. They work under the supervision of laboratory managers and pathologists. Others may work in Veteran’s Administration hospitals and laboratories such as in the armed forces and the U. S Public Health Service. Medical Technologist are on the top 20 list of best jobs according to the best selling 1999 book, Jobs Related Almanac: The Best and Worst Jobs, by Les Krintz. It is rated 16th in the list of 250 jobs, and ranked third in the healthcare category.
What exactly do Medical Technologist do? The duty of a Medical Technologist is to help find and treat diseases. They examine samples under microscopes to identify the problem. They also help find the cause(s) of a death. Others help to better testing methods. They are trained to work with infectious specimens or other materials that produce fumes. To get those samples they often times have to lift or turn disabled patients. They wear protective masks, gloves, and goggles for safety and protection. A Medical Technologist usually works from thirty-five to forty hours a week.
Often times in a hospital a night time shift or a weekend shift is required. Many times a Medical Technologist may be on his/her feet for long periods of time working under the clock. There are special qualities and qualifications a Medical Technologist should have. For example, they must be detailed, and good at analyzing and observing, because they must follow exact instructions from Physicians in order to perform correct test procedures. Good eyesight, strong communication skills and working as a team member is important.
This occupation also requires skill while working on your hands so dexterity is another important quality to have, especially while working with needles and prease laboratory instruments and using other tools correctly, they need to understand how to operate complex machinery. Physical stamina is also important because after working long periods of time they need to lift patients to collect samples. It doesn’t matter if you are a male or female to be a medical technologist, although the average age is of 46. Some states require medical technologist to be registered.
You must have a bachelor’s degree in medical technology, some must even earn their master’s degree or doctorates. Courses such as biology, chemistry, mathematics, microbiology, statics, etc are also required. For additional work experience, education, or certification, technologist and technicians may specialize in one of many areas of laboratory science, such as immunology, histotechnology, or clinical chemistry. For early education planning, for example high school students, courses such as biology, chemistry, and mathematics are required, along with physics, and computer science.
Volunteer work can be done in hospitals or medical facilities. At least three years of college studies with a twelve-month program in a school of medical technology is required after high school. To obtain a certification, a required accredited program, passing a certification exam, and continuing to take educational courses are required to maintain a certified status. For a higher certification from the ASCP a 100 question multiple choice exam is to be taken. The cost for this exam is $275 and it has a time limit of 2. 5 hours.
The earnings of a medical technologist can vary depending on the education and training, Salaries can range from as low as $37,540 to more than $75,960. When surveyed in 2010 the median annual salary was of a little more than $56,000. Medical technologist that are certified, earn higher salaries than those who are not. The highest (10%) earned over $76,780, while the lowest (10%) had earned just a little over $38,810. Medical Technologist working for the federal government have only the highest median of $62,880. The ones working in private physician offices earn the lowest median of $57,250.
This career has many benefits that can help find cures and treatments. Technologist prepare samples of tissue and bone for Pathologist to examine. The test results help surgeons decide how to proceed with the operation. Complex laboratory equipment is used to ascertain a wide variety of information. Since there is a lot of testing equipment involved, medical technologist spend a great deal tied to their feet. Medical technologist may also measure levels of drugs or other chemicals in the blood to determine the deficiencies in nutrients or excess of cholesterol or blood sugars.
Although this career has some good benefits to the word, there are also hazards that can happen while working in the lab. If little attention is paid while performing a test, an important detail may be missed and it might not help find a cure or ruin someone’s life. The advancement in this career can be very rapid. With satisfactory experience and more training, medical technologist can advance to supervisory fields or specialists fields in clinical laboratory work. Medical technologist employed in larger labs tend to specialize in a specific area of medical laboratory technology.
A clinical laboratory director. for example, is very important. They are the ones responsible for the supervision of the technologist and staff and the equality of the work. They assign duties, hire and fire staff. Also, clinical laboratory directors make the rules and standards. Another example of a common specialty is phlebotomists, this is the most common type of medical technologist because they are the ones the draw blood samples and test them for things such as blood donations. The vials containing the blood are labeled and sent to a testing facility.
A third field I want to talk about related to medical technology is the role of a medical laboratory technician. A medical laboratory technician perform routine tests in medical laboratories. They prepare samples of body tissue and perform various laboratory tests. After doing some research, I have learned a lot about becoming a medical technologist and it absolutely fascinated me . After going into some more depth in this career, I have seem to become more interested because even though it seems like a hard career I would someday like to be involved in something that will change the way humanity lives and to help find the cure for diseases.